Crescendo: How Art Makes Movements (1981-1999)
Feb 28 5-7pm  with a concert by Salim Washington 7-8 to follow @ Asian Arts Initiative

Satin @ TSA Feb 22- 6-9pm
Opening Reception is March 13

The Half-God of Rainfall @ Wilma Theater
Feb 11 – Mar 2

Release Party: GRATE
Feb 28 6-8pm @ Da Vinci Art Alliance

Roberta: Hi everyone, it’s Roberta.

Ryan: And this is Ryan and this is the midweek news

Roberta: on Artblog radio.

One of the things I like about the location where we live is that there happened to be, you know. A lot of things you can walk to and walk home from. So I dropped the car off at a place on Rock Hill Road, if you happen to know where that is. Intersection almost of Belmont Avenue. You know, go down that long hHill, Belmont Avenue and crossover into Manayunk. One of the bisecting roads is Rock Hill. So I walked all the way up Belmont Avenue and all the way home. It was a nice walk, very windy this morning and chilly, but a good walk.

Ryan: Yeah, I’m, I’m ready for spring

Roberta: You’re going to have to wait. I don’t believe we’re seeing spring this week.

Ryan: No, it doesn’t look like this week at all, does it?

Roberta: No, it does not. Even though we’re not getting snow, I don’t think we’re getting, you know, temperatures in the sixties anymore. That was last weekend.

Ryan: Yeah. That was just a one-off, I guess. I’m hoping for upper forties like that so much to ask. Yes.

Roberta: Maybe, I don’t know. It doesn’t look like upper forties until. Maybe next week. Well, let’s talk about that flipped-over Delta airliner in Toronto at the airport. Yeah. How did that happen? They say there weren’t, that’s wild cross winds coming on the runway when it was landing, but an entire flip-over is. Unimaginable.

Ryan: Yeah. Can you, that’s just wild. I mean, this is why you don’t want to unbuckle too soon, I guess, right?

Roberta: Right? Yes.

Ryan: Like we’re not at the gate. Don’t unbuckle yet. It’s, that’s quite a thing. I don’t, I’ll be curious. There just seem to be a whole slew of crashes, flying crashes in the last. Since, I hate to say it, but since Trump.

Roberta: Yes. We’re, we’re since the FAA has taken a nose dive with personnel and

Ryan: yeah, it’s wild because of all those

Roberta: disabled people that they led in through DEI

Ryan: guess. Yeah, that’s it’s been a bit of an interesting conversation

Roberta: but. Anyway, buckle your seatbelts. I think that’s the answer. Keep them buckled.

Ryan: Yeah.

Roberta: Anyway, that’s a rather downer note, but shall we move on to the news?

Ryan: Yeah, that sounds good.

Roberta: Yeah, there’s a bunch of stuff that I have today and I’ll try to make it quick and snappy. There was an article in the paper today actually about economic boycotts since the DEI announcement by Trump that he wanted everybody to, and he was going to make sure that DEI was killed as a program.

Some companies have been with him on that and others have not. So I’m going to read off the list of ones that you should consider. Seriously not buying from anymore. And that would be Amazon, McDonald’s, Lowe’s, Target, something called Tractor Supply for all you tractor people out there, and Walmart, they are ending their DEI policies or have ended them.

And these are the ones that you are encouraged to shop at. Costco, apple, Ben and Jerry’s, Delta Airlines. ELF cosmetics and JP Morgan, Chas and Company. That’s ironic. They’re all in the DEI program. They’re okay with it. They’re going to keep it. I picked this up from the Philadelphia Tribune, which is a really nice little newspaper.

You should support it. I support supported black-owned, black-run historic. It’s been around for a long time. Very good paper economic boycotts. I am old enough to remember Cesar Chavez and the grape boycott back in the sixties and how effective that was, and that was the beginning of the unionization of migrants.

Laborers, I believe so economic boycotts can be successful. And apparently, that’s there. There’s a survey that was released today that talked about people’s positions on boycotting companies that are complying with Trump and those that are not. And there’s a significant number of people that are switching their where they’re shopping as a result.

Of Trump’s policy, but with your wallet, it’s a really good thing to do. Then I want to go to something completely different. An event on February 22nd, which is this weekend, Saturday, there’s an artist talk and a read-aloud at Chimera Gallery. In partnership with Vox Populi members, Lane Spiel and Evan slash Evan Greens organize this.

and it’s we’ll put the link to it. There was not a link online when I was looking for it, but we’ll find one. It’s in conjunction with a show called Beg Barter Steel that I believe is at or was at Fox Populi. And the read-aloud is what interested me. It’s an evening of storytelling with Philadelphia artists sharing their favorite folk tales out loud.

Doesn’t that sound like fun?

Ryan: Yeah,

Roberta: I’d like, it does sound fun to see what people’s favorite folktales are and, and listen to them. And there’s going to be tea and cookies and it should be a very nice event at, yeah, this is great. Samara Gallery. Just a short blurb here. Guadalupe Marvia, who is an artist in residence at Rare

We told you about Guadalupe in a previous news midweek news post. There is now a film focused on him from Art 21, so that releases on February 26th, which is next week, and we’ll put a link in to Art 21 for that. I believe there’s a trailer on YouTube right now that you can watch. We’ll put that link into, there’s a couple of opportunities that seemed good.

Something called the Second Annual Strokes of Kindness Art Contest and Fundraiser. It’s open to all, in any medium to use the theme, a feeling of home and raise awareness and funds to continue supporting transplant patients and families who rely on their facility. This is the Strokes of Kindness facility, I believe.

We’ll put in a link to that. The submission closes February 28th, so that’s pretty, pretty quick. And there’s more information about this at the link, so we’ll, we’ll tell you more. I believe there’s a $200 prize if you are the winner. The other opportunity is the McGuire Art Museum on the St.

Joseph’s University campus is seeking artists who work in the environmental area. They are going to have a show of environmental stewardship. I. And the application to be in that show is ends March 7th. It’s coming up pretty soon, and the exhibit is going to be in June, June through August. And that’s it for me.

Okay. Over to you Brian.

Ryan: So kind of in a. In between section as far as the big events go. The standard first Fridays and second Thursdays. But there’s still quite a bit coming up, especially towards the end of the month, which is in a week in change. There is an opening at Crane Arts a new show called Satin, that’s at TSA, that’s Tiger Strike asteroid.

And that is by. A, it’s a solo photography exhibit by Melissa Alicia Simpson. It revisits a by gun cultural era, the indie sleaze kind of fashiony movement of the previous decade. So a lot of like Gen Z kind of vibe, kind of his hipster-esque kind of thing. So that looks really good. They’re going to have their official opening.

The second Thursday of March, which is the 13th, but the show opens officially on the 22nd. Coming up on the 28th, there are a couple shows that I wanted to shout out. One is Crescendo How Art Makes Movement. That’s at Asian Arts Initiative that is going to be followed by a concert by Salim Washington.

So that’s February 28th from five to seven is the exhibit. And then from seven to eight is, is music. It really looks like a, a, a really interesting show. Really worth watching. Take a look at that. I’ll have links as well. Friends of Artblog, our previous executive director was Julia Marsh. And she started a new print quarterly called Great, and they are having a brand new opening celebrating their release on February 28th from six to 8:00 PM at Da Vinci Art Alliance, and there are tickets for that as well.

And I’ll have a link to those as well. Then my theater pick of the week is the Half God of Rainfall that is going to be directed by Lindsay, smiling at Wilma. So that’s a Hot House member. It’s recently in Fat Ham and a few other sh quite a few other shows. That show is on now, and that’s running through March 2nd.

So take a look at that. That is a, a Nigerian born British poet playwright, Inua ELAMs. I’m not sure if I’m saying that correctly. And that blends Yuba and Greek mythologies into an incredible story they say of. A demagogue turned into an NBA superstar, which I think is hilarious. It’s a fun mashup. So that, that looks to be a really interesting show.

That’s at Wilma, that’s on now to the 2nd of March, and also next Tuesday is my son’s birthday. So shout out to my son who’s turning 11. So happy birthday Reese.

Roberta: Happy birthday Reese.

Ryan: So those are my three four picks. Plus Julia’s doesn’t count because that’s an old friend of Artblog. So four, four for me this week.

But yeah, so light going on 28th, theater’s going on now. And then coming up in that march will be the opening for Satin at TSA. Great. Those are my picks of the week. And I’m also picking spring. Yeah. I’m also selecting warmer weather.

Roberta: Yes.

Ryan: This is cold out right now.

Roberta: Yeah, it cheers. I guess I have a few things to announce and that is we’re we will be meeting with a couple of new people who want to write for Artblog.

It’s always exciting when people always exciting.

Ryan: Yeah.

Roberta: Come to you and say they’re really excited about X, Y, Z and they want to write about it. And my comeback is always, well, we, we don’t want to one off. Do you want to be on our team? And sometimes people don’t. They just want to do a one-off and be done, meaning they’ll do that one thing that they’re passionate about, but then they don’t want to write anymore.

Oftentimes though, people say, I’d love to talk to you about being on your team, and that’s when we get into a conversation with them, tell them how we work with writers. They pitch us story ideas, and then we start working with them. So this week I’m meeting with Joni Sullivan who wants to write about blah blah gallery, which has a show right now that looks quite good.

Painting, show of feminist painting show sort of down with doing dishes and wearing, you know, funny little slippers that make your, that sexualize your toes, fetishize your toes, that kind of thing. There’s another writer, Bridget O’Brien, who comes to us through Sarah Caer. One of the writers that we just started working with on the a at feed, the environmental spoof using chat, GPT.

So Bridget is very interested in writing about artificial intelligence and things of that nature. Technical tech, art, I guess you might say internet art. Looking forward to. Conversation. And then I have a meeting with Pete Barber, who has been writing for us with, for a little while, a couple years now or a year.

Pete is working on an interview story where he talked to a lot of people. He may have talked to you in the art community, leaders in the art community about what they think about the future of the arts in Philadelphia, especially from their point of view and how it’s going to impact them. So I’m very much looking forward to that.

Hear how that’s going. That’s about all my goings on. Plus I’m going to New York on Saturday. I could mention that, and I’m going to see my sister who lives there and go to the Met Museum and see the Casper David Friedrich show, which I’m really looking forward to, that German romanticism of. The man standing on the precipice, looking out over the land and his back to you, and you are him.

And it’s very romantic and beautifully done. This guy is haunted by nature, so I really want to see that.

Ryan: Yeah, that sounds great.

Roberta: Yeah, so I’ll tell you a little bit about that after I see it.

Ryan: Yeah, I’d be curious.

Roberta: Yes. Also we should say Ryan and I interviewed our friends at the local, the Germantown Mount Airy East Falls Paper. Paper, paper, also online, and there are buddies through the NICE program. And that interview will coming up on Artblog. It’ll also be on WHYY because we’re part of the NICE program and the nice people at at WHYY want our. Input and our words on their website as part of helping us get our word out. I can’t wait for that to happen.

So we’re working on that right now.

Ryan: Exactly. Yeah. There’s quite a bit coming up. So.

Roberta: There is, there is, you know, some months are very slow and other months are like chaka block full of content. It’s the rhythm of the seasons being reflected in, you know, content on Artblog, I think. Which is always interesting.

The winter is a quiet time and the spring all hell’s popping, fall, all hell’s popping, comes and goes. We’re always here. We’re always here. What kind of party are you going to have for Reese? Have you decided

Ryan: Reese wants to do an escape room? I’ve never done an escape room, but he’s, he loves puzzles and codes and things that he does a lot of puzzle solving, so it’s perfect for him.

Roberta: Puzzle solving is great. He, he’s going to be good at math and technology and coding and stuff like that.

Ryan: Yeah, he’s very good at, he’s very good at math. Yeah. He’s, he’s ripping right through all of his math work. And then the teenage

Roberta: years get really interesting. So

Ryan: yeah, my, my oldest is getting ready for college, so that’s

Roberta: very exciting. Oh my gosh.

Ryan: It’s funny, we saw the sticker shock. So he got the email on what the, the financials were going to be for, and it was $62,000.

Roberta: For one year?

Ryan: One year.

Roberta: Just tuition or is that room and board and fees?

Ryan: Yeah, room and board didn’t include books, but yeah, tuition. It’s criminal, a lot of money.

Roberta: It’s criminal. It should not be that much money.

Ryan: I mean obviously that’s, that’s the, that’s the sticker price. So obviously it comes down to significantly once you get all those scholarships and grants and then federals and then it is a lot of money.

Roberta: It is a lot of money. Lot a lot of money. Yeah.

Ryan: But he’s excited.

I, you know, it’s his first choice, so he is going to College of the Atlantic, so he is very excited about that. So.

Roberta: Where is that again? I forget.

Ryan: Bar Harbor.

Roberta: Bar Harbor, Maine.

Ryan: Yeah.

Roberta: Wow.

Ryan: Yeah.

Roberta: Do they go to sea? Is it really about the Atlantic?

Ryan: I believe so. The campuses look out onto over the water. They have research vessels and ships that they use, so it looks really interesting.

Summers at sea or send them away to some research areas, really up his alley.

Roberta: That’s great. Oceanography might be in his future, who knows.

Ryan: Yeah. He wants some level of marine biology. So some, some variant that our aspect of that I think is where he’ll end up.

Roberta: Oh, great. That’s wonderful.

Ryan: So excited for him for that, and we’ll see where that takes him.

Yeah.

Roberta: Awesome. All right, well that’s a happy note to end on. Let’s end on that happy note. Sending, yeah. Ending your son off to college. University of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. I love that. Okay, Ryan, I’m going to sign off now. Thank you everybody for listening. This is Roberta saying, see you next time.

Ryan: And this is Ryan, and this has been Artblog’s  Midweek News. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.