Rodrigo Valenzuela at the Print Center, Temple University MFA Thesis exhibitions, Everyday Futures Fest kicks off, Please Touch Museum workers unionizes, Hot Bed Philly Summer 2023 Open Call, plus more opportunities and exhibitions
Hi, this week we see exciting news as The Please Touch Museum elects to unionize in affiliation with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees District Council 47. Becoming one of a few unionized children’s museums in the country. Locks Gallery open’s Pat Steir’s exhibition Snow and Waterfall, marking the seventh solo show with the gallery. Da Vinci Art Alliance kicks off it’s month long community arts and science festival, Everyday Futures Fest. Featuring a series of exhibitions, workshops, tours, panel discussions and more. The Velocity Fund seeks artist applicants for grants up to $5,000 and many more opportunities, shows, and news.
Notable Exhibitions
Locks Gallery presents Snow and Waterfall
Pat Steir, Graphical Waterfall, 1990, oil on canvas, 78 x 149 inches. Image courtesy of Locks Gallery.
Tuesday, April 4 – Friday, May 12, 2023
600 S Washington Square, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Locks Gallery is pleased to present Snow and Waterfall, an exhibition of works from Pat Steir’s acclaimed Waterfall series and related works. This marks the artist’s seventh solo show with the gallery and is accompanied by a catalog featuring essays by Carter Ratcliff and Lynne Tillman. Spanning over four decades of her career, this exhibition will occupy the first and second floors of the gallery.
Locks Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 AM-6 PM. Please email info@locksgallery.com or call 215-629-1000 for more information or to schedule an appointment.
The Print Center Announces Rodrigo Valenzuela solo exhibition: Workforce
Gallery Talk and Opening Reception on Friday, April 14, at 5:30pm.
April 15 – July 15, 2023
1614 Latimer St, Philadelphia, PA 19103
The Print Center is pleased to present Rodrigo Valenzuela: Workforce, a solo exhibition of recent and newly created work by the Chilean-born artist.
The Print Center is honored bring the work of the outstanding artist Rodrigo Valenzuela to Philadelphia for the first time. I know his work will resonate powerfully with our audience, and will make a meaningful contribution to our conversation about immigration, privilege, labor and unions, as well as to our understanding of current photographic practice.
– Elizabeth F. Spungen, Executive Director
Gallery hours Tuesday – Saturday, 11:00AM – 6:00 PM, free and open to the public
PTM United, Est. 2023. Image Courtesy of Please Touch Museum United.
Workers at Philadelphia’s landmark Please Touch Museum announced an election victory on Saturday, with 85% voting yes to unionize as Please Touch Museum United (PTM United), in affiliation with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees District Council 47 (AFSCME DC 47) Local 397. The vote count followed two days of in-person voting administered by the National Labor Relations Board at Please Touch Museum (PTM). With this win, PTM United joins the Philadelphia Museum of Art Union and Penn Museum Workers United as the newest member of AFSCME Local 397, serving museum and cultural workers in southeastern Pennsylvania. Significantly, Please Touch Museum will be one of the few unionized children’s museums in the country.
Anand Ghorpadey, a Museum Learning Educator and member of the PTM United Organizing Committee, had this to say about their historic win: “This is a victory for every staff member and guest that comes together to impact the lives of our youngest community members. It is also a reminder that, no matter how old an institution is, there is always room for collaborative growth. We look forward to working together with management to create lasting change at PTM.” The parties will begin negotiations for a first contract following certification of PTM United by the National Labor Relations Board.
PAFA/AAMP’s Rising Sun Show gets glowing review in The New York Times
Two historic museums come together for a transformative exhibition of contemporary art. Join the African American Museum in Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for Rising Sun: Artists in an Uncertain America, an exhibition of new works examining the provocative and timely question: “Is the sun rising or setting on the experiment of American democracy?”
Installations by 20 celebrated artists explore themes of equality, free speech, and other tenets of democracy. In a time when perspectives in the U.S. are radically disparate, we invite you to explore how art inspires us to reflect on, challenge, and expand our own lived experiences.
Read the review here.
More information on the exhibition here.
Da Vinci Art Alliance kicks off the Everyday Futures Fest
Saturday, April 1st, 4-7PM at Da Vinci Art Alliance 704 Catharine St. Philadelphia, PA.
To kick off the Everyday Futures Fest, Da Vinci Art Alliance will host a Launch Party at our gallery on Catharine St concurrent with the opening of two new exhibitions at DVAA: An Assembled Trace featuring the work of Nancy Agati, Alden Cole, Anna Guarneri, Ana Mosquera, and Maria Stracke and Field of View by Omar Buenaventura. The Launch Party will include tours of the exhibitions, performances, drinks, and more! Learn more and register to attend here https://www.eventbrite.com/e/everyday-futures-fest-launch-party-opening-reception-tickets-570058409047
Browse and register to attend free Everyday Futures Fest events by clicking the link below! This week’s highlights include an artist talk with Monroe Isenberg, Cooking Up Change: Panel Discussion with Dr. Anne Clause, a Visible Mending Workshop with Julia Woodward, and a kid friendly Sock Puppet Workshop and Film Screening with Ants on a Log plus many more! We hope to see you there.
More information on Everyday Futures Fest events here.
Opportunities
Hot Bed announces Wack! Summer 2023 Open Call
Hot Bed is excited to announce WACK!, the Summer 2023 open call celebrating our fifth anniversary. We are looking for art that celebrates the most important thing in life: our ability to express our individual uniqueness. Selected works will be exhibited from June 17th through August 12, 2023.
Submission must be emailed to hello@hotbedphilly.com by Saturday, April 15th at 11:59 PM.
Abington Art Center Summer Juried Show 2023 – Ethnicity Through the Eyes of the Artist
Deadline May 1, 2023
$30 Submission fee, up to three entries any medium
The theme for this summer’s juried exhibition asks artist to focus on ethnicity.
Ethnicity Through the Eyes of the Artist challenges artists to explore what ethnicity means personally versus how ethnicity represents you in the greater culture. The exhibition is open to all mediums and interpretations.
Fleisher Art Memorial Call for Entries: 2024 Wind Challenge Exhibition Series
Deadline: 11:59 PM on Monday, May 1, 2023
Fleisher Art Memorial (FAM) is excited to announce the call for entries for the 46th exhibition season of the Wind Challenge. Established in 1978 as The Challenge and now known as the Wind Challenge, Fleisher’s annual juried competition is committed to enriching people’s lives through art by featuring the work of exceptional artists living in the region. Artists living within a 450-mile radius of Philadelphia are welcome to apply.
For this series, nine selected artists will be featured in a trio of Wind Challenge Exhibitions—each featuring three artists—to be hosted at Fleisher in 2024. The jurors for this year’s competition are James Britt and Kathleen Eastwood-Riaño. The selected cohort of artists will work closely with the Director of Exhibitions in curating their work and exhibition-related programming.
Free online application available until Tuesday, June 6, 2023 at 11:59 PM
The Velocity Fund, which directly supports Philadelphia-based artists with project grants up to $5,000, is now open for applications! We invite artists living in the city of Philadelphia (could be you!) to apply with new project ideas. Over the past five granting cycles, The Velocity Fund has supported sixty-four dynamic projects around the city — with a wide range of public outcomes, from video synthesis workshops to horror podcasts highlighting BIPOC authors, interactive memoir performances to traveling cabarets, digital community archives to speculative time portals, environmental sculpture to collaborative films reimagining re-entry.
