Fresh Artists Blog 

Pablo's Clothesline Art Show Design Team: From rear left: Andrew Diemer, Class of '12 Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA), Evelyn Bock, freshly retired art teacher from Henry Elementary, Hilary Merzbacher, Fresh Artist program assistant, painter and recent graduate of Rhode Island School of Design. Front left to right: Janet Carey, artist and junior at Montgomery Community College, Meredith Wiggins, family therapist, artist and Fresh Artists Clothesline Program Coordinator. (Not present at this meeting, but part of the team are Sue Davis, social worker and community activist, and Lucretia Robbins, painter, retired art teacher and private art instructor of plein aire painting for children)

Remember the idea we were cooking in the spring…a way for ALL kids to play an active role as philanthropists by hosting a Clothesline Art Show in their own community? Well…we have been working on this all summer! The first thing we did was to bring together a really smart and energetic group of people to brainstorm. See this bright group above.

THE TEAM

We met, made a plan and fanned out to contact schools, church groups, summer camps, a private art instructor, several retired and retiring art teachers, our local healthy food cooperative, and several families of Fresh Artists kids around the region to get their input.  A member of our Business Advisory Council, Rosemarie Fabien, introduced us to Liz Scott, the mother of Alex of Alex’s Lemonade Stand. We figured she could give us some advice on how to start a really successful grassroots initiative for young children. Alex’s Lemonade Stand is 10 years old, and has raised more than $35 million. Kids love to be involved with this wonderful organization and we sure could use their tips on how build this program…and do lots of good things for kids.  Liz told us about their history, gave us tons of ideas, and was very encouraging.

CLOTHESLINE KITS FREE TO THE CHILDREN!

When a youngster wants to do a Fresh Artists Clothesline Art Show, he or she, with the help of a trusted grownup, register on our website.  Registration will provide them with a kit of materials (name badges, art price tags, certificates of philanthropy, sample flyers, tips for making art projects and perhaps a coupon for a free clothesline!)  Also, a trained volunteer coach will call or email them to give some pointers on how to have a successful event.  We are harnessing the army of retiring art teachers and inviting them to help us as volunteer coaches!  Evelyn Bock, 37-year veteran elementary school art teacher has agreed to be the leader of the coaches, and she and Robyn Miller are helping Meredith Wiggins develop some easy, fun art projects that non-art people can do with their kids.

PABLO: THE SEQUEL (next the movie?)

As is our habit, we have written a second children’s story, Pablo’s Big Idea!, to explain the purpose and process of Clothesline Art Shows to young children. We asked Steve Trueman, author of our first story, Pablo the Philly Philanthropist, to help us tell the story and Gardner Allen, illustrator of Pablo, eagerly agreed to make drawings to accompany the story.  We asked two terrific young ladies to help us with the story, Molly (3rd grade) and Hope (4th grade). Both girls are extremely creative young artist-philanthropists who have together given eleven works of art to Fresh Artists!  They jumped right in and created Pablo’s dog’s personality and the perfect name, “Luna”.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE STORY!  Pablo Story #2

We thought it would be fun to ask kids how the Clothesline story should develop…so we are inviting anyone to give us suggestions about the plot, the characters and the illustrations.  Here is what we have so far with about 12 people weighing in on all aspects!  The drawings are in a preliminary state, so kids can see how an illustrator works.  Very sketch sketches first, then solid line drawings, then color is applied.  In this case, the illustrator is using Photoshop to apply the colors.  Many more drawings are needed, and are being worked upon as I write.  We will post the finished product here and it will be part of the Kit that all children receive when they register to hold a Clothesline Art Show.

We welcome any child or groups of children to hold a Clothesline Art Show to benefit schools in need. Please contact Meredith Wiggins, Clothesline Art Show Coordinator, at 626-487-5929, or at dancingturnips@yahoo.com for more information.

Shouts of “Mine’s over here!” and “Look how big MY picture is!” rang throughout the brand-new Comcast Center’s brilliant 5-story Atrium on May 19th as 87 young artist-philanthropists showed off the large-scale digital reproductions of their artwork to parents, teachers and corporate supporters. Fresh Artists’ second Annual Student Celebration honored the artistic achievement and generosity of these talented kids chosen from K-12 public schools throughout Philadelphia’s inner city.

Gary Steuer, the Mayor’s Chief Cultural Officer of the City of Philadelphia, was this year’s featured speaker, addressing not only the children’s artistic achievements, but also their roles as young philanthropists, “paying it forward” providing art supplies to other children in their city through the donation of their artwork.

Comcast Corporation and Liberty Property Trust invited Fresh Artists to install the entire new 2009 Collection in the Atrium and have it on display for ten days. Honoring both companies’ dedication to sustainability, the art show was installed on a green, 100%-recycled cardboard, portable wall-system provided by local design firm, MIO Culture.

The Barnes Foundation was recognized with the 2009 Fresh Artists Award for their commitment to making art and art education accessible to the children of Philadelphia. A select group of Fresh Artists students have been working with the Barnes to interpret masterpieces from their collection, that will be digitally-reproduced and installed on the fencing on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway during the Foundation’s two-year construction project. Fifth-grade artist-philanthropists, Alice and Syeed, along with their art teacher, Robyn Miller presented the Barnes’ Director of Education, Blake Bradford, with this year’s commemorative Fresh Artists poster.

The 40 selected young artists were treated to private tours of the Barnes Foundation out in Merion, where they were introduced to the Barnes approach to art history, and then each chose a masterpiece to interpret in acrylics and oil crayon. Alice chose Cezanne’s iconic “Pot of Flowers”, and went to work!

This year, Fresh Artists acknowledged some of the core founding professional partners who helped launched the organization. Professional photographer, Jeffrey Totaro and web designer, Nathaneal Pershall, were both honored for their outstanding contributions to Fresh Artists. Jeffrey donates all the digital photography of both the children’s artwork as well as corporate installations of that artwork. Nate designed, built and maintains the Fresh Artists website as a gift to the creative children of his city.

Art teacher, Darren Umble, of the Potter-Thomas Elementary School, presented the 2009 Inspiration Award to School District of Philadelphia veteran art education administrators, Tessie Varthas (left) and Emilee Taylor (right), for their inspirational leadership and coaching of the more than 200 art teachers in the District.

The Volunteer of the Year Award for Passion was given to uber-volunteer, Nancy Wolff (center below), retired art teacher from Queen Village’s Meredith Elementary School, who has logged hundreds of hours behind the scenes, checking lists, calling teachers, delivering artwork, helping to build Fresh Artists. Nancy was honored with a gift certificate to spend a day at a bead shop, to everyone’s amusement! Wouldn’t a wildly creative person rather spend a day making things than at a day spa!

Each young Fresh Artists wears their own artwork on their “front stage pass” name badge, which enables adult guests to engage the children in spirited discussions of their creative work. The badges exclaim, “I’m making a difference!” and acknowledge the children as the first givers in this unique circle of philanthropy.

The children also receive a limited-edition t-shirt bearing their artwork, as well as a beautifully-framed Certificate of Extraordinary Artistic Achievement. The certificate was designed and donated by the celebrated children’s author, David Macaulay, who used an interesting array of colored, torn paper as a border for the certificate, with a wink and a nod to “process”, which is the underlying objective Fresh Artists supports with art supplies! Fresh Artists Advisory Council member, Jennifer Braxton, of IKEA, graciously donates the lime-green picture frames each year.

Chef John Gallagher, Head of Pastry Arts at the Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College, baked and donated 600 Fresh Artists’ signature palette sugar cookies for the children and their guests!

Fresh Artists believes that art is a canvas that provides hope, purpose and voice to future generations of creative thinkers. We honor these creative, generous children!

We are thrilled to announce that Fresh Artists made its first delivery of art supplies to Potter Thomas Elementary School in North Philadelphia on January 27.  This was the first of 150 grants by Fresh Artists totaling $40,000 for the 2008-2009 school year.  We are pleased to make these substantial gifts before the first anniversary of our organization’s founding!

Sandra Dungee Glenn, Bill George, Sara Hendrix and Darren Umble

Fresh Artists Founder and Executive Director Barbara Chandler Allen greeted Sandra Dungee Glenn (Chair of the School Reform Commission) and Shawn Crowder (School DIstrict of Philadelphia Chief of Staff), as well as the Mayor’s Chief Cultural Officer, Gary Steuer.  A brief presentation was held with Artist-Philanthropist Sara Hendrix (student Ambassador) making a ceremonial delivery of art supplies to Art teacher, Darren Umble, and his third grade class of young Picassos.  

The event garnered major broadcast publicity including segments on 6abc with Lisa Thomas-Laury, Fox 29 with Gerald Kolpan, NBC10 and an in depth interview Arts Reporter Alex Schmidt on WHYY.  Additional publicity included stories in the Daily News, Al Dia, Philadelphia Tribune, and the Metro.  The event was also captured for Public School TV.  

Health Partners CEO, Bill George, stopped by to be part of the fun. Health Partners, Fresh Artists first major corporate partnership, installed more than 60 works of student art in their 130,000 sf. headquarters at 9th and Market Streets.  Bill was delighted to see the faces of the children as they painted with supplies he helped provide!

Principal Tania Kukulski, was presented with artwork made by Fresh Artist-Philanthropist Alexandra Valles, a junior at the High School for the Creative and Performing Arts