The annual benefit auction for University City Arts League, a great non-profit organization that offers art education and events to the community, is currently underway. Many amazing items are available for bidding, including beautiful art and jewelry pieces, handmade clothing items, oriental rugs, gift certificates to local restaurants and shops, tickets to various shows, books, vacation getaways, wine tastings and much more!

Online bidding closes at 10 p.m. on Monday, May 4. The live auction and party is on Saturday, May 9. Click here for more information.
 

The University City Arts League (UCAL) is preparing for two big weekends as it will be opening two concurrent exhibitions. “Art in the Open,” a group show of eight multidisciplinary artists will open at noon this Friday at the UCAL Gallery (4226 Spruce St), and New York artist Aaron Asis will present “Ci-Lines,” a pop-up satellite installation across the street at the historic St. Andrew’s Collegiate Chapel (42nd and Spruce, entrance at 42nd and Locust) starting next Saturday, Feb. 28. This will be a rare opportunity to get inside St. Andrew’s.

“Art in the Open” is part of an annual event series. Over the course of four days in May 2014, thirty artists created art inspired by the landscape along Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River. Materials used to create their works along the River Walk include sound, spray paint, string and electrical tape. The UCAL gallery will host eight of the artists participating in the program: Noemi Armstrong, Aaron Asis, Lewis Colburn, Heejin Jang, Tom Judd, Eun Hye Kang, Tyler Kline, and Mat Tomezsko. The featured artists hail from as far as South Korea and as near as Philadelphia. This event will be the second of three parts of the “Art in the Open” series. The opening reception will take place this Friday (Feb. 20) from 6-8 p.m. The exhibit will be available for public viewing from February 20 until March 20, from noon to 6 p.m.  Continue Reading

The University City Arts League (UCAL) is excited to bring back its annual Holiday Craft Show, which kicks off on Friday, Dec. 5. UCAL’s Holiday Craft Show is a neighborhood art and shopping tradition, which features work by more than 30 craftspeople. This is another great chance to find unique handmade holiday gifts. Your purchase will also support the crafters who will get a percentage of the sales.

The opening reception is on Friday, from 6 to 8 p.m. If you can’t make it on Friday, don’t worry – the craft show runs through Sunday, Dec. 21, when the closing reception will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. The UCAL gallery, where the craft show takes place, is open daily: Monday-Friday 3 – 8 p.m.; Saturday & Sunday 12 – 6 p.m.

UCAL is located at 4226 Spruce Street. For more information, visit the UCAL website.

Pieter Mostert’s Vessel.

University City Arts League, a community non-profit organization that has been serving the community for 45 years, is presenting a two-person ceramics show, “West Philly Ceramics: Ken Beidler and Pieter Mostert.” The opening reception is tonight, 6-8 p.m., at 4226 Spruce Street.

Beidler’s forms combine wheel and hand-built elements. He is a largely self-taught artist, according to the UCAL press release, who has been influenced by the original Arts and Crafts movement, urban life and his life experience in Indonesia. He has a studio at the Cedar Works and teaches at UCAL. Mostert is South African who spen the last five years in Philadelphia. He makes sculptural vessels using a combination of coiling, pinching and paddling.

The works by Beidler and Mostert will be on display at the UCAL gallery until September 26. For more information about classes offered at UCAL, visit: www.ucartsleague.org/classes.

(Photos courtesy of UCAL)

Ken Beidler’s Baskets.

Tickets are still available for the University City Arts League‘s annual fundraiser, “Spring Fling,” happening this Saturday, May 10 at the University of Pennsylvania’s Hall of Flags (Houston Hall, 3417 Spruce St). Traditionally, the fundraiser includes a silent auction featuring many great items and dinner. The online portion of the auction is also still open (closes tonight at 10 p.m.). You can choose from a number of unique experiences, classes, works by local artists and more. To view the auction items, to bid, and to buy tickets, go here.

The Spring Fling fundraiser will take place on Saturday from 6 – 9 p.m. and here are some more details (from ucartsleague.org):

Times

6 p.m. – Cocktails and Silent Auction; 7:30 – Dinner (by chef Greg Salisbury); 8 p.m. – Live Auction.

Parking

Free parking will be available at the Penn Museum Garage at South St and Convention Center Blvd. A shuttle will be running from the garage to the Hall of Flags from 6 to 7 p.m. and then from the Hall of Flags to the garage at the end of the evening.

Child Care

The Arts League will be offering an evening of pizza, movies and activities for children aged 5 to 12 from 5:30 to 9:30. Cost will be $35 for the first child and $25 for each additional child for the evening. Please contact the Arts League Office to make arrangements for child care.

Sample of Auction items

• Six oriental carpets including beauties from Tibet and Pakistan will be available at the Auction plus two silk on silk wall hangings. Winning bidders can also get free custom padding for their carpets at Woven Treasure.
• An iPad from the University of Pennsylvania Computer Connection, one of the special items to be auctioned at the Arts League auction.
• Gift certificates to numerous local restaurants including the White Dog Cafe will be available.
• Numerous spa services.

For more information, call 215-382-7811 or email: info@ucartsleague.org.

There’s still a chance to see a brand new and amazing exhibition of portraits of African Americans by African Americans with connection to West Philadelphia. The “Finding Faces: A Century of African-American Portraiture” is an exhibition of a portion of a private collection of artworks presented in collaboration with the Diartspora Gallery, currently on display at the University City Arts League (UCAL). It is a special event celebrating “Black History Month.” The exhibition will run through Friday, Feb. 28.

A special reception will be held today, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Arts League (4226 Spruce St.), and collectors Michael Guerin and Katie Pfeiffer of the Diartspora Gallery will be on hand to discuss the origins of the art collected over a period of 20 years.

This is a powerful exhibition you don’t want to miss, according to the Arts League’s executive director Noreen Shanfelter. UCAL is grateful to the collectors for giving them this opportunity so they can share it with the community.

The show includes approximately 25 paintings, small sculptures and photographs and is curated by artist Douglas Witmer and award-winning photographer Lori Waselchuk. For more information and the gallery hours, visit: http://ucartsleague.org/.