As luck and life would have it, we totally missed mentioning that the Philadelphia Open Studio Tours of nearly 300 artists around town, began last weekend and will continue into next weekend. When Roberta and I looked through the who’s who in the artists directory, it seemed to us this is POST’s best year yet.
Fortunately, there’s still time to visit artists studios west of Broad Street this coming weekend–Chestnut Hill, Mount Airy, Germantown, Manayunk, East Falls, Fairmount, Center City West, Rittenhouse Square, Graduate Hospital, and West Philly.
You can check out David Kessler’s wonderful video (made for uwishunu) on the studios at the Crane Art Center (one of the POST locations in Kensington) to get a taste of the sort of experience POST offers–a glimpse inside artists’ studios and a chance to make some personal contact with them, learning what they are all about. (Kessler is the video genius behind Look! It’s Libby and Roberta, and Shadow World.)
Because POST has so much going on and is spread across the city, the best way to approach the project is to get one of the artist directories, which also has information on the best ways to get around. We were excited to read there are shuttle services from one area to another, a new wrinkle that should smooth the difficulties in getting around. The directories are available at these locations:
- The Green Line Café, 4239 Baltimore Avenue
- AIA Bookstore & Design Center, 117 S. 17th Street
- Amoeba Art Shops, 7174 Germantown Avenue (Mt. Airy) & at Sherman Mills, 3502-3510 Scotts Lane (East Falls)
- Utrecht Art Supply Stores, 301 S. Broad Street & 2020 Chestnut Street
Or, if you can stand flipping back and forth on the computer and are a glutton for punishment, you can use the online PDF forms (here).
