In 1996, the PAGN program was merged into the Philadelphia Recreation Department and MAP was elevated as an independent entity. From the MAP program came the Philadelphia Mural Arts Advocates, a not for profit corporation for raising funds for the MAP programs. While 1996 marked a greater position for MAP-it also was the year the PAGN founder, Tim Spencer, died. The roots of MAP was in a meeting with Jane Golden and Spencer in 1984 in which she asked to run a program within PAGN. Spencer originally envisioned a program that would move kids more towards other arts and crafts, however, Golden envisioned what is now the MAP program.