Art-Reach Program Uses Art to Fight Violence

Art-Reach Program Uses Art to Fight Violence - Funded by City $


Art-Reach students and staff in Art Gallery at City Hall with artist Ben Volta

The past year the Philadelphia Cultural Fund (the vehicle through which the City distributes funding through a competitive peer process) for the first time ever allocated a portion of the funding to go into a new "Arts for Youth" project grant program. This new grant program, which I encouraged, allowed a group of exemplary projects using the arts to address critical challenges facing our youth to be supported. Given that the process for the next round of grants for this year will be launched soon (at a significantly reduced funding level, due to budget cuts), and that City Council is now holding budget hearings, it seemed like an opportune time to highlight one of the projects supported in 2010

Art-Reach is an organization devoted to "enriching lives by connecting underserved audiences to cultural experiences so that they may benefit from and enjoy the transformative power of the arts." Teens from the Martin Luther King Recreation Center in North Philadelphia and Wissahickon Boys and Girls Club in Germantown spent 12 weeks last fall working with professional silk screen artists to create original T-shirts with an anti-violence theme. They visited a hospital ER where they saw the devastating effects of gunshot wounds, and that led them to explore designs around the theme of the human heart (the literal, anatomical human heart, not the cartoon Valentine's Day version). Last week a group of the teens visited me at City Hall to present me with a T-shirt. They were accompanied by artist Benjamin Volta, who worked with them on this project, Michael Norris, Executive Director of Art-Reach, and other staff from the participating organizations.

It was a great opportunity for me to see this grant program in action, to meet the kids, and also to talk to them a bit about what I - and the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy - do. The kids also got to see our new show at the Art Gallery at City Hall, and learn a little but about the history of City Hall. In the photos above we are standing in front of a large work of art created by the kids and Ben Volta. One of the things I especially like about this program is that the winning designs have been mass-produced and are now on sale at the Villa stores at 1231 North Broad Street, and 5700 Germantown Avenue, or online at http://artreach.bigcartel.com. The shirts are $10 each and all the proceeds go to teen programs at these two centers. So this not just an arts program, not just an anti-violence program, but also an entrepreneurship and micro-enterprise program; the work of these students will generate business revenue that will go back into programs serving youth. The kids are also learning that art has value, and that designs can actually be sold in the marketplace. Would love to have more resources to better support programs like these. Very inspiring - this is why I do what I do...

The Greatest Sacrifice Arts Workers Make for the Arts

With all the financial challenges arts workers are facing these days - struggling to balance the budgets of their organizations, or dealing with salary and benefit cuts on compensation that was modest to begin with - it is easy to view the sacrifices people make to work in this field as being entirely financial. Not to minimize the financial sacrifices - they ARE significant - but I would argue they are probably no more significant than a wide array of professions where people choose to devote themselves to the pursuit of "making the world a better place". This includes early childhood workers, teachers, social workers, the whole world of NGOs working in challenged communities, both domestically and abroad. And the sacrifices all these workers make are also not just financial. We all work long hours, and often under trying and unglamorous circumstances (though to outsiders arts work can seem glamorous). No, I think the more significant - and unique - sacrifice arts worke...

Inside/Outside - Art by Prison Inmates and Ex-Offenders

Leon Jesse James, "Space Modulator", acrylic on board. SCI Graterford The Art in City Hall program of the City of Philadelphia has just opened a new exhibition, INSIDE/OUTSIDE - Art by Prison Inmates and Ex-Offenders . This is a wonderful, powerful, and thought-provoking new show and I encourage everyone to see it. It is open until October 29th, on the secod and fourth floors of City Hall. More information is available here . The show involves participating artists from SCI Graterford, The Philadelphia Prison System, Art for Justice , Snyderman-Works Galleries , Connection Training Services , and the Mural Arts Program 's Youth Violence Reduction Partnership Guild Program, as well as local ex-offenders. Thomas Schilk, "Beetle", melted plastic spoons, paint. When I came to my position in 2008 as Chief Cultural Officer, one of the appeals of the position was the fact that the administration of Mayor Michael Nutter viewed the arts as being integral to virt...

Learning to Practice "Niksen"

[Note - this reflection was originally published in the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation blog and newsletter last year. With the summer of 2024 coming up, seemed like a good time to re-share.] Last summer I had the gift of being able to take a month-long sabbatical. (Thank you , Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Board of Directors!) This program was put in place by the Foundation in 2019 and made available to all employees (not just the CEO) but due to COVID all the employees eligible for sabbaticals had to delay taking them for three years. Our program allows for four weeks at seven years of employment. It does not require any explicit work-related learning activities, but it is totally flexible and up to the employee to choose how to use it. To be honest, I had not taken more than two weeks off from work in my entire adult working life (which is more decades tha n I care to admit). And as in the case of most folks, the decision of what to do became a family conversation...

Mile-High Musings on Arts, Culture, Creativity and Philanthropy

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