Betty Leacraft interview with Brandywine Workshop and Archives, Mashrabiya Project at The Museum for Art in Wood, Mayoral Forum on Arts at Taller Puertorriqueño, plus more

NEWS

Brandywine Workshop and Archives ArtistsNConversation: Betty Leacraft, a friend of the Artblog

Join us from the comfort of your home tonight at 7:00 PM for the premier of a special installment of BWA’s ArtistsNConversation series. Featured in this episode is Philadelphia-based artist Betty Leacraft in discussion with Gustavo Garcia, BWA’s Associate Director for Digital Media and Artist Residencies.

In their discussion, Leacraft discusses her trajectory as an artist, her experience as an artist-in-residence at BWA, and how that residency provided a launchpad for her to start a new series of works about her father: “I saw this opportunity to honor my father, who was a World War II vet.” She added that it was a way “to honor his career as a lifelong printer for the government.”

Interview found on Brandywine Workshop and Archives YouTube.

Congratulations to Black Spatial Relics Micro Grantees Severin Blake, Nikki Brake-Sillá, and Doriana Diaz Collage Workshops

Three Philadelphia artists and a workshop have been granted the 2022-2023 Black Spatial Relics Micro Grants for Community Care and Collective Research. These microgrants offer 500.00 awards to artists. The program this year focused on Black liveratory practices and spaces for community care.

NOTABLE EXHIBITIONS

The Museum for Art in Wood presents The Mashrabiya Project

March 3 – July 23, 2023
Museum for Art in Wood, 141 N 3rd St, Philadelphia, PA 19106

Join us for The Mashrabiya Project! A community-focused experience that links the heritage of the mashrabiya, a versatile screening element with ancient origins, to considerations of space and seeing in contemporary life.

The Project, which opened on March 3 and continues through July 23, includes programs, activities, and events.

A multidisciplinary exhibition titled Seeing through Space will interpret the societal and cultural concepts evoked by the mashrabiya, featuring never-before-seen commissioned works by 6 women-identifying artists from the Muslim world. Their works, exhibited in the Museum’s main gallery, speak through the many languages of the mashrabiya, evoking the metaphors and stories found in its elemental forms. The Seeing through Space artists are: Anila Quayyum Agha, Nidaa Badwan, Susan Hefuna, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Majida Khattari, and Hoda Tawakol.

More information here.

Minerva Parker Nichols: The Search for a Forgotten Architect exhibition opens

Minerva Parker Nichols (1862–1949) was the first woman in the US to practice architecture independently, with press coverage and commissions nationwide. Yet only a handful of her drawings survives, and she is rarely included in the story of Philadelphia’s built environment or broader historical assessments. The culmination of more than a decade of original scholarship, the Architectural Archives presents the exhibition Minerva Parker Nichols: The Search for a Forgotten Architect, an exploration of her life and work that features a new series of documentary photographs by Elizabeth Felicella.

The exhibition is on view at the Harvey & Irwin Kroiz Gallery of the Architectural Archives, 220 South 34th Street, Philadelphia, from March 21 – June 17, 2023. Gallery hours are 10:00pm to 4:00pm, Tuesday through Saturday. Extended gallery hours will be in effect for March 21 so visitors can take in the exhibition following the 6:30pm panel discussion. Information at 215.898.8323.

Learn more about the architect here.
More information on exhibition here.

Here After presented by Tiger Strikes Asteroid closes April 1st

Tiger Strikes Asteroid (TSA PHL) is pleased to present Here After, a two-person exhibition featuring the work of Megan Biddle and Erin Woodbrey. Working across two and three dimensions, the work in Here After toggles between registers of time and physicality. What seems to be in a state of fluidity and movement is, in fact, in stasis. What is heavy is light, and that which is new seems from another time. Through objects made by naturally-occurring and fabricated processes and materials, both artists examine a spectrum of states between permanence and decay. The exhibition will be accompanied with “The Old, the New, the Fossil: Megan Biddle and Erin Woodbrey’s Here After,” an essay by Leah Triplett Harrington.

Tiger Strikes Asteroid will hold a casual closing on April 1, from 4-6pm. Artists Erin Woodbrey and curator, writer, and editor Leah Triplett Harrington will be present.

Tiger Stikes Asteroid, 1400 N American St #107, Philadelphia, PA, 19122
More information here.

EVENTS

Second Mayoral Forum on Arts and Culture

March 30, 2023, 5:30 – 8:30 PM, performances and interactuve activites from 5:30 – 6:30 located at Taller Puertorriqueño, 2600 N. 5th St., Philadelphia 19133

Taller Puertorriqueño hosts a second Mayoral forum, organized by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance and the “Every Voice Every Vote” project. Join us on Thursday, March 30, 2023 for the PHL Arts Mayoral Forum (6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.) as Philadelphia’s mayoral candidates discuss the issues facing the city’s arts and culture sector. We are excited to host 300 in-person attendees and 1,000 virtual attendees for this live-streamed event.
RSVP here.

Kelly Writers House hosts live reading by Jesús I. Valles and Ricardo Bracho

From Borderlands to Bathhouses

Thursday, March 23rd, 12:00 PM in person and on YouTube.

Kelly Writers House, 3805 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104

In this live reading and conversation, playwrights Jesús I. Valles (they/them) and Ricardo A. Bracho will engage the U.S./Mexico borderlands and bathhouses as insurgent geographies of queer Latinx life. Putting excerpts from two of Jesús’s plays in conversation with one another, the playwrights consider their personal experiences as queer artist-scholars whose work reflects on colonial hauntings, familial memories, and erotic desires. Their reading and conversation will be followed by a Q&A with the audience. Lunch will be provided at the conclusion of the conversation.

Register here for in person event.

Watch online here.

The Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy hosts webinar, Public Art, How To Start

The City’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy (OACCE) launched a quarterly series of virtual Public Art professional development workshops in November 2022 called “Public Art, How to Start?” for artists who are interested in pursuing public art projects, but don’t know what a public art project entails, or how to start. These workshops are intended to demystify the public art process and build the capacity of local, diverse and emerging artists to apply for public art opportunities in Philadelphia and beyond.

The next workshop on March 29, 2023 will be moderated by Tu Huynh, OACCE Program Manager, and will feature a panel of public art decision makers in Philadelphia, including Marguerite Anglin, the City’s Public Art Director, Kacie Liss, PHDC Percent for Art Coordinator, Leah Douglas, Director of Experience at the Philadelphia Airport, and featuring Ben Volta, public artist, who will share his experiences applying for public art projects. Workshop participants will receive valuable tips for artists to get their foot in the door to public art opportunities, starting with their initial submission of qualifications and past artwork, and including steps they should take to strengthen their application before they submit.

RSVP for the webinar at 5:30 pm March 29, 2023 here.