Brandywine River Museum of Art
The Brandywine River Museum of Art (BRMA) will receive program support for Art of the Vote, presented by PNC Arts Alive, an educational initiative that helps remove financial and perceptual barriers to participation in the arts. This important educational initiative coincides with both: (1) Votes for Women: A Visual History, commemorating the centennial anniversary of the suffrage movement and the first exhibition of its kind to examine how suffragists in the early twentieth century deployed visual media to advance voting rights, including the contributions of minority women; and (2) Witness to History: Selma Photography of Stephen Somerstein, an exhibition that emphasizes the continued struggle for suffrage in post-19th Amendment America. Art of the Vote is designed as a full suite of multidisciplinary arts programs to enrich and accompany both exhibitions, including hands-on art-making activities; musical and theatrical performances, including a play about African American abolitionist and suffragist Harriet Forten Purvis and a "Songs of the Suffrage Movement" performance; educational discussions with curators and artists; a deep-dive into the symbolic fashions of suffragist women; and bilingual storytelling / performance activities.
Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia
The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia (COP) will receive grant support to bring music from the concert hall on to city streets on select Fridays prior to regular Kimmel Center programs, with a series of “Rush Hour Concerts,” featuring Pictures at an Exhibition ― composed by COP Music Director and renowned composer Dirk Brosse. Inspired by paintings from the Philadelphia Museum of Art's permanent collection, the concert series tentatively will be held at or adjacent to such iconic Philadelphia cross-sections as Rittenhouse Square, the Comcast Center, and 30th Street Station, and will culminate in a year-end concert at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Clay Studio
The popular Hands on Clay, presented by PNC Arts Alive brings The Clay Studio's ceramic arts programming out of the Clay Studio space in Old City and into the Philadelphia community, targeting those who experience economic and geographic barriers to arts and culture opportunities. This initiative aims to remove these barriers by bringing free public arts programming directly into neighborhoods and festivals, reaching more individuals of all backgrounds.
Grand Opera House
Wilmington, DE's Grand Opera House will bring a variety of enriching arts experiences directly to children and families in their own neighborhoods through The Grand's “Summer in the Parks” series. The Grand Opera House created the Summer in the Parks series with the City of Wilmington in 2013, and this program has since provided interactive arts experiences for Wilmington residents of all ages, abilities, and socio-economic backgrounds by bringing programming in Wilmington public parks during specific times during the day, along with some evening performances.
Jazz Bridge Project, Inc.
Jazz Bridge will expand the reach of its ten-year-old Neighborhood Concerts program, presenting local jazz and blues musicians monthly from October through May, in locations including Cheltenham, Roxborough, and Collingswood, NJ. For the last two years, Jazz Bridge also has featured local artists performing original musical compositions, and continues to engage regional fans of Jazz and Blues, including those who are less familiar with the music, to experience master musicians in an intimate setting for an admissions fee that is far more affordable than most other venues. Children under 12 pay no admission fee, and reduced-price / free tickets are also available.
Kulu Mele African Dance & Drum Ensemble
Kulu Mele will celebrate its 50th anniversary season (1969 – 2019) from Sept. 1, 2019, to Aug. 31, 2020. Notably, on Nov. 30, 2019, Kulu Mele will world-premiere an all-new, multi-media dance-theater work, produced with major support from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage and commissioned by the Annenberg Center. Entitled “Ogun & the People” (O&tP), it will be a fantastical theatrical adaptation of an Afro-Cuban fable about a heroic warrior and the deity who emerged from the forest to save his world gone amok. Additional anniversary commemorations will include: the release of a new book about Kulu Mele, to debut at a high-profile book launch party on Oct.18, at the African American Museum in Philadelphia; a co-promoted Afro-Cuban art exhibit at Taller Puertorriqueño; 10-15 additional Kulu Mele performances in and around Philadelphia all year long; local weekly community-based dance and drumming classes for children and adults; an annual children's show; and free performances by Kulu Mele in Philadelphia schools.
People’s Light
People's Light will produce the world premiere of Inside Ashland, by Steve H. Broadnax III, at its 340 seat mainstage from May 13-June 7, 2020. Inside Ashland explores the complex story of Civil Rights activist and West Chester native Bayard Rustin, a contemporary and close colleague of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and a key organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. Inside Ashland looks at Rustin's three-year incarceration in Ashland, KY as a result of refusal of military service, all while delving into Rustin's protest work, his Quaker beliefs, and the barriers he faced as a gay man who was unwilling to hide his sexuality. Rustin was himself also an accomplished tenor, and Inside Ashland will play homage to this history and the broader African American music tradition, with traditional spirituals and other musical works arranged especially for this production. Among the numerous project partners will be the LGBT Equality Alliance of Chester County and the Charles A. Melton Arts & Education Center, a longtime partner of People's Light that was founded in 1918, with help from Bayard Rustin's own grandparents.
Perkins Center
Perkins Center's Social Artworking is a series of free and affordable arts engagement opportunities designed to encourage community engagement through the arts. Social Artworking makes broad arts participation possible throughout Southern New Jersey, eliminating actual and perceived barriers to arts participation by presenting a variety of arts disciplines in a range of already familiar community settings. This includes: Free “Thursday Mornings at the Perkins Center,” featuring a different, free arts engagement opportunity weekly from October through May; a monthly "Conversations on Culture" lecture series; a bi-monthly Coffee and Classics Chamber Concert Series; free concerts in Collingswood and Moorestown, presented in outdoor, celebratory, picnic-like settings; free and low-cost Family "Creation Stations" at the Clover Market, Collingswood Green Festival, and the Collingswood Farmers Market Center; free weeklong Summer Arts Camp experiences for Camden youth; monthly evening DeCafe Concert Series in Moorestown; and quarterly evening cultural engagement events.>
Taller Puertorriqueño, Inc.
Taller Puertorriqueño's Safeguarding: Greening the Future will support programming that expands the reach, impact and understanding of Green is for Hope, an exhibition at Taller Puertorriqueño’s Lorenzo Homar Gallery, featuring the work of artist Samuel Lind and meant to advance our understanding and responsibility around “place keeping.” A cultural ambassador, artist, and activist in his town of Loíza, Lind delves into his experiences to bring awareness to issues regarding racial and environmental justice, spirituality, cultural legacy and gentrification. Green is for Hope will run Sept. 2, to Oct. 26, 2019, and Safeguarding: Greening the Future will include: an artist's reception on Sept. 6; performances of the African-centered Bomba, by the Puerto Rico based Ayala Dance Troup; and a Sept. 28, panel conversation on Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, featuring artist Samuel Lind, Puerto Rican environmentalist Fernando Silva Carabello, Director of Greens Grow Ryan Kuck, and Director of Historic Fairhill Jean Warrington.
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