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"There’s no pressure, just come and have a good time," Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial’s Community Partnerships in the Arts Director Magda Martinez said of the upcoming ARTspiration!
Martinez and her staffers have been working for nearly a year to plan this free family-oriented cultural and arts festival. Held 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 16 at 719 Catharine St., the event aims not only to promote the memorial’s principle art should be accessible, but allows new community members to discover Fleisher.
"I think ARTspiration! helps to demystify the art-making process," Martinez said. "So many people think they’re not artists, or think they’re not talented and Fleisher’s about coming here and taking that chance."
Reaching out to the growing Mexican and Cambodian communities in the area, she said, partly initialized the event, which hopes to overcome language barriers and encourage people to explore the variety of programs Fleisher has to offer.
Last fall, the nation’s oldest, tuition-free art school won a $10,000 Challenge America grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a fund that gives money for one-day events to organizations seeking to bring the arts to underserved communities. Only 135 other institutions across the country can claim such a distinction.
Fleisher partnered with other members of the Southeast Philadelphia Collaborative, a consortium of 15 youth-oriented organizations, to plan the event. Because most of these are social-service agencies, ARTspiration! is the first of its kind, blending the focus of service and community with that of creative outlets.
Fleisher’s Community Partnerships in the Arts sends local artists to various schools and community centers for 10- to 20-week residencies. Local schools like Meredith Elementary and South Philadelphia High participate, but Fleisher wanted to do more to reach out to other area students. Hoping to achieve this goal, Saturday’s event will feature outdoor activities — which are open to anyone who drops by — like printmaking, portraiture, beadwork, button-making and T-shirt painting. Kids also can visit the "Play With Your Food" table, inspired by Joost Eiffer’s book, where they can make pigs out of lemons and other concoctions.
Local artists will supervise and lead workshops on painting, printmaking and ceramics, which participants can sign up for in advance. There also will be the opportunity to help repaint Fleisher’s outdoor wall mural.
"Every time you walk by, you could know that you helped," Martinez said.
A treasure hunt, led by student-volunteers from Fleisher’s various after-school programs, will wind through the galleries and encourage children to explore the displays.
At 1 p.m., ARTspiration! shifts gears, showcasing performances by local dance groups, such as Cambodian court dance instructor Chamreoun Yin, Japanese dancer Roko Kawai, traditional African dance group Kule Mele and the all-female flamenco group Pasi�n y Arte. Most of these groups serve the same communities as Fleisher, but are coming together for the first time, forging new partnerships between the memorial and members of city’s arts community.
"We’ve never been to Fleisher before, and we’re looking forward to it," Pasi�n y Arte Artistic Director and choreographer Elba Hevia y Vaca said.
Martinez is optimistic the event will be well-attended and said Fleisher hopes to make ARTspiration! an annual occurrence. "The act of creation is so important to us," Martinez said. "You don’t always have it on a day-to-day basis in your normal life."
Catharine Street will be closed for the festival, Martinez added, so "anyone who happens to be walking by, literally, has the chance to come and participate in some sort of art-making activity."
For more information about ARTspiration!, call 215-922-3456.
