West Craft Fest, featuring over 100 local crafters and artists, will return for the 15th time to The Woodlands (40th and Woodland) on Saturday, April 27, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The spring edition of this popular bi-annual event is a great opportunity to shop for unique, handmade Mother’s Day gifts, such as artisan jewelry, handmade ceramics, clothing, accessories, prints, stationery, soaps, candles, children’s items, home wares and more.

Guests can also enjoy live music, food trucks, children’s activities and acrobatic performances by Tangle Movement Arts, plus learn some Philadelphia history while you stroll The Woodlands’ 54 acres of historic cemetery monuments, gardens, and flowering trees and bushes.  Continue Reading

Photo by Rebecca Gudelunas

Curio’s 2018-2019 season is coming to an end with a bang. Beginning this Saturday, the West Philadelphia theatre company will present Shakespeare’s timeless play “The Winter’s Tale,” where the audience will be taken on a journey with the actors. The audience will be invited to go outside to the theatre’s backyard space for part of the play. The space will also function as a place to gather and enjoy a glass of wine or beer or other beverages before and even during the show!

“We’re doing something new and adventurous with this production and that is that we’re going to ask our audience to go on a literal journey with us!” said Curio Company Member Liz Carlson-Guerin, who directs the show. “… this is a play about community and a celebration of our community. We are incredibly lucky to have such a loyal and adventurous audience in West Philly and we strive to create spaces and experiences for our neighbors to come together, share a story, go on an adventure…”  Continue Reading

University City District, Cedar Park Neighbors and Hagopian Arts, a Philadelphia-based mural and fine arts company, are teaming up to create a ground mural for the pedestrian plaza at the east end of Cedar Park and they need your help.

There are three nature-inspired designs to choose from (see below) and you can cast your vote here.

A computer rendering of the redesigned main entrance hall at the Penn Museum, where the famous 3,000 year-old Sphinx will rest (from the Penn Museum website).

How does one move a 25,000-pound Sphinx up a couple flights of stairs? Very carefully, we presume. That’s what folks at the Penn Museum are mulling over right now as they plan to move the Museum’s best-known artifact, a 3,000-year-old, red granite Sphinx, into its redesigned main entrance hall.

“The Sphinx has long been our mascot and this puts it front and center, as the anchor of our new visitor experience,” said Julian Siggers, the Museum’s Williams Director.

Moving day is scheduled for June 13th and the new location will be unveiled in the fall.  Continue Reading

Artists Leo Tecosky (left) and Roberto Lugo are bringing their work to the historic Hamilton Mansion at The Woodlands (40th and Woodland).

Beginning Sunday, March 31, local artists Roberto Lugo and Leo Tecosky will bring their work to the historic Hamilton Mansion at The Woodlands as part of their Graffiti & Ornament exhibit. The artists, who embrace graffiti and hip-hop culture within their artistic practice, incorporate a carved 19th century graffiti inscription in the exhibition, connecting Philadelphia’s past with the present.

In addition to the opening celebration on Sunday, from 1 – 4 p.m., the exhibition includes other special events every week throughout April:  Continue Reading

Photo by Shepard Ritzen.

The mystery of the lifestyle art sculptures that recently appeared on an empty lot on the 4700 block of Market Street has been (somewhat) solved. The statues are by well-known New Jersey-based artist Seward Johnson, and the lot, owned by the Daniel Veloric Foundation, is a future site for a museum with some public meeting space, according to a recent report by Philly.com.

It’s not clear yet when the construction will begin, but reportedly “soon.” The Veloric Foundation, whose owner Daniel Veloric is 91 years old and lives in the suburbs, purchased the entire block in 2017. Some demolition work on the site has already been done, according to the report. The organization has reportedly allocated $1.3 million for the project.  Continue Reading