It's that time of year again, when efforts to fight blight, violence and vandalism get colorful, whimsical and even a little quirky.

	An artist's design of Hazelwood's new mural. Click photo for larger image.

Mural madness began last night with celebrations in the South Side and North Side. Six other neighborhoods will hold parties through next Friday to celebrate the new image each gets, thanks to grants from the Sprout Fund. Hazelwood (4 p.m. at Second and Elizabeth) and Downtown (12.30 p.m. at Smithfield Street at Strawberry Way) hold their events today.

Public art is one of several weapons it takes to fight the good fight. Its impact is hard to quantify, said Judy Dyda, the city's coordinator of neighborhood policy, but, she added, "these murals belong to the neighborhoods, and the more ownership a neighborhood feels, the stronger it is."

"When people drive along Second Avenue and see our mural, they're going to say 'Wow, this place has promise,' " said Jim Richter, executive director of the Hazelwood Initiative.

Promise is what many sites have lived on for years. The North Side's mural, at Federal and Parkhurst streets, will be a mosaic of two cardinals -- the flying kind -- overseeing the coming and going of customers at a beer distributorship and open flaunting of drug-possession laws. The sidewalk scene is a little social, a little antisocial and a lot apathetic toward quality of life.

In its application, the Central Northside Neighborhood Council named as one of its goals "to provide more eyes on the corner. Federal Street is a vital artery for our community."

Both the Hazelwood and the North Side murals will be the first mosaics among the 24 murals the Sprout Fund has supported with its public art program since 2003. The murals to date have ranged from 200 square feet to 8,500.

Cathy Lewis, executive director of the Sprout Fund, said the average cost of a mural is $12,000 and the fund's biggest donors are the Laurel Foundation and PNC Foundation. The City of Pittsburgh Art Commission endorsed the choices late last month.

Most applicants were community advocacy groups, but Steel City Media applied for the Downtown mural, to be painted on the side of the Villa Real pizza shop. It will be Thomas Mosser and Sarah Zeffiro's portrait of two Andys -- Warhol and Carnegie -- sitting side by side under dryers in a beauty salon, Warhol with a magazine, Carnegie soaking his hands for a manicure.

Chris Potter, an employee of Steel City Media, was in on the brainstorming and said because of the placement of the mural, "right above a neon sign that says Weiner World, we knew it couldn't be too serious."

The Two Andys is playful but invites reflection, said Potter: "The old steel master softening his hands. It's wry and funny and ambivalent," as many people are about the city's transitions, he said.

Mosser, of Brighton Heights, said the brainstormers encouraged humor and reinvention.

"On TV, everything is makeovers ... We thought of Andy getting a make-over and we wanted someone for him to talk to." They also wanted to inspire conversation on the street as to what the Andys would talk about, he said.

The mood was different in Hazelwood, where artist Kip Herring, of Hampton, was at first discouraged by how down people seemed.

"I walked around, talked to people on the street, and I felt the community needed hope. I knew my mural should be vibrant."

The work will be 35 by 35 feet, with circular motions and a collage method evocative of a stained-glass window. It will present passers-by with a big vision of a small place, or, as Richter puts it, "Hazelwood as it would look if it were the world."

Other mural parties scheduled: Saturday, 1 p.m., Whole Foods Market, 5880 Centre Ave., East Liberty; Tuesday, 5-6 p.m., the Upstage, 3609 Forbes Ave., Oakland; July 15, 11 a.m. to noon, Meadows Bowling Alley, 7340 Frankstown Ave., Homewood-Brushton; and 6 p.m., 301 W. Main St., Carnegie.