Artblog supports the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, whose budget has been severely cut due to the pandemic. The PCF provides needed funding to arts non-profits, many of whom have been hit hard during the last 2 years. Please email or call Mayor Jim Kenney to show your support for the PCF! Meanwhile, we've rounded up several opportunities for artists and two wonderful events happening this Friday and Saturday. News you can enjoy! Please stay safe and stay positive.
NEWS
Artblog supports GPCA statement to restore/increase funding to the Philadelphia Cultural Fund.
GPCA’s Statement:
Yesterday, the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance issued a letter to Mayor Jim Kenney, as well as Members of City Council, expressing our full support of the Philadelphia Cultural Fund’s (PCF) FY2023 budget request of $3.5 million. PCF is an invaluable partner to the Cultural Alliance and deeply respected across the City’s arts and culture community. In a letter signed by me and Cathy Cahill, as the Chair of the Cultural Alliance, we strongly advocated for sustaining this restored level of funding to PCF through the remainder of the Mayor’s current term.
While reiterating our continued support for PCF and endorsing their $3.5 million allocation request, we also took the opportunity to communicate to the Mayor our equally strong belief that $3.5 million should be the absolute minimum at which PCF is funded. Given its role in providing necessary financial support to hundreds of arts and cultural organizations – many of which are only beginning to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic – PCF grants remain a critical lifeline. These grants are also some of the most equitable and impactful distributed in our sector and our city.
But more importantly, we communicated how imperative it is that the creative economy not only be sustained but more heavily invested in as an essential part of Philadelphia’s long term economic recovery from COVID-19. And while $3.5 million is an investment, it pales in comparison to peer cities, such as New York and Chicago, which have made bold, multimillion dollar investments in their creative economies coming out of the pandemic.
We are hopeful that PCF’s extraordinarily reasonable budget request will be accepted by the Kenney administration and City Council. We will continue to collaborate with PCF and other allies to advocate for greater public sector support of Philadelphia’s arts and culture industry, which is vital not just to Philadelphia’s recovery but its future growth.
If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Sincerely,
Patricia Wilson Aden
President & CEO
Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance
Artblog Featured on Arts Access TV!
Wednesday, March 2nd and Friday, March 4th, 6:00 PM
More information:
Ken Lum (left) and Karyn Olivier (right), Artblog “Art and Social Responsibility Today” panelists, 2020
The Artblog Panel “Art and Social Responsibility Today” with Ken Lum and Karyn Olivier is featured on this week’s Arts Access TV – Wednesday, Mar 2, and Friday, Mar 4, 2020, at 6:00 PM.
Featuring Philly Artblog’s ‘Art and Social Responsibility Today’ discussion with Philadelphia-based artists Ken Lum and Karyn Olivier. Tune in for a meaningful discussion about public art, gentrification, arts funding, and more. Learn More. Arts Access TV airs each week online and on the free local Channel 64 PHLgovTV (Comcast channels 64 and 1164, Verizon channels 40 and 41).
EVENTS
Street Art Fair and Closing Reception for “Not for Sale: Artists of the Iglesias Gardens”
Fri. March 4, 2022 6-9 PM at Pilot+Projects – 1719 N 5th St, Philadelphia PA, 19122
More information:
Pilot+Projects is pleased to announce the closing reception for our exhibition Not for Sale: Artists of the Iglesias Gardens, in conjunction with a sprawling sidewalk street art fair. On March 4 at the Iglesias Art Market, artists from all over Philadelphia will be setting up tables and booths to sell their wares, spilling love and creative energy all over 5th street. Clay crafts, paintings and prints, jewelry, clothing and accessories, tarot readings, poetry on demand, herbal medicines, chalupas and kebobs, as well as info tables from gardens around the city will all be available. Come for the goods, the food, the community, and to learn about the work of the Iglesias Gardens.
Not for Sale features the work of the artists and activists who have built and continue to defend the Iglesias Gardens. Occupying land located a few blocks north of Pilot+Projects in Kensington, the Iglesias Gardens is an organizing hub for multigenerational communities and an experiment in ecologically driven creativity. Established by Philly Socialists in 2012, the gardens are named after playwright and labor organizer César Iglesias in honor of the Puetro Rican community that live in the surrounding neighborhoods. Through the struggle of ongoing legal battles for community control of the land, the work of Iglesias Gardens builds and defends resilient communities. Along with the food and plant medicine grown on site, the gardens provide multigenerational activities seeking to create harmony and balance with local ecosystems, pay tribute to stolen land, and develop a network of support for future generations.
The works, all made by organizers, gardeners, and artists who volunteer at the garden, spans sculpture, photography, poetry, textiles, and more. Many of the works on display are created on site at the garden, or using resources harvested from the land itself. Through their efforts, these artists merge creativity, ecology, and street-level activism in service of radical community building, mutual-aid, and regeneration of local ecosystems. This exhibition seeks to be a celebration of those efforts, of the community, and of the vibrant inclusive space the gardens have become.
All donations and purchases will directly support the artists directly, as well as the work of the Iglesias Gardens, protecting community land and fighting gentrification. Snacks and drinks will be available for a donation. T-shirts and garden merch will also be for sale. Learn more at www.iglesiasgardens.com and Instagram @iglesiasgardens.
COVID-19 Info: Pilot+Projects will be following Philadelphia’s indoor vaccine mandate for institutions serving food – All visitors must wear a mask during their visit to the gallery. Please do not visit if you have been sick in the last ten days or have been in contact with someone who has been sick. We ask that all patrons follow these safe infectious disease guidelines.
Winter Concert “Seven Last Words of the Unarmed” features Pop-up Quilt exhibit,
Sat. March 5, 2022, 7:00 PM, at Episcopal Cathedral – 19 S 38th St, Philadelphia, PA 19104
From Artblog friend, artist Betty Leacraft:
Hands Up by Gloria Gammage Davis, 25 1/2″w x 35 1/2″ h Mama Floyd by Christina Johnson, 35 1/2″ w x 35″
The Pop-up quilt exhibit at Episcopal Cathedral includes four quilts from the “We Are The Story” quilt initiative at the Textile Center in Minneapolis and three additional quilts created by accomplished area artists. The quilts will be on display during the Winter Concert, “Seven Last Words of the Unarmed” a Singing City production at Episcopal Cathedral, 23 S. 38th St., Philadelphia, PA 19107. The quilt display is coordinated by Christina Johnson.
We Are The Story Artists: Christina Johnson, Gloria Davis, Michelle Flamer, Betty Leacraft.
Additional Philadelphia Artists: Cassandra Stancil Gunkel, Asake Jones, Alicia Ruley Nock
The quilts ere part of an exhibit called ”We are the Story: A Visual Response to Racism,” presented last year by the Textile Center in Minneapolis and the Women of Color Quilters Network. You can hear learn more about the quilters and the exhibit here.
About the concert:
Michael Brown. Trayvon Martin. Oscar Grant. Eric Garner. Kenneth Chamberlain. Amadou Diallo. John Crawford. These African-American men–each killed by police or other authority figures–are the subjects of a powerful multi-movement choral work by Atlanta-based composer Joel Thompson. Seven movements represent the last words from seven lost lives. Featuring the world premiere of A New Day is Rising by Ethan Haman, set to poetry by Philadelphia’s Youth Poet Laureate Cydney Brown, commissioned by Singing City.
Tickets are $25; $20 for students, available through Singing City online box office.
Visit our website for information on COVID-19 protocols.
OPPORTUNITIES
Philadelphia Fellowship for Black Artists
Deadline: Monday, March 14th, 2022 at 9:00am
More information:
Are you an artist? Are you Black? Do you live in the Philadelphia area? Don’t miss it–you only have until March 14th to apply for the Philadelphia Fellowship for Black Artists, by Mural Arts Philadelphia!
Winners of this Fellowship receive:
$2,000 in unrestricted funding
Access to exclusive artist workshops
The option to collaborate with your fellow cohorts to create a mural in Philly (paid opportunity)
The application is straightforward (should take roughly 10 minutes), so don’t wait: Apply now here!
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University “Plastic Free Philly” Lobby Installations
Deadline: March 15, 2022
More information:
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, HOT•BED and The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) of Philadelphia seeks 8 artists or artist teams to develop art installations to be displayed in prominent commercial lobbies across the city, during the summer of 2022.
Guided by The Academy of Natural Sciences’ (ANS) objectives for the year, which has been deemed by ANS as “Water Year”, submitted art installations will call to mind the natural beauty of the Delaware River Watershed and will examine how our habits positively and negatively impact the ecosystem. The goal of each installation is to encourage people to stop using single-use plastic water bottles, as part of the Academy’s “Plastic Free Philly” campaign. Each installation will include signage with a QR code connecting visitors to ways they can participate.
EACH ARTIST SELECTED WILL BE AWARDED A $5,000 STIPEND FOR THEIR PARTICIPATION.
Timeline:
Call for Submissions goes live February 8, 2022
Call for Submissions closes March 15, 2022 at 11:59 PM
Selections announced April 1, 2022
Art installations will be installed in late May 2022
Art installations open to the public for viewing June 3, 2022
Art installations close July 29, 2022 CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
GLEN FOERD Artists in Residence
Deadline: March 15, 2022
More information:
Applications for Glen Foerd’s 2022-2023 Artists in Residence Program are now being accepted. Artists should be residing in the greater Philadelphia area at the time of their application. Apply via Submittable by March 15th at 11pm.
Glen Foerd, in partnership with Past Present Projects, is accepting applications for three categories of artist residencies: the visual arts, performing arts, and art education.
Visual Artist – work produced in such mediums as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, or video, etc. Preference will be given to projects produced in response to Glen Foerd’s history, collections, or ecology.
