check out the program
ARTventures
Explore the arts and cultural sector in the Philadelphia region through the eyes of local artists and expert tour guides. The $25 registration fee covers lunch and transportation for each tour. Space is limited and fills up quickly, so register soon!
- The Barnes Foundation
- Making Art: Clay Studio & Wood Turning Center
- We Saved This
- Experience the Avenue of the Arts
- Public Art is Everywhere
- Building Philadelphia: Architecture from Colonial to Contemporary
- The Centennial District: Culture, Collaboration, and Creativity in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park
- Off the Shelf: Philadelphia’s Special Collections Libraries and Approaches to Outreach
- Theater, Community, Camaraderie: An Afternoon at the People’s Light & Theatre Company
- Philadelphia Murals and the Stories They Tell
- “Behind the Scenes” Tour of WXPN Studios and World Café Live: A Public/Private, Nonprofit/For-Profit Partnership in Action!
- Tastes, Tales, and Triumph! The Asian Arts Initiative Story
- Culturally-Specific Arts Organizations and Community Development
- Philadelphia Arts Education Partners
Depart for Philadelphia’s fabled Main Line, where wealthy executives built mansions along the "main line" of the Pennsylvania Railroad throughout the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Today these suburbs of the city are home to some of America's most beautiful estates. Enjoy lunch at the Merion Cricket Club where the sport of cricket has been played since 1875. The current club house was designed by famed Philadelphia architect Frank Furness, designer of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Then visit the Barnes Foundation one of the finest private collections of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and early modern art in the world. This fabled collection is displayed in a unique manner based on Dr. Barnes unique educational philosophy of light, line, color, and space. The Foundation’s collection includes numerous works by such artists as Renoir, Cezanne, van Gogh, Matisse, Monet, and Picasso. Upon arrival, you will be greeted by the Executive Director of the Foundation in the former home of Dr. Barnes.
Tour 2: Making Art: Clay Studio & Wood Turning Center
Enjoy lunch on your own at the Reading Terminal Market, an enclosed public market in downtown Philadelphia. Over 80 merchants offer fresh produce, meats, fish, groceries, flowers, baked goods, crafts, books, clothing, and specialty and ethnic foods. Begin your tour at the Clay Studio, one of two of Philadelphia’s art centers dedicated to the education, production, and promotion of wood and ceramic. The Clay Studio is one of the world’s leading institutions in the field of ceramics, offering a unique venue for arts enthusiasts by supporting the ceramic arts through its artist residencies, gallery, studio space, and school. The tour includes a demonstration and a discussion about the Clay Studio’s partnership with local corporations and schools. Proceed to the Wood Turning Center whose mission is the growth, encouragement, and enhancement of individuals creating art from wood with a primary focus on turned and carved wood objects. During the visit, a wood turner will demonstrate on a lathe how a block of wood becomes a beautiful object. There are exhibits of contemporary wood art and a museum store with one-of-a-kind art, wood jewelry, and functional objects.
Learn behind-the-scenes stories of saving endangered landmarks as you travel across Philadelphia from the Delaware River to the Schuylkill. Our first stop tells the story of a work of public art that almost didn’t exist. Next, we travel to a Tiffany glass mural designed by Maxfield Parrish that became the city’s first designated “historic object,” in part to prevent its demolition. We’ll have lunch in the oldest continuously-operating farmer’s market in the country, where you’ll grab a bite to eat from one of more than 80 merchants. Then we’ll tour America’s most historic prison, which might have become a shopping mall. Our final stop will be Thomas Eakins’ great American masterpiece, The Gross Clinic, purchased last year in a community-wide campaign to keep the painting in Philadelphia. Throughout the tour, local personalities involved in the efforts to keep these landmarks will share what each means to Philadelphia, and how it was saved through civic engagement and advocacy.
Tour 4: Experience the Avenue of the Arts
Join us for a walking tour of The Avenue of the Arts, a world-class destination for performing and visual arts, entertainment, and arts education. The Avenue of the Arts is a bustling hub of commerce and business during the day, and by dusk becomes an energetic cultural mecca filled with music, art, theater, and dance. We’ll tour Philadelphia International Records, where Patti LaBelle, Lou Rawls, and other famous R& B artists began their careers. We’ll also visit the nation’s oldest art school and museum, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; explore the avenue’s crown jewels, the Kimmel Center & Academy of Music; and take a backstage tour of The Wilma Theater. Don’t forget to wear comfortable walking shoes!
Tour 5: Public Art is Everywhere
Public art is everywhere in Philadelphia: from the city to the creek to the canal! A trolley tour from City Hall through Fairmount Park will showcase a selection of Philadelphia’s vast collection of public art. Beginning with an overview of public art in the city, the tour includes three generations of Calder sculptures, historic masterworks along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and Kelly Drive, lunch at Martin Puryear’s Pavilion in the Trees (1993), a short hike along the Wissahickon Creek to Jody Pinto’s award-winning Fingerspan (1987), and a stroll down the restored Manayunk Canal to experience Diane Pieri’s Manayunk Stoops (2006) (a New•Land•Marks project). Tour guides from Fairmount Park and Manayunk Development Corporation, as well as local artists, will provide background on this public art collection. Wear good walking shoes. Participants may want to remain in Manayunk for excellent shopping, drinking, and eating.
Tour 6: Building Philadelphia: Architecture from Colonial to Contemporary
The buildings and architecture of Philadelphia are a mix of historic and modern styles that reflect the city's history. Travel through time as you admire Philadelphia’s architectural heritage of more than 300 years. From the old to the new, you will see every architectural style found in the United States while touring Philadelphia, a city with almost 100 National Historic Landmarks. In the 18th century, Georgian and later Federal style buildings dominated much of the cityscape. In the first half of the 19th century, Greek revival appeared, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art designed by Horace Trumbauer. In the second half of the 19th century, Victorian architecture became popular with the city's most notable Victorian architect being Frank Furness. From colonial Old City to the newest landmarks, expert guides will share the stories behind the spaces.
Participants will walk (weather permitting) through Old City and Society Hill, a neighborhood which contains the largest concentration of original 18th- and early 19th-century architecture of any place in the United States. Highlights include:
- Carpenter’s Hall, the location of the First Continental Congress in 1774;
- Christ Church, where famous Revolutionary-era leaders worshipped; and
- Powel House, an elegant Georgian brick mansion with history.
Society Hill Towers, designed by world-renowned and award-winning architect I.M. Pei is a contrast with the surrounding historic homes and buildings. Enjoy lunch at the new Center for Architecture, hosted by AIA Philadelphia, a cooperative space for exhibitions, the AIA bookstore, and home to the Community Design Collaborative. You will then board the bus for a drive to see such famous landmarks as the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the nation’s oldest museum and school of fine arts designed by Furness, the Academy of Music, and City Hall. Finally, get a look at modern architecture in the city, including the Perelman Building, a new addition to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Tour 7: The Centennial District: Culture, Collaboration, and Creativity in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park
Experience Philadelphia’s cultural treasures in the Centennial District, a collaboration of cultural and family entertainment attractions in Fairmount Park just minutes away from downtown Philadelphia. Fairmount Park stretches over more than 9,000 acres—qualifying it as one of the largest urban parks in the United States. The tour will start with a lunch at the Horticultural Center, a modern exhibition hall and greenhouse. During lunch, there will be a panel discussion with Centennial District leaders. A tour through the district will highlight the past, present, and future of the Mann, the Zoo, the Japanese Tea House and Garden, and the surrounding parkside neighborhood, and will conclude with a hard-hat tour of Memorial Hall, one of Fairmount Park's most recognizable landmarks. This National Historic Landmark, originally constructed as a major site for the 1876 Centennial Exhibition, is the only major building left from this major event. Held in Philadelphia, it was the first official World's Fair in the United States and it celebrated the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This national significant Centennial Art Gallery was created as one of America's first examples of Beaux-Arts architecture and has been the backdrop for many movies. A new generation will soon be introduced to its grand architecture and important history as the Please Touch Museum moves to Memorial Hall this year.
Tour 8: Off the Shelf: Philadelphia’s Special Collections Libraries and Approaches to Outreach
Philadelphia’s wealth of historical places and buildings is well known, but much of its historical and cultural legacy is preserved in an extraordinary array of libraries. This 3-hour tour will feature site visits to three of these libraries: the Rare Book department of the Free Library of Philadelphia, the Rosenbach Museum & Library, and the Library Company of Philadelphia, including a special lunchtime presentation by the American Poetry Review. At each stop along the way, participants will get to see important collection items and will also hear presentations from senior staff of these organizations about the challenges and opportunities presented in the current climate. Thanks to the city’s role in American history, and to the civic-mindedness of generations of collectors, Philadelphia’s libraries are the city’s real treasures. In recent years, these institutions have developed innovative methods for sharing their collections with broader audiences, both in order to increase their stature with the general public and also to respond to changes in the cultural environment, emphasizing visitor engagement with collections.
Tour 9: Theater, Community, Camaraderie: An Afternoon at the People’s Light & Theatre Company
Join us for a memorable performance by the resident company of People’s Light & Theatre Company. I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me By A Young Lady From Rwanda, written by Sonja Linden, is the remarkable tale of a young refugee woman’s survival of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the transformative working relationship she shares with her disillusioned, middle-aged writing teacher. Inspired by real-life experiences, this play about human resiliency and the power of connecting through storytelling tackles issues that face refugees around the world today. Now in its 33rd season, People’s Light & Theatre Company has relied on its mission to “bring together theater artists of the highest caliber with large and diverse audiences in a welcoming environment to celebrate an increasingly complex world” to extend beyond the realm of performance. In suburban Malvern, People’s Light has produced more than 300 plays and provides an arts education program that serves 35,000 young people annually.
Tour 10: Philadelphia Murals and the Stories They Tell
Philadelphia holds a unique place on the international arts scene as home to the world’s largest outdoor art gallery. On this tour, you will see some of the more than 2800 murals that adorn diverse neighborhoods with images that represent the people and places that make the city shine. For more than 20 years, the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program (MAP) has been integral in spurring neighborhood revitalization, transforming commercial corridors, and creating award-winning art education programs. Poignant visual landscapes are imagined and realized by a group of committed artists who collaborate with community members and other supporters that understand the positive effect art has on the individual and society at large. From an 8-story high mural featuring inner city youth mingling with Victorian figurines to lush tropical landscapes teeming with the colors of the Caribbean, the murals intersect and represent the lives of people from seemingly disparate backgrounds that are ultimately united by art. Tour includes an authentic Puerto Rican lunch in the revitalized Norris Square community.
Tour 11: “Behind the Scenes” Tour of WXPN Studios and World Café Live: A Public/Private, Nonprofit/For-Profit Partnership in Action!
Learn about this one-of-a-kind collaboration between World Café Live (a for-profit, entrepreneurial venture aimed at reinventing the live music experience) and WXPN (one of the country's leading public radio stations). In the fall of 2004, after a six-and-a-half-year journey, they opened a trailblazing $15 million dollar, 44,000 square-foot "clubhouse" for the Philadelphia region’s music and arts community, combining state-of-the-art broadcast and recording facilities with two live music venues and restaurants featuring incredible acoustics and sightlines as well as innovative programming. Tour the facility and get the story from Hal Real, Founder of World Café Live, and Roger LaMay, General Manager of WXPN. Enjoy live music during lunch. This presentation offers an excellent example of the convergence of arts, civic commitment, economic development, and a replicable model that these partners intend to implement in other communities.
Tour 12: Tastes, Tales, and Triumph! The Asian Arts Initiative Story
This tour highlights the story of the Asian Arts Initiative (AAI), a community-based arts center and its leadership role in pursuing the development of a new shared facility. The tour will start with an authentic lunch at a local Chinatown restaurant followed by a short walking tour of the neighborhood. Participants will visit the new facility to hear about the journey of the Asian Arts Initiative in developing a permanently affordable home for the arts, and will meet many of the artists and collaborators.
As a tenant paying below-market rent in the former Gilbert Building at the Center City/Chinatown neighborhood border, AAI was among the dozens of artists and arts organizations displaced by the Pennsylvania Convention Center’s planned expansion. In response, AAI has spearheaded an effort to create a new multi-tenant arts facility in Chinatown—housing offices; galleries; performance, meeting, and individual artist studio spaces.
AAI was created in 1993 in response to community concerns about racial tension, and has become a community arts center that sponsors theater, video-making, and visual arts workshops for youth and adult artists; a performance and gallery season; projects like the Chinatown In/flux visual art exhibition that was seen by 120,000 residents and visitors last year and the Chinatown Live(s) book with oral histories of diverse workers in the neighborhood.
Tour 13: Culturally-Specific Arts Organizations and Community Development
Take a motor coach to North Philadelphia to visit three historically significant organizations that help to shape Philadelphia’s culturally diverse art community through educational programs, events, and community development. This tour begins with the Art Sanctuary, which presents diverse African-American educational programs and performances by established and aspiring artists of every genre at the National Historical Landmark Church of the Advocate. Next is Taller Puertorriqueño, a home for Latino arts in Philadelphia. This dynamic cultural and educational center includes classrooms, a theater, two galleries, and a bookstore. Through performances, workshops, and exhibitions by nationally and internationally recognized artists, Taller celebrates the rich culture of Puerto Rico and Latin America. The final stop is Village of Arts & Humanities. Come see how the village has transformed a 260-block area of North Philadelphia, one block at a time, through a neighborhood revitalization program that has evolved into a major provider of arts-inspired programs including education, land transformation, construction, and economic development.
Tour 14: Philadelphia Arts Education Partners
Suffocating policy, insufficient budgets, and double-booked school days are the common challenges we wrestle. At this walkable ARTventure, we’ll learn about public school arts on the rise. With strong district leadership, the arts are returning to Philadelphia schools. Fueling that improvement and joining the cause are Philadelphia’s assorted cultural organizations, varying in size, mission, and methodology. What are the environmental and operational success factors? Who’s leading the change, who’s on board, and who—or what—is in the way? Intimate conversations with each presenter will follow a panel, giving us the history, context, big pictures, and solutions that are bringing the arts to each student. With Dennis Creedon, Philadelphia Public Schools; Pearl Schaeffer, Philadelphia Arts Education Partnership; Carmen Febo-San Miguel, Taller Puertorriqueño; Matthew Braun, Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial; and Ayden Adler, Philadelphia Orchestra.