neighborhood innovation : Innovation + Job News

Albert Einstein once said that mystery "is the source of all true art and all science. He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead." When Pearl Schaeffer and Raye Cohen first partnered with the School District of Philadelphia four years ago, there was no mystery about the city's education system: it was in trouble. 80,000 students skipped over a week of school, and 46 percent dropped out. Schaeffer and Cohen knew something had to be done to make students stand in rapt awe once more.

After creating the Philadelphia Arts in Education Partnership in 1996, the pair successfully petitioned for a U.S. Department of Education grant 10 years later to prove that art could be used across disciplines like science and math to engage under-performing students. This week, the group announces a $1.1 million grant to expand the program, providing regular employment to 50 area artists trained as teachers, bringing the right kind of mystery back to math and science.

"If students are having difficulty in reading, understanding sequencing of events in a story," says PAEP Education Director Raye Cohen,  "there would be an art project that would be discretely based on the idea of understanding the sequence as you go through that art project and the teacher and the artist would then reinforce that this is the same skill set as reading a story."

Building on its 2006 Arts Bridges report, PAEP has created Arts Link: Building Mathematics and Science Competencies through an Arts Integrated Model. With this 4-year grant, the group will not only educate teachers and artists in its new model but will honor state standards in mathematics, science, and reading skills for students in grades 2 through 5.

"The Arts are a means of allowing students to learn in multiple ways," says PAEP CEO Pearl Schaeffer. "When you allow arts to overlay a science project or a math project, students tend to learn better and retain information better. That's what we've been seeing and we are now going to test it out to get some hard data."

Source: Pearl Schaeffer and Raye Cohen, PAEP
Writer: John Steele

Where can an interested Philadelphian go to see some of the most cleverly designed buildings in the world? According to the Society of American Registered Architects, the search could take you from China to Chestnut Street as the group honors various design achievements both local and abroad. But you might be better off seeing them all at once as its annual conference, like many of its award recipients, is being held right here in Philadelphia.

"This is a juried awards program so they are looking for something beyond the norm, they're looking for innovation, they're looking for cutting edge design," says organizer and jury chairman John Di Benedetto, who operates his own firm in Jenkintown. "And this year, many of the projects that received awards incorporated a sustainable design feature."

Hosted at the Society Hill Sheraton, the SARA conference boasts a litany of architectural events from a city tour of significant architectural projects to a President's Award Celebration Dinner featuring the Mummers and honoring International Award Winners Denise Scott Brown, Robert Venturi, and the late Louis Kahn of famous Manayunk firm Venturi, Scott Brown. The Philadelphia Jewish History Museum's renovation will also be honored.

"The current challenges in the profession are related to the economy so from a business standpoint, the society tries to serve it's members by seminars and education in terms of how to maintain a practice in a down economy," says Di Benedetto. "From a design standpoint, the current trend is for sustainable design and the society goes out of its way to create a venue for information and education in those areas. Like many other professional organizations, this is a venue to encourage advancements in the profession and in individual practices."

Source: John Di Benedetto, Society of American Registered Architects, Philadelphia Chapter
Writer: John Steele

Farmers across Central Pennsylvania will be celebrating another plentiful harvest season this fall, but thanks to Weavers Way and the Awbury Arboretum, there will also be plenty of celebrating to do in the city. The Weavers Way Community Farm, a Northwest Philadelphia urban farm tended by high school students and used to make local products by community members,  is honoring another successful year. The Weavers Way farm celebrates this Saturday from 11am-3pm at Awbury Arboretum with the second annual Northwest FarmFest, a country festival for Philadelphia's city farmers.

"This farm is making sustainable agriculture a part of this urban community," says farm committee member Josh Brooks. "This is a time to gain acknowledgment for the farm, spread awareness and just celebrate that it's there. And have fun."

As the Weavers Way urban farm offers students and community members all the benefits of local agriculture--fresh produce, low prices, local cultivation--the Chestnut Hill food co-op's members and community program directors bring all the country comforts of a small-town festival to the big city. The Northwest FarmFest is free and open to the public, presenting musical performances from local acts, pumpkin painting, hay rides, and farm tours. And of course, the Weavers Way Farmstand will have plenty of homegrown produce on sale, along with prepared food from the Weavers Way's Marketplace Program, a school-based cooperative food business run by students. Weavers Way hopes the event will be a venue to show off many school programs focused on the benefits and lessons of local, healthy eating. And of course, to celebrate the harvest.

"We will also be promoting the whole aspect of Weavers Way Community Programs who work with schools to create a marketplace, teaching about food and creating a market" says Brooks. "We'll have food, some barbecue, the marketplace will be selling some food and drink."

Source: Josh Brooks, Weavers Way Farm
Writer: John Steele

It's one of life's great mysteries: you can travel to a thousand cities and eat at a hundred fancy restaurants and drink a dozen craft beers at each of the bars along the way. But a meal never tastes as good as one at your favorite neighborhood haunt. And according to Philadelphia's sustainability leaders, this phenomenon is not just good for your appetite, it can be good for your neighborhood and your city as well.

Based on a concept created by the William Penn Foundation, partners from the Sustainable Business Network, Azavea and NPower created Common Space, a new mapping platform that creates a network of neighborhood establishments within a certain walkable, bikeable or busable distance to help residents support local business.

"The really cool thing is, I can map my friend's common space as well as my own," says SBN Executive Director Leanne Krueger-Braneky. "So if I am leaving from my office in Center City and meeting my husband who is coming from our house in West Philadelphia, he could say he is going to bike for 15 minutes and I could say I was going to walk for 20 minutes and Common Space will map the area where we would be able to meet up and map local culture events and businesses in that field."

Partnering with tastemakers like UWISHUNU and Yelp, Common Space shows you the best spots in your transit area, allowing you the most sustainable way possible to hit your next favorite haunt. After their trial run, organizers hope to partner with citywide festivals and cultural events like LiveArts and Philly Beer Week.

"Sustainability was one of the values William Penn outlined, which is why they wanted to partner with us," Krueger-Braneky says. "Because the application does encourage walking, biking, and public transit, it's a way of showing what's going on in the city while encouraging alternative transit."

Source: Leanne Krueger-Braneky, SBN
Writer: John Steele

Restaurant Week returned to Center City this week, bringing $35 prix fixe menus to downtown's hottest restaurants. Well, at least the hottest restaurants within a 20-block radius of City Hall. But for the restaurants that don't claim a Center City zip code, there's Philly's Neighborhood Food Week, an outlier's answer to Restaurant Week, offering access to some of the best food in town, just a bit out of town.

Neighborhood Food Week is the brainchild of Charisse McGilll, veteran event planner with Philadelphia conference organizers Ardent Management. As the economy slowed last year, so did the conference game, and McGill began hearing from restaurants looking to compete with Restaurant Week.

"This event will bring exposure to neighborhoods that have been overlooked as dining destinations," says McGill. "At first, we heard from restaurants near Penn's Landing and Roxborough, and we looked into doing events in each of those neighborhoods. But we thought it might not have the impact we wanted. So we included all the neighborhoods outlying Philadelphia to see how far we could get."

The Second Annual restaurant week has added new neighborhoods, new restaurants and new tastes, all of which will be on display when Neighborhood Food Week kicks off October 10. With many prix fixe menus coming in cheaper than Restaurant Week, Neighborhood Food Week participants can sample fare from City Avenue, Ogontz Avenue or East Passyunk. They will try tapas in NoLibs or Thai food in Manayunk or Italian food in Darby. Expanding horizons never tasted so good.

"Last year, we had five neighborhoods participating and, with the success of last year, we have nine neighborhoods participating this year," says McGill. "I am excited to return to Blue Bananas on South Street for their four course menu for $30. Also Mango Moon, a Thai restaurant in Manayunk is doing three courses for $20. I shop by price so I am looking forward to the event myself."

Source: Charisse McGill, Ardent Management
Writer: John Steele

Studies in recent years have revealed that while Philadelphia welcomes up to 50,000 freshman to its colleges and universities every year, less than half remained in the region after graduation. That statistic, in part, is what motivates Young Involved Philadelphia, a comprehensive network of young professionals and student groups producing advocacy campaigns and social events to make Philly a better place to live.

This week, the group opens the State of Young Philly: Imagining Philly's Future summit, a massive, two-week event hosting over 30 partnering organizations for speeches, roundtable discussions and brainstorming sessions to make Philadelphia a more attractive place for young people. The summit will focus on four key areas--Community Engagement and Volunteerism, Government and Leadership, Business and Entrepreneurship, and Arts and Culture--in an effort to "engage, educate and empower" young Philadelphia.

"For the first time since the '50s, the city is gaining population, and although we don't have the newest census data yet, we would venture a guess that this growth is due partly to an increasingly vibrant youth culture," says YIP board chair Claire Robertson-Kraft.

With speakers as varied as former Mayor John Street and the Mural Arts Program's Jane Golden, the summit hopes to gain a wide-reaching perspective that can be gleaned into an agenda ranking priorities and creating concrete deliverables. This agenda will inform an ongoing blog and will serve as YIP's action plan for the coming year. YIP hopes to make the summit an annual event, creating a constant barometer on youth culture in Philadelphia.

"The most important thing we hope people take away from the event is a sense of empowerment," says Robertson-Kraft. "As young Philadelphians, we should be organizing, demonstrating our ability to contribute to the debate, and doing more to ensure our voices are heard."

Source: Claire Robertson-Kraft, Young Involved Philadelphia
Writer: John Steele