Some of you have probably noticed blue bikes popping up in the last month at several locations in West Philly. They are actually a part of a multisite public art installation by Japanese American filmmaker and visual artist Rea Tajiri. Titled “WATARIDORI: birds of passage,” the project is part of the Asian Arts Initiative’s 25th anniversary celebration and “activates real and speculative histories” of Japanese immigrants in Philadelphia.

Check out this art installation at the front of the house at 4238 Spruce Street:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BiwnzRWhpR6/?taken-by=westphillylocal

Other locations for Rea Tajiri’s public art installation include:  Continue Reading

The Artist Pitch and Participate event was held on March 30 at the United Bank building (Photos courtesy of LoLa 38).

Ten local artists have been selected to help produce a series of public art installations on Lancaster Avenue.

LoLa 38, a Creative Placemaking project based in West Philadelphia, invited over 20 local artists and artist collaboratives to pitch their ideas for two public art projects in Powelton Village – at the former United Bank building (3750 Lancaster Ave) and the construction fence on the site of the former University City High School.

Ellen Tiberino (left) and audience member.

In brief presentations, each of them no more than five minutes, held on March 30 artists were asked to answer one of the following questions: How does progress feel? Which walls are invisible? Is there a good rate of change? The audience–a crowd of over 30 community members–judged and placed their votes based on the following criteria: excellence, community connection, curiosity, capacity, and wild card.

Ellen Tiberino, Brian “BCASSO” Bazemore, Melanie Booth, Gabrielle Patterson, Lucy Pistilli will be working on the construction fence of the former University City High School.

Tiberino, who comes from the renowned Philadelphia family of artists, is an artist with deep connections to the neighborhood. She shared her memories of a flowered walkway near University City High School during her presentation. You may recall Bazemore’s work, inspired by Black Lives Matter, from his contribution to the Neighborhood Time Exchange in Fall 2015; Pistilli also contributed her own artwork to the same installation. Patterson is a recent graduate from the University of Pennsylvania and freelance animator.  Continue Reading

The collaboration between Diedra Krieger, a participating artist in the 40th Street Artist-in-Residence program, and community members made it possible to create something amazing at the corner of 49th and Chancellor Streets. Plastic Fantastic is a 16-foot geodesic dome covered in over 6000 recycled water bottles collected from residents and organizations.

The project’s goal is to raise public awareness to such problems as access to clean water, the politics of water, environmental issues, recycling, self-care, and equity. The dome structure, which is a metaphor of liberated consciousness, was first built in 2007 and since then the Plastic Fantastic project has traveled to many locations, most recently to Salisbury University (in 2011).

Plastic Fantastic is a great community effort. Besides the artist and individual water bottle collectors, the installment at 49th and Chancellor is a joint collaboration among Huey School’s after school program, Portside Art Center, University City District, 40th Street AIR, Mariposa’s Food Justice and Anti-Racism (FJAR) Working Group, The Rotunda, Hector’s Metal Shop, Inciting H, Planet Fitness, Bikram Yoga of Philadelphia, and Bartram’s Garden.

The project will be on display through October 17 and this Friday (Oct. 12) everyone is invited to a public reception, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the corner of 49th and Chancellor. As part of this project, there will also be a free film screening at the Lucien E. Blackwell Library (125 S. 52nd St) on Tuesday, Oct. 16, at 5:45 p.m. The film, Tapped, sheds light on the bottled water industry’s impact on our health, economy, environment and more. Please RSVP to: education@mariposa.coop

To learn more about this project, visit Plastic Fantastic Facebook page.

Huey After School Program students helped out with the Plastic Fantastic project (they got 1000 bottles onto the dome).