|
Art-Reach has expanded our online Access
Guide to include 19 new arts and cultural venues. Each new listing includes
a comprehensive overview of the organization's physical and programmatic
accessibility. The online Access Guide has also been updated with new
accessibility information on 35 of the organizations currently listed.
Support for expanding and updating the online Access Guide was provided
by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pennsylvania Council on
the Arts.
The new venues are: the Annenberg Center,
Appel Farm Arts & Music Center, the Curtis Institute of Music, the
Garden State Discovery Museum, International House, Kimmel Center for
the Performing Arts, the Lenape Regional Performing Arts Center, the Mann
Center for the Performing Arts, McCarter Theatre Center, the Mill at Anselma
Preservation and Educational Trust, Monroe Township Cultural Arts Commission,
the National Constitution Center, Nrithyanjali Institute of Dance, Point
Breeze Performing Arts Center, the Rosenbach Museum & Library, Samuel
S. Fleisher Art Memorial, Wheaton Village and the Wood Turning Center.
Participating venues receive a thorough
site survey of their facilities by Blaik Associates, an accessibility-consulting
firm. The cost for joining the online Access Guide is $100, which includes
the site survey, online listing and website link. To schedule a site survey
for your venue/organization or to update the information in your current
listing, contact Development Officer/Access Guide Coordinator Meredith
Palmateer.
In April Art-Reach and Full Circle
Theater finished a year and a half long intergenerational workshop program
in lower Northeast Philadelphia. In the third and final session of Generating
Community middle-school students and seniors used living histories
from the Bridesburg/Lower Wissinoming neighborhoods to explore community
issues in a safe, welcoming environment. The final presentation took place
on April 28th at the Emmanuel United Church of Christ in Bridesburg.
 Participants
also received free tickets to the Philadelphia Flower Show and
went on a field trip to the National Constitution Center. In addition,
Art-Reach has offered ongoing access to our Ticketing Program for all
participants of the program and their family members, which includes arts
and cultural opportunities in theater, dance and museums. If you are a
resident of Bridesburg/Lower Wissinoming and are interested in utilizing
Art-Reach's programs, contact Mildred Ganizsewski, who has volunteered
her time to act as the Art-Reach liaison.
Generating Community was
made possible through a grant from the Community Partnership Initiative
of the Rohm and Haas Company and the hospitality of the Bridesburg Heritage
Center.
 On
May 2 Art-Reach honored Founder and former Executive Director Joyce W.
Burd at the Pyramid Club in Center City. Over 100 people came out to pay
tribute to Joyce Burd for her tireless dedication to arts access. Joyce
was honored with a ceremonial Liberty Bell from the City of Philadelphia
for her commitment to the community. The event showcased performances
by several Art-Reach artists, including dancer Mafalda Thomas-Bouzy and
he r
group of African drummers, bassist Sharif Abdullah and his guitar ensemble
as well as folksinger Daria.
The event raised over $25,000, which was
used to establish the Joyce W. Burd Program Enhancements Fund as part
of the five-year Campaign for Art-Reach. This special fund will enable
Art-Reach to expand our mission to connect special-needs audiences and
the arts by strengthening core programs and adding new ones.
This summer Art-Reach provided scholarships
to a family of four children from the Women Against Abuse shelter
to participate in an art camps offered by the Philadelphia Art Alliance.
The camp explored the connection between science and art. The children
created projects based on popular science fiction stories, including symbolic
jewelry from The Lord of the Rings, super-hero costumes and machine
sculptures. They also traveled to the Academy of Natural Sciences for
a live fossil dig and solar system party.
Funding for these scholarships came from
the new Joyce W. Burd Program Enhancements Fund. Contact Executive
Director Michael Norris if you would like to support this fund or to suggest
another unique partnership opportunity that would enhance Art-Reach's
impact.
Art-Reach has launched two new programs
for corporate partners. Our Corporate Circle is a free program
that enables companies to donate to Art-Reach any unused tickets they
may have to the cultural events they sponsor. The Adopt-an-Agency
program allows companies to target their Art-Reach support to the human-service
agencies, schools or community groups that they are already invested in.
Charter members of these new programs include Harmelin Media, Lincoln
Financial Group, PECO Energy and PNC Bank. To enroll
your company in these exciting new programs, call Executive Director Michael
Norris.
|
We're
one week into fall as I write this, and the arts season is in full
swing. This means that Art-Reach audiences are once again visiting
cultural organizations all over the Philadelphia region. We're especially
excited about a new outreach to the Wilmington cultural community
that we'll be rolling out this fall with the support and participation
of AstraZeneca, the Delaware Division of the Arts and VSA arts of
Delaware. We want to provide more cultural access to special-needs
audiences in the Wilmington area, as well as help the arts organizations
there to enhance their community outreach and develop new audiences.
Our specific goals are to recruit more member agencies and schools
and to encourage arts organizations to participate in the Art-Reach
Ticketing Program and online Access Guide.
