We are planning a day to celebrate art in Frankford, and the best part is it affords local residents the chance to be a part of creating art that will last generations and see art in space that has celebrated generations.
Also, Flying Kite's second art exhibition, Transformation 19124, opens in a highly unique and sacred setting, the altar area of St. Mark's Church.
The free events will be held jointly on Thursday, Nov. 8 from 5-8 p.m. at St. Mark's (4442 Frankford Ave.). We'll have light refreshments and entertainment as well.
If you've never been to a Mural Arts Community Paint Day, you'll get to experience the driving force behind the internationally renowned organization's work.
"Our mission is rooted in the community process," says Mural Arts Project Manager Netanel Portier. "We have people involved in the design process and then bring them together again for the actual production.
"They can say afterwards 'I did that part over there' and feel ownership."
Mural Arts will set up large tables inside St. Mark's fellowship room and lay out portions of the mural grid, traced out anddivided into 5 foot x 5 foot squares on a non-woven cloth material. It's almost like paint-by-number; people can choose to paint a particular color or portion of the mural.
"Since we can't have kids and the elderly up on scaffolding, everyone, no matter how old they are, can contribute to the mural," says Portier.
Transformation 19124 will feature a rare opportunity to see local artists' work displayed right on the altar area of the massive, ornate and historic St. Mark's. The exhibit will also be on display two days later on Saturday, Nov. 10, when we co-host the inaugural
Frankford Fall Music & Arts Festival at St. Mark's from 2-8 p.m.
Here's a partial listing of artists showing in the exhibition:
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Texas native, Tyler School of Art grad and Frankford resident Marta Sanchez's paintings are deeply inspired by traditional Mexican folk art and she is best knownf or her 'retablo' pieces, which are offspring of traditional Mexican prayer paintings.
- A Frankford mainstay, printmaker/phoptographer Rachel Citrino grew up in the neighborhood and her family liveed behind her painter father's shop/studio on Church Street, only a couple blocks from Citrino's current studio at
Globe Dye Works, the onetime large industrial complex that has been modified to house artist lofts.
- Lauren Rinaldi lives right outside Frankford but has been working in the neighborhood over the past five months on the Imagining Frankford series of murals. (Samskaras)
- Frankford's own Lina Cedeno, a Tyler School of Art grad who will be exhibiting ink transfers that capture the struggle of women against evil forces based on her experiences in her native Columbia.
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Bonnie MacAllister is most recently Flying Kite's arts writer and curator emeritus, but has spent her working life creating various works of art from video to poetry to sculpture, writing about art and grantwriting to fund art. Her father is from Frankford and she spent much of her childhood at her grandparents' home there.
- Painter and printmaker Susan Mangan most recently exhibited in Germantown at the new Imperfetct Gallory and the Ninth St. and Bird-in-Hand Galleries in Washington D.C. Her work "conveys the struggle between chaos and order, grwoth and entropy."
- Northern Liberties sculptor Simone Spicer will exhibit her war memorial piece, Fallen Hero, which is comprised of painted corrugated cardboard and assorted rubble.
- Megan Kelly and Suman Sridhar perform "Sometimes people do not act because they are afraid they have no power" using masks, animal runes, voice, video and sound to address the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. The altar space of St. Mark's Church in Philadelphia is adapted as the setting for a ritual reading of animal runes, as the performers embody Jackal and its shadow aspect, the Coyote.
JOE PETRUCCI is managing editor of Flying Kite. Send feedback here.