Today, Arts Alive-funded programs continue to strengthen the ability of our arts community to create innovative exhibits and experiences that reach hundreds of thousands of people.
PHILADELPHIA, July 19, 2017 – Affordable access to theater and opera performances, a mobile studio that offers neighborhood residents hands-on art-making experiences and multicultural productions are among the plans for 20 arts organizations receiving a total of $1 million in grants from the PNC Foundation through PNC Arts Alive.
For the ninth year, PNC will support large and small arts groups in the Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey region. The grants cover a wide range of disciplines, audiences and participatory experiences. [See below for the complete list of grant recipients.]
Since its debut in 2009, the PNC Arts Alive program has committed $9 million to nearly 200 arts programs and 137 organizations to increase access to the arts and culture in Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey. PNC Arts Alive has supported new exhibitions and festivals, family arts programs and more throughout the region. Envisioned as a five-year, $5 million initiative, the success of PNC Arts Alive led to an extension that will eventually span 10 years and $10 million in funding support to local arts organizations.
“We’ve watched for nearly a decade as the arts and cultural scene across the Delaware Valley and Southern New Jersey regions has thrived,” said Joe Meterchick, PNC regional president for Philadelphia, Delaware and Southern New Jersey. “Today, Arts Alive-funded programs continue to strengthen the ability of our arts community to create innovative exhibits and experiences that reach hundreds of thousands of people.”
Family Fun, Free Events
The return of two annual family programs, the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s summer season “Arts Splash” and Opera Philadelphia’s “Opera on the Mall,” provide opportunities for the community to come together to experience the visual arts and a performance of “The Marriage of Figaro.”
The Barnes Foundation will host a debut performance in celebration of its fifth anniversary on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. A seasonal series, produced by the Bay Atlantic Symphony, offers reduced ticket prices for the annual Borgata Pops Gala on Sept. 16.
PNC Arts Alive is a multi-year initiative of the PNC Foundation dedicated to supporting visual and performing arts groups with the goal of increasing arts access and engagement in new and innovative ways. The PNC Foundation, which receives its principal funding from The PNC Financial Services Group, actively supports organizations that provide services for the benefit of communities in which it has a significant presence. The foundation focuses its philanthropic mission on early childhood education and community and economic development, which includes the arts and culture. For more information, visit www.pncartsalive.com.
CONTACT:
Jason Beyersdorfer
(609) 651-5617
jason.b@pnc.com
@JasonB_PNC
PNC ARTS ALIVE – 2017 GRANT RECIPIENTS
Al-Bustan
The programming supported by PNC Arts Alive, titled “Tabadul: From the Poetic to the Visual in Public Space,” will include a three-month series of activities in and outside of the MSB that engages the public in multiple ways around the themes of identity, heritage, journey and movement within the city. This ties into a public art display of 30 banners featuring images created by internationally renowned photographer and MacArthur Fellow Wendy Ewald with students from Philadelphia’s Northeast High School. Additional programming will include a series of events and art activities about culture, identity, and the city.
Barnes Foundation
The Barnes Ensemble is a series of three open rehearsals and three ticketed concert performances that will be presented during the 2017-2018 musical season, in Oct. 2017, April and June 2018. The debut performance will be held during the Barnes Foundation’s celebration of its fifth anniversary on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and the series of three performances will coincide with the city’s year-long celebration of the Parkway’s centennial.
Bay Atlantic Symphony
A two-part initiative, "Music for All" runs throughout the entire BAS subscription season reaching diverse populations and removing barriers. PNC Arts Alive support will reduce ticket prices for the annual Borgata Pops Gala on Sept. 16, the symphony’s full subscription series (from Oct. through May) and will assist with initiating a children's chorus for holiday concerts.
Cape May Stage
Cape May Stage’s Broadway Series will bring innovative musical and theatrical programming to South Jersey, based on the hugely successful subscription series at the Hollywood Bowl and other venues. To date, the Cape May Broadway Series has entertained audiences with a broad array of music, including Broadway, jazz, and cabaret. This four-show series will be offered on Monday evenings from Memorial Day through Labor Day, at the Robert Shackleton Playhouse.
Center for the Emerging Visual Artists
Art in the Open (AiO) will turn the Schuylkill River Banks into a public studio space in which artists explore new working methods, develop process-oriented works, and respond to the intersection of urban and natural environments. Showcasing the creative processes of 25 to 40 multidisciplinary professional artists, AiO puts a contemporary spin on the “pleinair” (open air) genre of art popularized in the mid-19th century. The free biennial event brings together printmakers, sculptors, media artists, environmental artists, choreographers, and more to create new work outdoors over the course of three days.
First Person Arts, Inc.
First Person Arts (FPA) will celebrate its 16th anniversary, with the largest First Person Arts Festival to date. This includes “Encore” performances that highlight artists and stories from FPA’s history, as well as the popular Grand Slam and a special “All Star” Grand Slam. Two marquee events will provide a platform for the compelling personal stories within our communities, while a new “Story Sparked” series will invite audience members to reflect and respond to FPA events by recording their own photo and video stories.
Fleisher Art Memorial
ColorWheels is a one-of-a-kind mobile art studio, delivering hands-on art-making experiences to Philadelphia residents of all ages and backgrounds. In its 6th year on the road, Fleisher intends to make this beloved creative vehicle for art-making even more inventive, accessible, and inspiring. ColorWheels is outfitted with tools, supplies, and resources that make it possible for talented local artists to engage community members in creating on-the-sport works of art.
Fringe Arts
Spring 2018: Circus Fest at Fringe: Taking place during a four-day weekend, FringeArts will partner with Philadelphia’s Circadium School of Contemporary Circus to seek out four-six experimenters in the circus arts to present across one weekend and build a platform for their work that would increase visibility for circus throughout the city and beyond. Programming will also include the Brian Sanders 2017 Holiday Show at Fringe, a new holiday-themed, highly physical, burlesque-inspired circus cabaret. This show will occur over two weeks in December at FringeArts.
InterActTheatre
Encompassing all audience engagement during InterAct’s 30th Anniversary Season (2017/18) will feature a new program, “InterConnections.” InterActwill invest in substantive programmatic, promotional and fiduciary partnerships with show-specific community organizations to create interactive, value-added programming in conjunction with its productions and expand established audience action initiatives. With these community partnerships, the theatre will redouble its commitment to civic engagement and create relationships with new audiences primed to invest in InterAct’s specific brand of thought-provoking, socially engaged theatre.
James A. Michener Art Museum
The Michener Art Museum will expand its successful Music at the Michener to include three Broadway Cabarets, to be presented in summer 2018. Featuring populist fare–and complimentary program admission–this new offering will engage new and diverse audiences. All programming is intended to increase community engagement and make the arts more accessible. In this same spirit, the Museum will invite students from Play On Philly! and MusicopiaDrumline to provide the opening act.
Kimmel Center
Kimmel Center will present Philly En Vivo in 2012, celebrating Hispanic and Latino cultures, music, and heritage. A wide range of eclectic events will be featured, from community partnerships to star-studded stage performances. Part I of this project will transform the Philly En Vivo series into a free monthly event in the Plaza, using the proven, successful model of Sittin' In.
Mann Center for the Performing Arts
During the summer of 2018, the Mann will present the Philadelphia debut of The Soulful Symphony with Darin Atwater. Founded by Atwater, a composer, in Baltimore in 2000, The Soulful Symphony is a unique ensemble, composed primarily of African American and Latino musicians as skilled in playing jazz, gospel, and R&B as in classical music. The ensemble’s cross-over performances fuse classical music with these more familiar, popular sounds to both critical and popular acclaim.
Opera Philadelphia
In September, the Opera will invite the public to join the celebration of its inaugural urban opera festival with a one-time, double-bill HD broadcast event. A special afternoon re-broadcast of the Sept. 2014 production of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, one of the most popular Opera On The Mall offerings. This will precede an evening broadcast of the April 2017 production of The Marriage of Figaro, a first-ever showing of an Opera Philadelphia spring production on the Mall. The event will feature expanded family friendly activities, and include community choir performances in between screenings of the operas.
Perkins Center for the Arts
The Perkins Center’s mission is to eliminate financial barriers to the arts, all while growing South Jersey’s arts audiences through a variety of free arts participation opportunities. These include an outdoor concert series in Collingswood and Moorestown; a series of “Summer Creation Stations”, to be hosted at Collingswood Farmers’ Market; a free Artist Open Studio Tour; and free “Lunch and Learn” events, featuring culturally focused demonstrations, lectures, performances, and the like.
People’s Light & Theatre
From Oct. 18 –Dec. 17, People’s Light will produce the world premiere of a new music theatre work that will incorporate the music Nat King Cole made famous in the story of his ill-fated NBC television variety show. The People’s Light premiere will be supported by Community Ambassadors who are immersed in the creative process of the production to bring that knowledge to their constituencies, enhancing the experience of new theatregoers they bring to People’s Light.
Perkins Center for the Arts
Support from PNC Arts Alive will advance the Perkins Center’s mission to eliminate financial barriers to the arts, all while growing South Jersey’s arts audiences through a variety of free arts participation opportunities. These include an outdoor concert series in Collingswood and Moorestown; a series of “Summer Creation Stations”, to be hosted at Collingswood Farmers’ Market; a free Artist Open Studio Tour; and free “Lunch and Learn” events, featuring culturally focused demonstrations, lectures, performances, and more.
PHILADANCO!
PHILADANCO! will present its 2017-2018 Home Season beginning with its 48th annual ‘Dancoon ‘Dancoproduction in Sept. 2017; it will present “Success Stories” at the Kimmel Center in the winter of 2017 of work by former ‘Dancomembers who have become successful in their own right and are doing work for other companies or their own; and lastly PHILADANCO! will present and premiere a new ballet dedicated to August Wilson’s “A Piano Lesson” which has never been developed as a story telling ballet. This is a rare performance opportunity for Afro American companies, and the re-staging and remounting of important works of Pearl Primus and Talley Beatty will all be produced and entitled “H-I-S-T-O-R-Y/ African American Style” at the prestigious Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia in the spring of 2018.
Philadelphia Film Society
PFS ON US offers free tickets to both the Philadelphia Film Festival and the PFS Signature Series—carefully selected programming that offers a year-round Festival-style experience (special guests, premieres, unique film events, etc.). There will be an emphasis on the 25 for 25 retrospective series in honor of the Festival’s 25th year. PFS ON US was created as an innovative way to build diverse audiences for film. The initiative makes film programming available to colleges and universities, nonprofit organizations, and individuals throughout the region; and also includes student screenings, curated arts-integration experiences for classes from public, private, and charter schools.
Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA)
In 2013, PMA launched Art Splash, a first of its kind, summer-long family art experience. More than 27,000 children and families participated in its inaugural year, with 30 percent of those admitted free or at reduced cost. In 2017, Art Splash will come to life through the fantastic nature photographs of Michael “Nick” Nichols. Additionally, while Art Splash is a hot spot for creative summer play, PMA’s Family Festivals will draw young people and their adults to the Museum all year long via bi-monthly family arts programs.
Taller Puertoriquenno
During Sept. 17 – Aug. 2018, PNC Arts Alive will support two gallery exhibits followed by dialogues; fund Miguel Antonio Horn: Dissonance and pair it with a musical performance by Las Cafeteras, an outspoken Chicano musical group with a progressive political message. The second event will pair Ron Abram’s El Ambiente (the Ambience) with a panel discussion featuring Latino members and artists of the LGBT community. The panel will include Ron Abram himself, scholar and author Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, poet and writer Juan David Acosta, local gay Latino artist Gerard Silva, Nikki López, director of GALAEI, and a representative from the William Way LGBT Community Center. Open houses, education programs, gallery shows, and other events will become more frequent and accessible to more of the Latin@ population.
The Clay Studio
Hands on Clay (HOC) is a community outreach initiative that brings free, hands-on arts programming into Philadelphia neighborhoods and outside of our school. This programming is designed to be user-friendly for all individuals, particularly for those without prior ceramic art experience. By bringing activities such as wheel-throwing and “Wheel Battles”, clay animation, and group sculpture, The Clay Studio will work to provide the maker experience to under-resourced Philadelphians.
