PHILADELPHIA, August 2, 2018 – 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 22 arts organizations receiving a total of $1 million in grants from the PNC Foundation through PNC Arts Alive.
Celebrating its 10th year, PNC will support large and small arts groups in the Philadelphia, Delaware and Southern New Jersey region. The grants cover a wide range of disciplines, audiences and participatory experiences. [Click here for the complete list of grant recipients]
Since its debut in 2009, the PNC Arts Alive program has committed $10 million to more than 244 arts programs more than 60 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. Launched as a five-year, $5 million initiative, the success of PNC Arts Alive led to the program’s continuation that now amounts to a decade of funding support for local arts organizations.
“Since the debut of PNC Arts Alive, we’ve watched the arts and cultural scene across the Delaware Valley and Southern New Jersey regions thrive,” said Joseph G. Meterchick, PNC regional president for Philadelphia, Delaware and Southern New Jersey. “Now, as we celebrate a decade of PNC Arts Alive-funded programing, we continue to see its benefits as our arts community grows, prospers and creates innovative exhibits and experiences reaching hundreds of thousands of people.”
Family Fun, Free Events
PNC Arts Alive will once again support 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 and performing arts.
The Brandywine River Museum of Art (BRMA) will present a major retrospective of the work of N. C. Wyeth, including his iconic illustrations for classic stories like “Treasure Island” and “The Boy’s King Arthur.”
In addition, through the support of PNC Arts Alive funding, PHILADANCO! will present its 2018-2019 Home Season beginning with its 49th annual ‘Danco on ‘Danco production at the Performance Garage in September 2018. Also among the year 10 PNC Arts Alive program participants is Wheaton Arts & Cultural Center, which will feature 25 days of free admission during scheduled “PNC Arts Alive Family Fun Days” highlighted by a variety of family-oriented activities, including one for the family dog!
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.
The PNC Foundation, which receives its principal funding from The PNC Financial Services Group (www.pnc.com), 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. Through Grow Up Great, its signature cause that began in 2004, PNC has created a bilingual $350 million, multi-year initiative to help prepare children from birth to age 5 for success in school and life.
PNC ARTS ALIVE – 2018 GRANT RECIPIENTS
African American Museum of Philadelphia
Later this year, the African American Museum of Philadelphia (AAMP) will apply its “PhilAesthetic” brand and model of collaboration by bringing together Latino and African cultural partners to deliver programs celebrating their shared African heritage.
Bay Atlantic Symphony
A two-part initiative, "Musical Stars" 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. 15, the symphony’s full subscription series (from Oct. through May) and will assist with the expansion of rehearsal and educational/performing experience for a second annual Holiday Children’s Chorus.
Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra
In celebration of its 10th Anniversary, Black Pearl will perform a “thank you” tour for 2018-2019 in three venues that have special significance for the organization. The tour will begin on October 2018 with a concert in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month at the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater; a second performance in February 2019 will take place in honor of Black History Month at the Philadelphia Cathedral in West Powelton; and a final performance will be held in June 2019 that features a collaborative outdoor performance at the Dell Music Center in Strawberry Mansion.
Brandywine River Museum
Taking place in 2019, the Brandywine River Museum of Art (BRMA) will present a major retrospective of the work of N. C. Wyeth, including his iconic illustrations for classic stories such as Treasure Island and A Boy’s King Arthur. Through programs designed for a diverse range of audiences, BRMA will engage visitors with this fresh consideration of Wyeth’s art through a four-week multidisciplinary celebration of narrative arts including illustration, graphic novels, oral tradition and storytelling.
Cape May Stage
Cape May Stage’s Broadway Series will bring innovative musical and theatrical programming to South Jersey during 2019 through its highly successful subscription series. 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.
The Clay Studio
In the midst of relocating to the city’s South Kensington neighborhood, The Clay Studio will bring its community outreach initiative, Hands on Clay (HOC) into Philadelphia neighborhoods. Through HOC, community members in the new neighborhood location and across the city will have access to free, hands-on arts programming.
First Person Arts, Inc.
Taking place across multiple venues in the city from Nov. 4-18, the First Person Arts Festival will include more than 18 memoir-based and documentary art performances in as many days. This year, FPA will employ a new process to collect stories for the upcoming Festival called the Philly Love Alive! project (PLA) . PLA will collect stories from new and existing residents of areas with shifting demographics due to gentrification, immigration and migration: Point Breeze, Kennsington, Paschalville and Dickinson Square.
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. Fleisher will develop a calendar of 25 art-making events, with activities planned by local artists in ways that make learning about art compelling, relevant, and enjoyable for audiences diverse in age, background, language, and artistic experience. An emphasis will be placed on improving the ColorWheels experience by hiring more diverse and bilingual teaching artists, traveling to neighborhoods where Fleisher has never had a presence, investing in more creative marketing and retention strategies, and connecting more deeply with school and community partners to best serve their needs and interests.
InterActTheatre
InterAct Theatre Company and the Resident Partners at The Drake -- Azuka Theatre, Inis Nua Theatre Company, Simpatico Theatre, and PlayPenn—will host Open Doors for New Plays (ODNP). This collaboration is designed to engage new and underserved audiences for contemporary theatre and to cement The Drake as Philadelphia’s New Home for new plays – both world premiere and regional/U.S. premieres. ODNP plans to conduct eight preview events at community and senior centers along sections of the Broad Street and Market-Frankford SEPTA Lines (outside of Center City), with each event including presentations of scenes from current and upcoming productions at The Drake. Additionally, keycar will be distributed that guarantees event attendees one complimentary ticket to the previewed productions, along with a subsidized $10 ticket to any subsequent production at The Drake produced by InterAct or a Resident Partner. Throughout the season, parents of young children will be provided with opportunities that encourage them to attend performances at The Drake, while their children participate in theatre-driven childcare activities in their new rehearsal room.
Kimmel Center
Kimmel Center will present two complementary programs, La Noche and Arts4All, with the goal of developing diverse audiences. La Noche is a free monthly music and dance celebration of Hispanic and Latino cultures, occurring in the Commonwealth Plaza. Arts4All offers a member card and discounted tickets to all attendees of La Noche, as well as other underserved audiences. Post La Noche, Arts4All members are emailed special discount offers to encourage future attendance at KCI performances.
Mural Arts
Mural Arts will collaborate with American Composer’s Forum (ACF) and Friends of the Rail Park (FRP) to stage a festival of three interdisciplinary public artworks. During 10 weeks in spring 2019, the three projects will reveal hidden histories, contemporary states, and future imaginaries for the Rail Park, a former rail line slated for transformation by FRP. The projects will be co-created by visual artists and composers, resulting in installations that combine sculpture, projection, sound, and live performance. Artist teams will collaborate with local performers to stage nine live performances at their sites. Performers participating include: Spiral Q Puppet Theatre, Sun Ra Arkestra, Ed “Papa” Stokes and Kudu Bi, King Britt, Jumatatu Poe, Kahlil Ali, and Camae Ayewa AKA Moor Mother.
Opera Philadelphia
Opera Philadelphia will present the eighth-annual Opera on the Mall bringing the residents of Philadelphia together for a large-scale celebration of the role of art in the life of the city. The event will feature an HD broadcast at Independence National Historical Park, an expanded food truck zone, and family activities. Audiences will enjoy world-class artisty through an Opera Philadelphia production of a blockbuster title recorded live in the historic Academy of Music.
Perkins Center for the Arts
Support from PNC Arts Alive will ensure the continuity of Perkins Centers’ efforts in eliminating barriers to the arts and growing an arts audience by nurturing the connection between an individual’s interest in art and the activity of experiencing, creating and being a part of the arts. A variety of free arts participation opportunities will build arts audiences today and into the future and include the following: Free Wednesdays at Perkins Center will feature a different free arts engagement opportunity weekly from October through May, a free concert series in Collingswood and Moorestown will be presented in outdoor, celebratory, picnic-like settings, free and low-cost “creation stations” will be available during Clover Market, Collingswood Green Festival and the Collingswood Farmers’ Market and designed to engage the diverse multi-generational audience in attendance while developing direct connections to the artwork on view in Perkins Center’s gallery. Additionally, a free multi-week Summer Arts Camp program, including transportation for Camden youth, will be held at Perkins Center, Moorestown.
PHILADANCO!
PHILADANCO! will present its 2018-2019 Home Season beginning with its 49th annual ‘Danco on ‘Danco production at the Performance Garage in September 2018; it will present its Fall (2018) and Spring (2019) premiere series productions at the prestigious Kimmel Center for the Perming Arts. The new works premiered in the Fall (2018) and Spring (2019) are partnerships with the Kimmel Center’s Educational and Community programs. The two matinee performances at each production provide an opportunity for audience engagement in the Q&A sessions with the creators including the dancers, choreographers and Executive Artistic Director, Joan Myers Brown.
Philadelphia Clef Club
Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts (PCC) will host Jazz Cultural Voices, a series of free concerts and educational activities. The musicians presented under the concert series will be ethnically diverse nationally recognized and emerging artists. Concerts will be of Latin, Cuban, Japanese, European, Native American, East Indian and African American influences to attract new and diverse audiences. Accompanying activities will include master classes and educational activities. A year-long open house-style series of events will also be held one Saturday each month utilizing PCC’s 200 seat concert hall, and use of multiple music studios, located on the Avenue of the Arts.
Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA)
The Philadelphia Museum of Art will continue its annual Art Splash summertime family experience, Art Splash 2019. Since its debut in 2013, Art Splash has provided critical early arts exposure to Philadelphia families of all backgrounds and experiences, bringing the visual arts to life through daily interpretive programming, play-based learning, and immersive arts experiences. The 2019 Art Splash and Family Festivals is anticipated to attract and serve more than 30,000 regional family visitors. In a continued commitment to arts accessibility and engagement, the Museum will ensure that approximately 30% of all Art Splash attendees will benefit from free or reduced cost program admission, through community partnership efforts and Pay-What-You-Wish admission opportunities.
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra will expand access to world-class orchestral music in Philadelphia through ensemble-based, collaborative community performances. The Orchestra will conduct five collaborative community-based orchestral performances in the 2018-19 season (9/1/2018 – 8/31/2019). Each performance will feature an ensemble of five to 15 Philadelphia Orchestra musicians. Performances also will be conducted in partnership with a prominent neighborhood organization, co-curated to leverage unique cultural and neighborhood characteristics that will attract and engage community residents. This project is estimated to engage at least 2,500 Philadelphia-area resident who are underrepresented in the concert hall.
Philadelphia Theatre Company
The Philadelphia Theatre Company will aim to build new audiences by a two-pronged strategy. The first, entitled “10Tix” features 10 seats that will be offered at $10 for every performance throughout the season. The day of each performance, there will be a window during which any patron who is not a subscriber may visit, call the box office or go online to purchase up to two 10Tix. Unlike typical rush ticket policies which are subject to availability, these seats will be kept off sale to the public (even if the performance is otherwise sold out. The intent is to introduce two new types of patrons to the theatre: one that had been financially unable to attend, and another that can afford to attend but for whom the price exceeds their willingness to try PTC for the first time. A second initiative, “TeenTix” will offer a free ticket to any teenager in order to eliminate any barrier to entry for this group of future theater goers.
Taller Puertoriquenno
In 2019, Taller will have the opportunity to present Paradise Has No Memory, a solo show from one of Philadelphia’s hidden treasures: Puerto Rican painter and architect Rafael Villamil. Although he has lived here since 1962, Villamil’s genre-defying work is virtually unknown to local audiences. His brilliantly colored, hallucinatory mixed-media paintings reflect on society and human nature, especially the duality of dreams and reality, island and mainland, past and present. Now in his eighties, Villamil has never had a solo show in the U.S. Taller will join with the Woodmere Art Museum to invite Villamil and scholars Rubén Alejandro Moreira (Puerto Rico) and David Brownlee (University of Pennsylvania) to discuss the development of Villamil’s distinct voice as an artist and architect. Audiences will also have the opportunity to visit Villamil’s house, a work of art in its own right designed by the artist himself.
Theatre Horizon
Support provided through PNC Arts Alive will be focused around the production, THE COLOR PURPLE at Theatre Horizon. THE COLOR PURPLE tells the unforgettable story of a woman who, by learning to love herself, finds the strength to triumph over extraordinary adversity and discover her own unique voice in the world. THE COLOR PURPLE will open Theatre Horizon’s fourteenth main stage season in November of 2018 and strengthen the theatre’s commitment to serving their community with equity and inclusivity. Alongside the production, Theatre Horizon will engage with community partners to build ancillary programs that highlight the relevance and excitement of THE COLOR PURPLE for their community.
Walnut Street Theatre
The Walnut will stage a production of “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.” This extraordinary Tony Award winning play by Mark Haddon is based on the novel of the same title. Fifteen-year-old Christopher struggles with acceptance in his everyday life as a result of his apparent autism. Walnut Street Theatre will take an innovative approach to making this play accessible to the Autism Spectrum Disorder community. Through the support of PNC Arts Alive, free tickets will be provided to one sensory-friendly performance, allowing individuals and families to experience live theatre without the constraints of a traditional theatre environment. This performance will seat patrons spaciously and modulate lighting and sound effects. In such a setting participatory barriers are removed, allowing participants to interact within a comfortable and approachable environment. A second component of the theatre’s program will be designed to attract middle and high school students to special matinee performances at a substantially reduced cost.
WheatonArts & Cultural Center
WheatonArts will present “PNC Arts Alive! Family Days!” building upon the success of the extremely popular “Wheaton Wide Open” (WWO) initiative taking place over the past four years. PNC Arts Alive! Family Days! will include 25 days of free admission throughout the year, removing a significant financial barrier and making the arts more approachable and accessible. With the exception of January through March (due to winter operating schedule) visitors will have access to the region’s only AAM-Accredited Museum, the Hot Glass Studio, Pottery and Flamework Studios, and additional family-oriented activities (Creation Stations, museum tours, demonstrations, etc.). Additional “PNC Arts Alive! Family Days!” hands-on activities will be built around their 2018 and 2019 special exhibits and projects. The exhibit “Symbiotic Spheres: The Interlocking Worlds of Glass, Science and Art” will offer many opportunities for science and arts based activities. “Near and Far: South Eastern Asian Arts” will celebrate the cultural heritage of the Asian communities residing in their region while offering opportunities activities with rich multicultural program content for “Family Days” activities. Community events “Paws for Art” (dogs invited!) and the “Eco Fair” will also be promoted as “PNC Arts Alive: Family Days!.” Both events will include free arts activities for families. During January through March (2019), they will offer two days of free workshops each month. Exhibits in 2019 include the third iteration of “Emanation” a contemporary art exhibit featuring a diverse group of artists (many from Philadelphia).
CONTACT:
Jason Beyersdorfer
(609) 651-5617
jason.b@pnc.com
@JasonB_PNC
