The place looks great — like a wonderful banquet hall for some swank event. When I stopped in at F.U.E.L. (in the old Seaman’s Church Institute most recently put to use as the MTV Real World Philadelphia house) the catering crew from Betty the Caterer was setting up for the grand opening event and what with white linen table cloths on tables upstairs and down, the place was full of a pre-wedding hubbub vibe, everyone waiting anxiously for the mother of the bride to arrive, give it the once over and say “ok.”
I ran around with my camera and shot the art that was on the walls — a mix of old-style figure painting (Lauren Rinaldi) to new-style figure painting (Austin Lee, Dan Endicott, Brian Chen)– with the addition of the awesome Paul Santoleri, whose mandala-like world-scapes anchored the southeast corner nicely. Santoleri was to create a mural — live — during the opening and that, for me, would have been the high point.
My flickr site has pictures. And the little catalog I picked up indicates that F.U.E.L. (whose acronym is Fostering Undergraduate Exposure on Location) will most likely be an event-driven gallery open for your event, should you need a hall to hold one. I’m not sure they have a website but the phone number is: 215.592.8400.
