Arts and Culture : Innovation + Job News

By now, we've all had a taste of farm to table, but how about orchard to table?

The Philadelphia Orchard Project (POP) -- with help from hosting Bartram’s Garden (near our summer On the Ground home in Kingsessing) -- is launching its first annual Orchard to Table Dinner for 50 lucky guests.

"This is the first year we’ve planned something like this and we’re really excited," says POP second-year intern Alyssa Schimmel, who specializes in promoting POP fundraising collaborations with businesses and other organizations.

The dinner will take place at Bartram's Garden in Southwest Philadelphia, 5 - 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, September 13; the cost is $60 per person. The evening will kick off with a tour of the orchard at Bartram’s led by POP Executive Director Phil Forsyth, followed by a happy hour featuring beverage Yards Brewing Co., Crime & Punishment Brewing Co., and Kuran Cider.

Main courses will be provided by local farm-to-table caterer Seedling and Sage, with dishes including pecan chicken with wilted arugula salad, or a vegetable creation made with produce from Philly Foodworks. Mycopolitan Mushrooms will serve up specially foraged hen-of-the-woods mushrooms, Brine Street Pickelry is bringing the pickles, Metropolitan Bakery has the bread covered, and the coffee is courtesy of ReAnimator Coffee. The meal will be served family-style from platters at joint tables. Artisans, local food and horticulture vendors, and live music will also be on hand throughout the night.

"We’re really focusing on our native fruiting trees," explains Shimmel. "What plants do we use in orchard spaces? And how can we familiarize them to a larger audience?"

That means local apples, pears and figs.

It’s all about "bringing people together for food that’s grown in local farms, and using that to highlight the power food has in our community," she adds.

Proceeds from the dinner will support more community orchards. Each year, POP works on five to 10 newly planted groves across the city with help from volunteers. Dollars from the new fundraiser will help pay for the plants and planting, enable education with the help of on-site POP liaisons, and go towards upkeep.

POP currently manages 54 community orchards comprised of 1028 fruit trees and those numbers are growing every year. After the September 13 dinner, supporters can check out the group’s sixth annual Philadelphia Orchard Week (October 8-16) featuring harvest festivals and other events across the city. Volunteers are also needed for fall planting season, running late September through mid-November.

"This dinner is going to be a great showcase of a lot of wonderful work being done in the community, both by the Orchard Project and all of our partners," says Schimmel. "We feel very fortunate to be in partnership with all those who are working on making local food more accessible."

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Alyssa Schimmel, the Philadelphia Orchard Project
Follow all our work #OnTheGroundPhilly via twitter (@flyingkitemedia) and Instagram (@flyingkite_ontheground).

On the Ground is made possible by the Knight Foundation, an organization that supports transformational ideas, promotes quality journalism, advances media innovation, engages communities and fosters the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit knightfoundation.org.

Many Philadelphians don’t know it, but our city has a rich legacy of cultural and economic ties with Japan dating back to the mid-1800s.

"There’s this long history of friendship, academic interchange and business interchange," says Kim Andrews, Executive Director of the new Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia (JASGP), which this summer officially merged with the Friends of the Japanese House and Garden (FJHG).

The first Japanese envoys to visit Philadelphia arrived in 1860 and the plantings at the Shofuso Japanese House and Gardens in Fairmount Park near Parkside (our old On the Ground haunt) were installed in 1876. The depth of this history is interesting for an East Coast region with a relatively small Japanese and Japanese-American population (a 2010 survey of the five-county area reported about 3,000 people of Japanese heritage).

"It’s not very large, but it is a very deep and important cultural history," says Andrews.

When she became executive director at FJHG, the idea of joining forces with JASGP had "been bubbling in the atmosphere for a long time" -- the two nonprofits had a lot of overlap in their missions.

FJHG’s two main programmatic goals were interpreting, maintaining and preserving the Japanese house and garden; and creating arts and cultural programming. JASGP’s two-fold mission was building connections between businesses in Philadelphia and Japan, and hosting Japanese arts and cultural events.

The merged organizations' three-fold mission wasn’t hard to develop: to continue the Shofuso stewardship, to "enrich connections between the business and government sectors of Japan and Philadelphia," and "to offer educational public programs about Japanese art, business and culture."

In terms of staffing and budget, JASGP is now the second-largest Japan America society among 37 across the country (second only to New York).

Andrews notes that the original JASGP brought excellent national and international business and political connections to the table, as well as a strong relationship with the Japanese Consulate in New York. It also produced Philly's annual Cherry Blossom Festival, which drew about 14,000 people this year, and which, according to Andrews, is considered one of the U.S.'s most authentic Japanese-style festivals.

For their part, FJHG board members were "subject area experts" on Japanese culture, art and preservation.

"It’s been a really good mix," she says.

In the immediate future, there won’t be much evolution in programming as the two organizations get settled. (The merger was funded by Philly’s Nonprofit Repositioning Fund). The board will take a strategic planning retreat next month, and in 2017 embark on a new formal strategic plan with funding from the William Penn Foundation. New programming should roll out by 2018.

Besides the goal of furthering appreciation for the deep roots of Japanese heritage in Philly, the two nonprofits' merger is good news for the city in general. As Andrews explains, stakeholders no longer have to split donations, and the organization can streamline its budgets and operations on everything from payroll to newsletters while working towards the new joint mission.

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Kim Andrews, the Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia

Follow all our work #OnTheGroundPhilly via twitter (@flyingkitemedia) and Instagram (@flyingkite_ontheground).

On the Ground is made possible by the Knight Foundation, an organization that supports transformational ideas, promotes quality journalism, advances media innovation, engages communities and fosters the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit knightfoundation.org.

Philadelphia Fringe Festival goers who want an unusual, interactive experience should head to The Renegade Company’s Animal Farm to Table, hosted by North Philly's Urban Creators. The show will involve discussion, walking around the farm harvesting vegetables, a communal meal and a roving performance inspired by the George Orwell novel Animal Farm. In other words, it’s not your typical theater experience.

"This is a piece that’s very active for an audience member," explains Renegade Artistic Director Mike Durkin. "You’re going to get your hands dirty and you’re going have bugs fly across your face."

Durkin says his interest in topics like access to healthy food started with his work at the Nicetown branch of the Free Library. Students who came for after-school programs didn’t have many food options besides the snacks for sale at corner stores.

"I began to get more and more interested in access," he recalls. "How we can obtain food? What impacts our food sources?" This year, it seemed like a good idea to integrate those themes of "seeking a food utopia, creating a food revolution" into another long-term goal: adapting Animal Farm into a Renegade show.

In recent years, Durkin’s Fringe work has included Damned Dirty Apes!, performed at FDR Park, and Bathtub Moby-Dick, performed in a South Philly rowhome.

Durkin approached Urban Creators about a Renegade partnership at the start of 2016. The theater company had looked at several area farms as possible collaborators, but ended up choosing the grassroots nonprofit at 2315 N. 11th Street. The organization has a strong relationship with local youngsters and a community-driven mission of economic development, support for social entrepreneurship, and transforming neglected spaces.

The experience will last about 70 minutes, not including an optional "open sharing" discussion circle for all ticket-holders happening an hour before the show. It’s a "ground to the plate" experience, beginning with showgoers finding and harvesting veggies on the farm; Chef Brion Scheffler (the man behind the Philly blog Food Junkets) will prepare a simple meal incorporating the audience members' finds.

The Renegade Company’s Animal Farm to Table, presented as part of the 2016 Philly Fringe Festival (check out our Flying Kite round-up of the fest here), is coming to Urban Creators for nine performances from September 8-18. All shows begin at 6:30 p.m.; come for an hour-long onsite pre-show discussion. Tickets are $20; discounts available for theater industry folks, teachers, students and seniors; pay-what-you-can admission is open to residents of the North Philly community.

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Mike Durkin

It's the fifth year for the Boxers’ Trail 5K Run/Walk in Strawberry Mansion (our former On the Ground home). The race is the perfect kick-off to Strawberry Mansion Day, coming to the grounds of the Mander Playground on September 10.

"In recent years, not as many of the neighbors have been using [East Fairmount Park]," says Philly Parks & Rec spokesperson Alain Joinville. "It’s a beautiful park, and we thought this was a great way to get folks to experience the park again." 

The trail got its name as the training haunt of heavyweight champion Joe Frazier and other Philly boxers. This year’s 5K will honor that legacy with local youth boxing teams conducting free demos at ten rings near the finish line.

Boxers’ Trail is one of Philly’s top running trails, but Joinville emphasized that this 5K (happening in partnership with Parks & Rec, the Fairmount Park Conservancy, the Strawberry Mansion CDC and the Strawberry Mansion NAC) is for all ages and ability levels. 

“It’s a 5K, but there’s a strong emphasis on the walk part," he says. "You don’t have to do be in tip-top shape."

The event draws athletes from around the city, but it’s also open to senior citizens and youngsters. To promote health and physical fitness -- and to help make the event accessible to all -- the Boxers’ Trail 5K has partnered with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health’s Philly Powered initiative for a ten-week training program.

Joinville expects about 200 participants this year.

Registration is now open. Participants can register in advance online or by calling 215-988-9334. If you sign up by September 2, it’s $20 to run; $15 to walk (after September 2, the price jumps to $25). Strawberry Mansion residents can register for free by calling the number above, or by visiting the Strawberry Mansion NAC (2829 West Diamond Street) or Mander Playground (2140 N. 33rd Street). The proceeds will benefit community youth programs at Mander Recreation Center and in East Fairmount Park.

The 5K begins at 9:30 a.m. September 10 at Mander Playground, with check-in and day-of registrations at starting at 8:30 a.m. The run is timed, with medals for the kids and for the top male and female finishers.

The day continues with Strawberry Mansion Day (noon 7 p.m.) featuring food vendors, activities and entertainment.

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Alain Joinville, Philadelphia Parks & Recreation

Follow all our work #OnTheGroundPhilly via twitter (@flyingkitemedia) and Instagram (@flyingkite_ontheground).

On the Ground is made possible by the Knight Foundation, an organization that supports transformational ideas, promotes quality journalism, advances media innovation, engages communities and fosters the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit knightfoundation.org.

This summer, Flying Kite's On the Ground program took an in-depth look at Bartram’s Garden, a historic horticultural gem on the banks of the Schuylkill River. Now there’s a chance for all Philadelphians to make a big difference for the site.

Gearing up to be more accessible than ever to city-dwellers with the completion of the Bartram’s Mile trail, the 45-acre national historic landmark recently reopened the renovated original Bartram House for public tours, as well as the Ann Bartram Carr Garden. Another burgeoning program is the four-acre Community Farm and Food Resource Center, a formerly a disused baseball field and tennis court. (Here’s an in-depth look at the amazing work blooming at the farm.)

This summer, the nonprofit launched a crowdfunding campaign aimed at raising $30,000 for the farm.

"What we’re doing is raising funds for stipends for the students, the farm co-directors' salaries, and all of the supplies that are needed," explains Bartram’s Assistant Director Stephanie Phillips.

Currently, the campaign has raised almost $7,000. If they can hit $10,000 by September 30, a large donor will match those funds with another $10,000.

"It means a lot to us," says Phillips of donors who give even a few dollars (the campaign currently has attracted supporters donating as little as $5 or up to $200). "The support goes a long way, because this is a very lean program that has a pretty huge impact."

The accumulation of those small donations signals the huge community investment in programs at Bartram’s and locals’ desire to keeping them running.

"We see this Go Fund Me campaign as a way to get our feet under us while we do more longterm strategic fundraising," adds Phillips. That can take the form of government grants, but those dollars move slowly and Bartram’s is already "looking to get outside of our borders."

For example, giving garden boxes to residents of nearby Wheeler Street, and helping them learn how to garden for themselves at home outside of Bartram’s fields and greenhouses.

Anyone who wants to pitch in to support Bartram’s workers, programming and supplies can donate to the historic site’s campaign through September 30, 2016.

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Stephanie Phillips, Bartram’s Garden

Follow all our work #OnTheGroundPhilly via twitter (@flyingkitemedia) and Instagram (@flyingkite_ontheground).

On the Ground is made possible by the Knight Foundation, an organization that supports transformational ideas, promotes quality journalism, advances media innovation, engages communities and fosters the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit knightfoundation.org.

As a young fashion designer out of Penn State, Scott Latham learned how hard it is to reach the marketplace. Now he is founder and CEO of Colabination, a site he describes as an Etsy for independent streetwear apparel brands.
 
Latham launched the company less than a year ago, and found a welcoming home at the University City Science Center’s Quorum. Today, Colabination employs 16, offers more than 200 hard-to-find streetwear labels from around the world, and recently moved into its own space in Fishtown.
 
The enterprise boasts a three-member fashion buying team -- they scour the globe looking for cool independent brands that represent quality and value (most items are under $100), and have "a great story to tell," which often means a socially or environmentally conscious mission, a unique aesthetic or intriguing origin tale.
 
The site charges a 30 percent commission for every sale in exchange for its web-optimized sales platform and sophisticated marketing. The brands do their own order fulfillment.
 
Latham is effusive in his praise for the help he got at Quorum. Free workspace alone was huge for the startup, and they benefited mightily from the camaraderie and networking opportunities. He recruited his chief technology officer at Quorum. Upstairs neighbors Nick Siciliano and Ben Pascal, founders of Invisible Sentinel, became trusted mentors. And he still can’t get over the day last fall when Science Center President Steve Tang introduced him to "Jim," who turned out to be then Mayor-Elect Jim Kenney.
 
"Quorum was a huge stepping stone for us," he enthuses.
 
For now, Colabination is focused on streetwear for millennials, but Latham hopes to expand to a broader selection of men's and women’s apparel. The company is testing its XCollection, now in beta, which allows customers to shop their personally curated brands with an algorithm that reacts to their preferences.  
 
The goal is to be "a destination to discover new brands for all types of products and shop them on demand," he concludes. "A modern day mall.”

WRITER IN RESIDENCE is a partnership between the University City Science Center and Flying Kite Media that embeds a reporter on-site at 3711 Market Street. The resulting coverage will provide an inside look at the most intriguing companies, discoveries and technological innovations coming out of this essential Philadelphia institution.
 

After three years in its new headquarters at the foot of the Ben Franklin Bridge, the Philadelphia Fringe Festival -- presented by FringeArts -- is celebrating its 20th anniversary. The 15-day extravaganza, which will feature 178 shows all over the city (a handful curated by FringeArts and the rest mounted independently), is running September 9 through 24.

On July 19, FringeArts gathered media and presenters for a look at this year’s curated lineup of shows from homegrown and international artists. President and producing director Nick Stuccio, who assembles the slate along with FringeArts programming director Sarah Bishop-Stone, touched on some notable returning artists along with those new to the festival.

Fringe audiences of two years ago might remember the inaugural production of The Sincerity Project, an ambitious theatrical happening from Philly’s Team Sunshine Performance Corporation, with plans to span 24 years. Every two years, the same seven-person ensemble will converge for a performance mixing theater, music, ritual and dance "to reveal stories from the performers’ respective pasts, to display their bodies in the now, and to reveal their evolving desires and aspirations for the future."

Italian director Romeo Castellucci is also returning (after past festival hits The Four Seasons Restaurant and On the Concept of the Face, Regarding the Son of God) with Julius Caesar. Spared Parts. A man with no vocal cords performs Mark Anthony’s funeral oration while another holds forth with an endoscope displaying his vocal cords in real time.

Other notable artists include Stew & Heidi Rodewald, who are partnering with the The Wilma Theater to offer Notes of a Native Song, a "concert novel" homage to James Baldwin. Cesar Alvarez will mount his extraordinary musical The Elementary Spacetime Show (about a girl who has to play her way through a surreal game show to win her right to suicide) in partnership with University of the Arts. (The show premiered at UArts' inaugural Polyphone Festival in 2015.) Three-time FringeArts presenter Reggie Wilson’s Fist & Heel Performance Group will open the fest with Citizen, which Stuccio said is inspired in part by "famous African Americans who left this country to fulfill their identities."

This year’s "masthead show" is coming from director Brett Bailey, a white South African whose controversial work probes post-colonial Africa. Bailey’s Third World Bunfight will present a condensed 100-minute version of Verdi’s Macbeth in partnership with Opera Philadelphia, reimagining Shakespeare’s tragic figure as a dictator in the Democratic Republic of Congo. (It comes with a host of associated discussions and events.)

Find the full lineup of curated shows online.

As for the rest of the fest, audiences can find 11 types of shows in the categories of music, dance, comedy, film, theater, spoken word, interdisciplinary, happenings, visual art and circus. 2016's iteration will branch out into West Philadelphia, and there will also be lots of work in Fishtown/Kensington, the Northwest, Northern Liberties, Old City, South Philly and more, including the second year of the Digital Fringe, with work presented exclusively online.

Audiences can sit in graveyards, forage on a farm, drink, laugh, interact, share stories and more. Shows will take place in venues including a yoga studio, a gay nightclub, Elfreth’s Alley, museums and parks. The full lineup will be available in print and online August 5.

Markman especially appreciates "artists who use our platform to find their own unique audience."

And for local beer lovers, FringeArts announced one more new partnership: "Fringe Benefit," a limited-edition pale ale from Kensington’s Saint Benjamin Brewing Company.

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Sources: Nick Stuccio and Jarrod Markman, FringeArts

The ACANA Festival started small, but after eight years, it’s exploded into an event that draws thousands to Penn's Landing. Attendees come to explore the modern and traditional music, foods, crafts, and cultures of the African diaspora.

The African Cultural Alliance of North America (ACANA) is our current On the Ground home in Southwest Philadelphia (check out this recent profile of the broad-based African and Afro-Caribbean social services organization). August 7 will mark the ninth year that ACANA has hosted the event as part of the PECO Multicultural Festival Series, which brings eight free festivals to the waterfront between June and September.

ACANA originally made the series roster nine years ago with the help of a recommendation from the Kimmel Center. The nonprofit's founder and executive director Voffee Jabateh served on the community advisory board.

In 2015, the ACANA Festival drew an estimated 10 to 12 thousand people to the Great Plaza at Penn’s Landing in a single day. This year, with headlining singer Pape Diouf -- a Senegalese star -- those numbers will only grow. Other performers at this year’s festival include Sharon Katz and the Peace Train South Africa, Chilton James Reggae Band, Deng, and the Universal African Dance & Drum Ensemble.

Jabateh says the festival is gaining international traction and becoming a destination for African artists who want to connect with the vibrant African diaspora in the United States.

"[Diouf] is top of the charts in Africa," says Jabateh, but "many in the [American] community cannot afford the cost" of traveling to see him. So the ACANA Festival is bringing him here, free of charge to fans.

"Most of the artists in the ACANA Festival for the last five years have come from outside the United States," he adds. They’re "doing very well in their career back in Africa, and the diaspora group wants to see those artists here in America."

ACANA makes it happen.

The fest will also feature a huge range of African food, arts and crafts, and activities for kids.

The ninth annual ACANA Festival is coming to Penn’s Landing on Sunday, August 7 from 2 - 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Voffee Jabateh, ACANA
Follow all our work #OnTheGroundPhilly via twitter (@flyingkitemedia) and Instagram (@flyingkite_ontheground).

On the Ground is made possible by the Knight Foundation, an organization that supports transformational ideas, promotes quality journalism, advances media innovation, engages communities and fosters the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit knightfoundation.org.

Joseph Lucia, Dean of Libraries at Temple University, is ready to start work on what he calls a "monumental challenge" of the 21st century.

"How do we render the digital records durable for the longterm in the way that physical records have been?" he asks. "What does digital permanence look like? [How can we achieve it] in a complex inter-organizational way that’s not just about one place and its records?"

In late June, Temple University School of Media and Communications received a $35,000 grant -- it lasts through December 20, 2016 -- from the Knight News Challenge, which awarded grants totaling $1.6 million to libraries across the country "for ideas that help libraries serve 21st century information needs."

Future-Proofing Civic Data, the Temple-led project helmed by Lucia, was conceived for this grant, but it relates closely to a lot of work Temple has been involved with for a long time.

First, Temple is home to a collecting enterprise called Urban Archives, which focuses on "social, cultural, ethnic and demographic history of 19th through 21st century Philadelphia," explains Lucia. "It’s a very broad and fairly unique archival collection of materials documenting urban life in a major American city."

Temple has also been a leading partner in the Pennsylvania metadata service hub of the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), which works to "narrow the cultural and intellectual record into a public space that is not commercially oriented, and fill the library mission in the digital world."

That work means diving deep into the realms of both traditional collections and digital data.

"We’ve been looking at ways of expanding that collecting motion and focus," adds Lucia, "making sure that the digital, cultural, and social record becomes part of what we can provide access to."

That in turn led to close ties with OpenDataPhilly, which, while it identifies and aggregates data from a wide range of city institutions and organizations, does not have the mission of developing a permanent archive.

It’s what Lucia calls "an essentially unaddressed emerging issue." The days of poring over nineteenth century census data on paper archives, for example, are limited. As the world goes digital, what will archives look like and how will they function? Who will own, fund, maintain and access them?

"What happens right now with a lot of digital data is that it’s very ephemeral," he says. "It’s online for the duration that its providers see some value or benefit in having it there," but most providers of digital content aren’t thinking about its life in the long term.

$35,000 from Knight won’t solve the issue or even finish defining it, but it will "help us put time and thought into describing the scope of the problem and some possible solutions that could be deployed over time to address the problem," Lucia continues.

The initiative will involve partners at OpenDataPhilly as well as professionals from Temple’s School of Media and Communications.

"[It's] a project to really build a conceptual foundation for how would this look," he concludes. "What would the technical requirements be? What would the organizational requirements be? And who would come to the table to work on something like that?"

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Joseph Lucia, Temple University

The Strawberry Mansion area (our recent On the Ground home) has plenty of artists, but there’s rarely an opportunity for them to come together on their home turf, says INVISIBLE RIVER spokesperson Sylvana Joseph. The Schuylkill River Arts Day (SRAD) on July 16 is going to change that.
 
Founded in 2009 by Artistic and Executive Director Alie Vidich, INVISIBLE RIVER has been "celebrating our local rivers through live public performances and river advocacy." A mix of art, programming and interactive outdoor offerings serve the mission of engaging the public with both the Schuylkill and the Delaware.
 
For the last few years, Vidich has created one of Philly’s most eye-popping interdisciplinary performance events: an aerial dance suspended from the Strawberry Mansion Bridge, with audience members watching on shore or from boats on the river below. Beck Epoch, this year’s incarnation of the show (an "aerial exploration of swinging, swimming, swiveling and suspension from above the Schuylkill River") is coming up on Friday, July 15 and Saturday, July 16. Audience members will be able to watch for free from the eastern shore near the bridge, or they can buy a ticket to watch by boat on the river itself (everyone should arrive by 6:15 p.m.).
 
SRAD will kick off at 10 a.m. at Mander Recreation Center with an interactive drum and dance procession led by the Strawberry Mansion-based group Positive Movement and the African Diaspora Artist Collective. The group will take Boxers’ Trail from the rec center to Kelly Drive, where the arts fest will take over until 2 p.m. Other performers include Kulu Mele, Anne-Marie Mulgrew & Dancers Co, Almanac Dance Circus Theatre and many more. (Here’s the full line-up of participating artists.) There will be visual arts, crafts, and even fishing and boating lessons. Families are encouraged to bring a picnic and stay for the day.   
 
"We’re really focused on getting the Strawberry Mansion area and the people in that area to come, to use the Schuylkill River [and] learn about the river," says Joseph. "All of us that live in the Philadelphia live right in proximity to all of these great things, but we never use them. There are many musicians and dancers and artists of all stripes that live in that area but leave the area to perform -- it’s great to have this opportunity to have people from the area perform in the area."
 
Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Sylvana Joseph, INVISIBLE RIVER
 
Follow all our work #OnTheGroundPhilly via twitter (@flyingkitemedia) and Instagram (@flyingkite_ontheground).

On the Ground is made possible by the Knight Foundation, an organization that supports transformational ideas, promotes quality journalism, advances media innovation, engages communities and fosters the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit knightfoundation.org.

Flying Kite has been searching for an #OnTheGround home in Kingsessing, and we’re happy to announce that we've landed at the nonprofit African Cultural Alliance of North America (ACANA) near 55th Street and Chester Avenue.

Founded in 1999 by a group of African immigrants, ACANA worked to support African and Caribbean artists and musicians in their efforts to integrate into the U.S., while preserving their community and cultural values.

Over the last 15 years, that mission has expanded as the organization's target population of immigrants, refugees and asylum-seekers grew, particularly in ACANA’s Southwest Philadelphia neighborhood. The nonprofit began offering a wide range of social services, including ESL (English as a second language) and literacy classes, youth and after-school programs, a food bank, healthcare-related services, and more.

ACANA Wellness Coalition Coordinator Marjorie Anderson says people often don’t realize the breadth of ACANA’s programs or the fact that they’re available to everyone.

"[ACANA] is open to serving the entire Southwest Philadelphia community, and African and Caribbean people no matter where they were born," explains Anderson. "I think that’s something folks don’t know. It’s a resource that’s for the entire community."

For those who want to get to know ACANA better, the organization's youth activities arm is hosting a day-long youth arts showcase on July 9 out of its Chester Avenue space. The event will feature food, art and talks from the kids about what they learned in the programs. And on Sunday, August 7 from 2 - 8 p.m., the ACANA African Festival will take over Penn’s Landing.

Anderson is excited about partnering with On the Ground because of the opportunity to expand ACANA’s relevance to the entire neighborhood.

"I think a lot of organizations are familiar with ACANA [and executive director Voffee Jabateh]," she continues, but she hopes the residency will help "organizations as well as individuals in the community know that there’s a social service resource for the entire community."

Come say hello during our On the Ground hours at ACANA: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays through August.

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Marjorie Anderson, African Cultural Alliance of North America

Follow all our work #OnTheGroundPhilly via twitter (@flyingkitemedia) and Instagram (@flyingkite_ontheground).

On the Ground is made possible by the Knight Foundation, an organization that supports transformational ideas, promotes quality journalism, advances media innovation, engages communities and fosters the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit knightfoundation.org.

Alien lifeforms. Time machines. Comic books.
 
It's not the usual University City Science Center material, but the Center's Esther Klein Gallery is greeting summer with a lighthearted, farcical exhibition that spans 3,000 years and promises to "offer some answers to those who are willing to suspend reality and take a trip into the future."
 
Angela McQuillan, the gallery curator, agrees that the show is "more imaginative and fun. There's not a lot of real science going on."
 
The sci-fi and comic book-inspired exhibition features the work of Philadelphia artist Pat Aulisio and New York artist Josh Burggraf. The two have created a multi-media exhibition that incorporates sculpture, video and a special-edition printed copy of the "scientific journal" Intergalactic Geographic, which will be available for sale. The farcical publication features work by "the future's galactic journalists, photographers, holographers, dark mirror reporters and primetime superstars."
 
A fan and hobbyist in Philly's comic book scene, McQuillan was very familiar with the collaborators. Aulisio is a local artist and educator primarily focused on comics featuring hobbies such as amateur time travel. Burggraf works as a commercial animator and storyboard artist, and is editor of the Astro Plus Press where he constructs alternate personal universes on paper, the web and on screen.

According to McQuillan, comic books and science fiction "can be a portal to real science." And she has another motive in mounting the show: "Philadelphia has a big scene of people who make comic books and self-published art books. I wanted to draw attention to that scene and bring it to the Science Center."
 
Intergalactic Geographic Retrospective launches Thursday with an opening reception from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at 3600 Market Street. It closes Saturday, July 30 with a closing reception from 5 to 8 p.m. at Innovation Plaza, the Center's pocket park located on 37th Street between Market and Chestnut streets.

WRITER IN RESIDENCE is a partnership between the University City Science Center and Flying Kite Media that embeds a reporter on-site at 3711 Market Street. The resulting coverage will provide an inside look at the most intriguing companies, discoveries and technological innovations coming out of this essential Philadelphia institution.
 

For the fourth straight year, Eakins Oval will become The Oval, bringing a little summer fun to the Parkway. Running July 15 through August 21, this year's installation will also feature special events related to the Democratic National Convention.

"It’s a wonderful time in Philly," says Philadelphia Parks & Recreation Commissioner Kathryn Ott Lovell. "We’re having this renaissance of things to do outside in the summer. It’s really becoming something [Philly is] known for."

The eight acres of the Oval feature lots of lawn, shady trees and a new 25,000-square-foot ground mural from the Mural Arts Program (Ott Lovell says the artist will be announced soon). The beer garden is also returning, and will have Sunday hours for the first time. A rotating food truck line-up will be on hand offering plenty of dining options. Last year’s popular themed days are returning, too, with Wellness Wednesdays, Arts & Culture Thursdays, Food & Flicks Fridays, Game Day on Saturdays, and Family Fun Sundays. (Click here for the full line-up.)

The annual pop-up park is a partnership between the Fairmount Park Conservancy and Philly Parks & Rec, with support from PNC Bank, Warby Parker and Park Towne Place.

The site will host a wide range of summer programming, including games, live music, movie nights, workshops, performances and Saturday Quizzo. Offerings in honor of the DNC (July 24-29) will include special beer garden hours -- Sunday, July 24 from noon to 5 p.m. and July 25 - 29 from 5 p.m. - 10 p.m. (featuring Ales of the Revolution from Yards Brewing) -- and an "All-Presidents" Political Quizzo night, 7 p.m. July 25 with Johnny Goodtimes.

Ott Lovell says the park attracts a diverse mix of people from across the city, as well as plenty of travelers.

"I was stunned at how many tourists came through," she recalls. "They’re not from here, so they don’t know the Oval as anything but this beautiful park. They don’t realize that in December it’s actually a giant parking lot."

Over the last few years, Oval participants have pushed for expanding the park’s dates of operation, but it stays the same year to year due to the Welcome America and Made in America festivals.

That doesn’t mean Parks & Rec doesn’t have its eye on how to utilize the space year-round.

"I think longterm we need to start thinking about the future of the Oval," adds Ott Lovell. "Do we continue to pop it up every year [or] do we continue to think about longer-term investment? What’s a more permanent way that we can activate the Oval year-round?"

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Kathryn Ott Lovell, Philadelphia Parks & Recreation

The KIND Institute -- a young arts and community center in Point Breeze -- isn’t just providing an outlet for arts education when cash-poor schools cut programs, but putting a new lens on arts education itself.

"There’s a lot of misinformation about arts education and its value in society today," says Min Kim, who manages the KIND Institute’s blog and helps out with the nonprofit’s operations. "It’s called a dead end; there’s no way to make money off of it."

But in reality, he insists, there are a lot of strong careers to be had in "the living arts." Towards that end, KIND offers classes targeting kids ages five to twelve (though the model is inclusive) in pursuits ranging from watercolor, sculpture, and graphic design to computer-building, languages, and music. New sessions will kick off this summer.

KIND co-founders Maria Pandolfi (an award-winning educator who’s been teaching art in the School District of Philadelphia for 22 years) and Ronald Kustrup (an internationally exhibiting artist) spearhead the program, which formally launched in August 2013 and now occupies a building at 1242 Point Breeze Avenue. This summer, locals will be able to meet them and learn more about KIND’s professional studios, gallery and classroom spaces: the co-founders will open the doors every weekday from 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. July 5 through August 26.

Funding for the space and programs is a currently a mix of donations, grants, space rentals, ticketed events and commissions on resident artists' sales through the gallery. KIND holds monthly exhibitions and music performances with themes like women’s empowerment, sustainable living and compassion for animals.

Coming soon is a re-launch of the KIND website, integrating a platform for resident artists’ work and the organization’s blog, which will continue to feature artist profiles.

"Our focus here is the local community and helping local artists showcase their work," says Kim. "When you buy the art it becomes more than just a piece to hang on your wall -- you get a real story of the person who crafted it."

So why Point Breeze?

"We see it as representational of a lot of neighborhoods in Philadelphia right now," he explains. "It’s changing, there’s a lot of growth, and there are a lot of people who are scared of changes that are coming to Point Breeze. [The KIND mission is] to make people understand that we are a community regardless of how the community is shifting, and really just make sure we’re keeping people unified."

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Min Kim, KIND Institute 

How do you get local history out of the museum and into the neighborhood? For about three years, Erin Bernard -- founder of the Philadelphia Public History Truck (PPHT) -- has been exploring the answers: "I had this intention to create projects with people in Philadelphia neighborhoods, as opposed to for them at a museum," she says. 

A traveling oral history and research repository, block party instigator, and capsule of local culture, PPHT and its newest off-road installation are coming soon to the Pearl Street storefront at Asian Arts Initiative (our former On the Ground Home). 

The Temple grad first got the idea for PPHT -- which Bernard calls a culmination of her degrees in journalism and history, her work in nonprofit public relations, and a lot of strolling past food trucks -- back in spring 2013. She approached community groups with her plan. The East Kensington Neighbors Association (EKNA) proved an enthusiastic early partner; former EKNA president Jeff Carpineta even donated a truck.

PPHT is now on the cusp of completing its third year-long neighborhood cycle -- Kensington, then North Philadelphia, and most recently Chinatown North/Callowhill. Its next project in the Fairhill neighborhood (in partnership with Taller Puertorriqueño) is now getting started.

Each of the truck’s "exhibit cycles" has nine parts, beginning with a neighborhood association partnership, growing into oral history interviews, a storytelling and "neighborhood object"-themed block party, archival research, community art happenings, a temporary exhibit in a neighborhood building, and then a compression of the exhibit back into the truck, to bring the stories to other neighborhoods.

At Asian Arts June 3 through 25, PPHT’s will present, "A Houseless Museum: Home and Displacement Around the Vine Street Expressway." Bernard volunteered at the nearby Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission and part of the History Truck’s mission in that neighborhood became researching how to best serve "a transient community."

The exhibit, which features stories from the neighborhood’s homeless community, will have a cabinet with supplies like socks, t-shirts and dry shampoo for those who need them. There will also be a TV installation playing the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation-provided documentary "Save Chinatown," detailing the demolition wrought by construction of the Vine Street Expressway. There will be artwork by Pew fellow and Chinatown North resident Leroy Johnson, and "archival reproductions and text, and space for people to explore actual historical documents," says Bernard.

The show also incorporates work from Bernard’s graduate students in the Museum Exhibition Planning and Design program at University of the Arts, as well as local high school students they mentored.

"I’ve found working in this neighborhood extremely difficult, compared to the work in Kensington and North Philadelphia," explains Bernard of her stint in Callowhill/Chinatown North. "It’s a very transitional community…That’s part of the story."

Not all of the neighborhood’s community groups agree on the way forward when it comes to development, including projects like the Reading Viaduct rail park project.

"There are a lot of serious issues of contention as to who owns the space," she explains. "I think that’s part of the reason it’s been challenging to have a history truck here, but it’s always good to learn something new."

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Erin Bernard, the Philadelphia Public History Truck

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