Fresh Artists just installed some “mini-masterpieces” at Weavers Way Co-op in Chestnut Hill this week in honor of the blockbuster van Gogh exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  These two young men, Traye Debrito, grade 6, and Elijah Smith, Grade 1 (below), have fresh interpretations of iconic works from the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Barnes Foundation.

The next 18 months’ installation of “Art in the Market” has been underwritten by a generous gift from Electrical Wizardry, Inc., John Siemiarowski, President.  John discovered Fresh Artists at a Rotary Club meeting, and has become an awesome angel to us.  An avid cyclist, John attends every Fresh Artists event, often arriving on his bicycle!  Both of John’s and Elaine’s children attended Philadelphia public schools and he speaks fervently about the need for art education to be a part of every child’s eduction.

“The arts directly help kids acquire critical thinking and problem-solving skills. I could see this in my own children, and I feel we should all make sure that all children are exposed to artmaking throughout their school years. Supporting Fresh Artists is something I can do to insure this.”

John has stepped forward to give an extraordinary gift to Fresh Artists – the gift of his expertise as a master electrician.  John has donated his services to completely rewire our new 1,200 sf Print Studio space in preparation for moving in. The space was a welding studio, with two ceiling lights and 1 outlet!  He has given up his weekends for the past 8 weeks to do this for Fresh Artists, an enormous, complicated and essential task.  When asked why he has donated this huge job, John says, “If I can give something that I can do, Fresh Artists will be able to use the money they would have had to spend on electrical work to impact a lot of kids in this city.”

Fresh Art-vocates like John Siemiarowski, Proprietor of Electrical Wizardry, Inc. mean the world to us.  Thank you, John!

 

 

Marcus Wright was thrilled to see his artwork installed in the World Cafe Live. Two of his teachers, Rebecca Dampf and Mike Kapusta from Norristown Area High School asked us to take Marcus to see his artwork on the walls of one of the hottest music venues in Philadelphia. We were eager to meet this talented and generous young man and his mentors. It is always a rewarding experience to watch a youngster see their artwork for the first time, blown up huge, mounted on the wall of a famous place like World Cafe Live in West Philadelphia.

Marcus is serious about studying art and needed supplies to work on his college portfolio in earnest. So Fresh Artists surprised him with an Angel Art Grant, a shopping spree at Merion Art & Repro (Fresh Artists favorite art supplies vendor) in Ardmore!

Fresh Artists is honored to support Marcus on his path in life.

The third annual Salon on the Schuylkill (I am finally able to spell this word after living here for 34 years!) was a big hit on Wedneday evening, February 1st, 2012.  About 300 people came to the opening of our third installation of children’s art at the World Cafe Live on the Penn campus in West Philadelphia.  Hal Real, owner of the World Cafe, is a real fan of Fresh Artists, and makes his cutting-edge live music venue available to Fresh Artists as a gallery and fundraising bash each year. This year’s Salon on the Schuylkill was dedicated to raising funds to build out and equip our new East Falls headquarters and Print Studio with Teen Interns.  Generous companies donated cash as well as much-needed equipment, products and services to make this dream a reality. We thank everyone who is giving their talent, treasure and time to Fresh Artists. We hope to invite you all to the Grand Opening in the early Spring!

An Unusual Party – Here’s How It Works
Hal’s staff at the World Cafe Live picks the artwork that is installed and exhibited for a year. Then, when the new art comes in, the “old” art is moved to a nonprofit in need of freshening up the walls.  Last year the collection of 15 large pieces of children’s art was re-gifted & installed at the Red Cross House, a shelter for disaster victims in West Philadelphia. This year, we selected the Philadelphia Veteran’s Comfort House, a shelter and hospice for homeless vets, and Covenant House, a shelter for homeless, runaway and trafficked youth in Kensington.   Executive Directors David Kamioner (Comfort House) and Cordella Hill (Covenant House) were our guests and spoke to the group about the power of Fresh Artists’ art has to change the atmosphere of their residences for both the people they serve as well as the staff who serve them.

Salon is an initiative of the Fresh Artists Business Advisory Council, a group of 35 prominent regional business leaders who are developing new business relationships and fundraising for Fresh Artists. This year the party was led by co-chairs, Nicole Carville (Haworth) and Jim Pinheiro (Pearl Pressman Liberty Communications Group).

Seth Shimkonis wowed everyone again with his delightful JIHM Photo Booth. JIHM aptly stands for Join In Hilarious Moments, and Seth always creates a party atmosphere of silliness and fun. This year, Roger Allen (Fresh Artists’ Director of Creativity and Operations) and Seth designed and built a full size “Silly City”, using Hancock Elementary School’s zany send-ups of Philadelphia architecture and monuments. Nothing escapes these wacky 2-5th graders….the Liberty Bell, City Hall, the Rocky and LOVE statues….along with the eponymous Philly-style houses seen throughout the city….but only at Fresh Artists do you see them in lime green bricks, magenta roofs and turquoise shutters!

Music was a real treat this year with jazz ensembles from both the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA) and the Julia Masterman School performing.  Exceptionally talented and serious young musicians played from 6:30 pm to closing, and wowed the guests with their ability and repertory. A new tradition was begun.  The young musicians loved playing at the World Cafe  Live, and loved playing for the benefit of other kids. It was a triple win! Thank you, Tyler Tritt of Masterman and Brian Ewing of CAPA as well as all the students who played for us. What a treat!

2012 Sponsors – Salon on the Schuylkill

PLATINUM – $5,000

The Addis Group

SAP Americas

GOLD – $2500

Anonymous

Independence Blue Cross

SILVER – $1500

Caroselli Beachler McTiernan & Conboy LLC

Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellot LLC

Firstrust Financial Resources

Goodwin College of Professional Studies,Drexel University

Haworth

Health Partners

Martin Banks

BRONZE – $1000

Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller

L2 Partridge Architects

SSH Real Estate

 

In-Kind Sponsors

PLATINUM IN-KIND

Electrical Wizardry, Inc. (all electrical installation)

Epson (19″ digital art scanner)

HP (a 44″ Designjet digital printer and a 60″ latex digital printer, support & training)

The Lighting Practice (lighting design, coordination of product donations)

Neschen Americas (54″ laminator)

Pearl Pressman LibertyCommunications Group (all printing services)

Service Point USA (two copy centers, support and training)

Illuminations, Inc. (coordination of all lighting donations)

 

SILVER IN-KIND

Bartco Lighting (lighting fixtures)

Bone Safety Signs (custom signage)

Corporate Interiors (furniture and files)

Delray Lighting, Inc. (lighting fixtures)

Economy Restaurant Supply (outfitted kitchen)

First Niagara Bank (office furniture)

Interface/FLOR (carpeting for office)

JIHM Booth (Photo booth for events)

Peerless Lighting (lighting fixtures)

Revo Industries (paint and painting services)

Spectrum Lighting (lighting fixtures)

Sylvania (lamps)

Trans American Furniture (furniture and files)

Salon on the Schuylkill Committee  

Co-Chairs:

Nicole Carville, Haworth and Jim Pinheiro, Pearl Pressman Liberty Communications Group

Business Advisory Council

Sara Anderson, First Niagara Bank

Scott Binder, Health Partners

Alex Brame, Service Point USA

Jennifer Braxton, Delta Sigma Theta

April Colby, Martin Banks

Rick DeCoyte, Silicon Gallery Fine Art Prints

Rob Diemer, In Posse

Rosemarie Fabien, Fabien Communications

Lauren Fantini, Caroselli, Beachler McTIerney Conboy

Guy Fox, Lincoln University

Shawn Gibbons, CI Solutions, LLC

Heather Gibson, Sentry Art Advisory Services

Edie Gleason, Corporate Interiors

Peter Hahn, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Ken Johnson, Glaxo Smith Kline

Valerie Lagauskas, Event Navigators

Kris Lamley,  The Addis Group

Susan Mock, Academy of Vocal Arts

Lori Morrissey, SAP

John Paciulo, Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellot LLC

Robert Reid, Elevate Architects & Collaborators

Suzanne Schwartz, Tasty Baking Company

Seth Shimkonis, JIHM Booths

Julie Tanpitukpong, FAMECO Real Estate

Jeffrey Totaro, Jeffrey Totaro Photographer

Suzanne Turk, Goodwin College of Professional Studies, Drexel University

Jerria Williams, SEPTA

Susan Yeager

AND MORE THANKS!
Thanks also to Hal Real, Lisa Margraff, Kerry Diver and all the staff at the World Cafe who always make us so welcome and appreciated!  The photography in this blog was by Evelyn Bock, who, after teaching art for 37 years in the Philadelphia public schools, is now working with Fresh Artists to develop special projects in the schools! Dominique Swift, whose artwork is featured above, was one of Evelyn’s students! Our gratitude to Robyn Miller and her talented Hancock kids for the art that was our theme this year, Silly City. It is a joy and an inspiration to work with brilliant teachers like Robyn and Evelyn, and more.  Thanks also to Laura Bernardo (Fresh Artists project coordinator) and Stephen Trueman (author of Pablo, the Philly Philanthropist and carpenter helping to build our new Print Studio) for personing the reception desk! Quinn Donover, Carly Schwartz and Andrew Diemer, Fresh Artists Interns helped enormously and we thank you for your many important volunteer contributions.

And last but not ever the least….thanks to Lauren Gutierrez and Roger Allen, Fresh Artists staff who copied, trimmed, schlepped, lifted, visioned, printed, telephoned, and installed art just about 24/7 for Salon. You are the heart of Fresh Artists and you have mine!

 Hope to see everyone next year at the 4th Salon on the Schuylkill! 

Thanks to many fans all over the world, Fresh Artists raised $12,349 to produce the first editions of our new line of Memory Games!  We blew through the original goal of $7,000, which was the bare minimum we needed to raise in order to produce our first edition.  Kickstarter is a new method of internet fundraising called “crowdfunding” where, if your project is accepted, Kickstarter provides the platform to attract financial backers for ideas like innovative art, film, or new product development. A project must attract the entire goal of financial pledges within a stated period of time or it fails completely…but failure wasn’t an option for Fesh Artists!  WE MADE IT! 

Sixty-eight “backers” insured that the kids’ project wouldn’t fail. From as far way as Beijing China to around the corner… inventors, artists, friends, family, teachers, museum curators…all people investing in generous and talented kids. Thank you, everyone!

The first four themes, Fresh Food, Fresh Faces, Fresh Art and Fresh Architecture, are the first in a strategic plan to develop and produce at least three new subjects each year. In the development pipeline are Fresh Flowers, Fresh Fish, and Fresh Fair…a tribute to carousels!  Each new theme will spring from Sprout Studio, one of the programs within Fresh artWORKS!, our community action programs that we offer inner city schools.  These unique children’s games are developed in Sprout Studio, a graphic and product design workshop where kids make art for a specific “client”, often in partnership with another nonprofit such as a zoo, aquarium or children’s garden. The kids learn about the business of art, working under constraints set up by the client or project goal and then see the results of their work in a store, business or being useful to another nonprofit organization. Sprout Studio is a voluntary, after-school program where children volunteer to donate their time and artwork to Fresh Artists, knowing that the project will ultimately help thousands of children.

The next Sprout Studio has been commissioned to make portraits of classical orchestral instruments. Led by a seasoned Fresh Artists retired master art teacher, the children will “adopt” an instrument, study its shape (and sounds!), and then make an oil pastel portrait of it. There will be an exhibition of the entire finished collection, and then several pieces will be selected for reproduction as banners to be used in children’s orchestral concerts, be part of a new Memory Game and be available for reproduction as Fresh Artists’ signature enormous high-resolution digital enlargements. We have several music venue clients eager to see the outcome of this Studio…all of whom approached Fresh Artists with a desire for this theme. The artwork for each Memory Game is always available for reproduction in the corporate workplace, which is Fresh Artists core business.

OK, back to the Memory Games.  Now we roll up our sleeves and make it happen. The sturdy heirloom-quality kraft game boxes are being ordered, the graphics fine-tuned, bar codes sourced, and lots of phone calls back and forth with our wonderful printing mentor and volunteer printer, Tim Markley, of Markley Enterprises in Elkhart, IN.  We will fulfill the orders placed by our Kickstarter “backers” first, put the games up on our website in the Fresh Artists Shoppie, and begin to approach big stores, little shops and national catalogs to carry our unusual new product line. We are fortunate to have real pros, Markley Enterprises, handling our production and fulfillment.  We are hoping to get lots of orders from museum shops, bookstores, high-end educational toy stores, children’s catalogs and some large national retailers.  Anyone having ideas, connections or advice, please contact us at info@freshartists.org, or call 215-920-3317.

In addition to creating a tangible teaching experience showing kids how entrepreneurship works, the Memory Games have the potential of creating something all nonprofits dream about: a strong, sustainable funding stream to support their good works.  All proceeds will be used to deliver innovative art programs (like this!) and art supplies to schools struggling with severe cutbacks in arts funding. It is a unique circle of giving where the children’s artwork provides lessons in philanthropy, social entrepreneurship, and civic engagement while raising funds for future art making in our public schools. Our tag line has integrity: Fresh Artists truly does empower young lives through art.

The kids thank you for making this launch of Fresh Artists Memory Games a real success. Stay tuned to watch our progress as we navigate the waters of commerce!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 1200 sf space in Sherman Mills Art Community in East Falls is perfect for Fresh Artists! Bright, sunny and easy access for trucks moving large panels of vibrantly colored children’s artwork in and out. Surrounded on one side by an active glassblowing studio with blast furnaces going 24-7 to the ice sculptor across the hall moving giant 500 lb  eagles to install at sports banquets…we are excited to begin the work of turning a raw space into a habitable, hospitable teaching studio and new home for Fresh Artists! Funded by a generous grant from the the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation,  Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia Grant with matching funds from The CHG Charitable Trust (as directed by Carole Haas Gravagno), and the Hamilton Family Foundation, Print Studio is the next phase of our strategic business plan: involve at-risk teen interns from Philadelphia public schools in Fresh Artists’ operations to introduce them to the business of art and digital printing and to give them valuable work experience and marketable job skills while they work towards their GED.

First step was to have it painted…floor, ceiling and walls. Then the team of volunteers came to transform it.

We had to have a lot of vision to see what this could become!

Lookin’ good! Empty!

Brothers Gardner and Roger Allen  take down useless walls and old storage racks to make way for the new open workspace plan.

Helen Diemer of The Lighting Practice and Electrical Wizardry’s John Siemiarowski, volunteer to do the lighting and wiring plan. This place is going to be awesome with pros like this involved!

Then the huge printers started to arrive!  HP donated a 44″ DJZ-5200 PostScript and a 60″ L26500 Latex printer to use as teaching equipment for our teen interns and to bring some of our printing needs in house!

More volunteer donors: Roger with Nicole Carville of Haworth corporate furniture, Kim King, Project Lighting Designer from The Lighting Practice and Bob Reid, President of Elevate Architects and Collaborators collaborate around the form and function of our Print Studio. New walls are going up!

Now this is starting to look like something!

Thanks to Susan Berntheisal, Graphic Solutions Business Manager of HP, we are now the proud owners of TWO magnificent ink jet printers (see above)! Fresh Artists was introduced to Susan at the Specialty Graphics Imaging Association (SGIA) annual national Expo in New Orleans in October.  Thank you, HP and Susan! We can’t wait to fire them up and start printing!

Fresh Artists pizzazy art images will soon be appearing on a range of family box games.  The Sign Studio graphic design kids were eager to make things out of their art, and we remembered an old family classic called The Memory Game. We went down into the basement and found our original adored game and began to experiment with the design using all the fresh food images made by a group of 3rd – 5th graders from Hancock School.

Now how to raise the capital to get the first batch designed and manufactured! We know it will be a huge hit in museum shops, bookstores, specialty catalogs and up-scale gift stores. We have a great friend we met through the Specialty Graphics Imaging Association (SGIA), Tim Markley, President of Markley Enterprises, a first-class large-format digital printing firm in Elkhart, IN. Tim has volunteered to help us design, engineer and print our first run of Memory Games.  Being a wonderful human being and a big backer of Fresh Artists, Tim has offered to do all this work at cost, charging us only for materials. Our goal is to do a first run in order to sell it on our website and also to find retail or wholesale customers for the games. All of the proceeds support our mission of delivering art supplies and innovative programs (how’s this Kickstarter project for an “innovative” teaching tool?!) to severely under-resourced public school kids.

Being an entrepreneurial social business, Fresh Artists chose Kickstarter as a way of raising the funds to manufacture the first run of games!  Kickstarter is an internet-based fundraising platform place where crazy designers, inventors, entrepreneurs and general folks gather to pitch their ideas to the masses and have people make $1 to $1000+ investments in their vision and newly invented products.  People who invest in new ideas have the option of receiving one (or more) of the products they backed ONLY if the entire project cost is funded by the deadline of February 4th.  We thought it was the perfect place to enable hundreds of Fresh Artists kids to watch a product they helped produce raise toward the finish line of being fully funded.

Go to http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/freshartists/fresh-artists-memory-game?ref=live and make an investment in these talent kids and their first foray into capitalism!

The game is 54 2″ heavy cardboard tiles, each with a vibrant original healthy food image on one side and a small overall “sprout” design (our logo) on the reverse. The game is played by kids from 3 to 103, with as few as two players up to 10 or more. There are two identical tiles of each art image. To start, all tiles are laid art-side down on the table. People take turns turning over two tiles at a time, hoping for a match. If they match, the player keeps the pair.  If no match is made, the tiles are returned to exactly where they were, face down.  The deal is to pay rapt attention to where each design is at all times! Watch your competitor’s revealed tiles as well as your own.  This is a terrific game to play with mixed ages, and a great game for the elderly.

Please support the kids and go to Kickstarter to back our project.  You will feel great about helping us get full funding by February 4th, and will get some of the premiere editions of what is destined to be an enormous retail success.

 

 

The Vision:   You walk into Fresh Artists Print Studio…

Senior Apprentice Tanika gently guides a 42” x 68” print of a 2nd grader’s interpretation of van Gogh’s sunflowers off the large-format ink jet printer. She helps the Print Manager mount it to Gatorboard, part of a 40-piece order from a Fortune-500 corporation. Coffee and soft jazz fill the sunlit space. Three retired art teachers chat while making art-themed Memory Games for sale on our website. A local jewelry artist preps an air-dry clay demo for our Sunday Salon for new art teachers.

Our ED gives a studio tour to a new client, the CEO of a multi-national pharmaceutical. Jason, our Junior Intern, sizes digital images in Adobe Photoshop for a presentation to another new client, a child advocacy center in Denver, with the help of his mentor from a local graphic design firm. There are 30 pieces of children’s art waiting to be scanned, part of the recent Mini-Masterpiece project where kids interpret Impressionist treasures from a world-famous art museum.

A group of teens are color-sorting a mountain of recycled paint sample chips donated by Home Depot, into mailers, adding Fresh Artists’ lesson plans for delivery to art teachers struggling with empty shelves. A retired volunteer is on the phone coaching a Brownie leader in Detroit on the fine points of running her Clothesline Art Sale that will provide art supplies for an inner city Michigan school.

Tanika answers her cell phone and then shrieks, “I got a full scholarship to study photography at RISD next fall!” Jason peers over his 27” screen. He thinks he’ll stay in school and hang out with Fresh Artists for another year. He gets to print his own artwork next week. This place is pretty cool.

First step: Clean out the Space & Build!

We signed our lease on our new headquarters… 1200 sq. ft. sunlit studio space at Sherman Mills art complex in East Falls! The space was last occupied by a metal sculptor, so a major overhaul is under way! Lots of paint, window washing and designing an open, flexible studio with everything on wheels.

The Print Studio will be the new home for Fresh Artists as well as an inter-generational collaborative space bringing teens in as digital printing apprentices and inviting art teachers to our Sunday Salons where artists will demonstrate new materials and retired master teachers will coach new teachers in their favorite, most successful lesson plans. Funded by a generous grant from the Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, with matching funds from The CHG Charitable Trust (as directed by Carole Haas Gravagno), and the Hamilton Family Foundation, Print Studio is the next phase of our strategic business plan: involve at-risk teens from Philadelphia public schools in the operations of this entrepreneurial social art business to give them marketable job skills while they work towards their GED.

Fresh Artists is grateful to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The CHG Charitable Trust (as recommended by Carole Haas Gravagno), and the Hamilton Family Foundation for their generous grants to make this dream a reality!

We will partner with Y.E.S. Philly, an alternative high school program for teens who left traditional schools and have returned to receive their GEDs. Older than typical high schoolers, focused on success, these teens will intern in Print Studio helping with digital printing, art fabrication and all aspects of running an art-based entrepreneurial business. We will offer coaching in portfolio development and the kids will print their own large-format digital artwork for a final exhibition. The professional digital print community will help set up and fine tune the studio’s printing program, welcome the Fresh Artists apprentices with tours of their facilities and hopefully be a potential source of employment for the teens as they graduate.

Pablo stopped for a PBJ at the neat little healthy food cafe in the art-themed complex next to the Pennsylvania Ballet dance studio. An ice sculptor is our neighbor down the hall, as is a glassblower!

 

Stay tuned to watch the progress of Print Studio! 

The Specialty Graphics Imaging Association of America (SGIA) announced their ground-breaking partnership with Fresh Artists at their annual industry-wide Expo in New Orleans last week. This 50,000 member professional organization representing businesses that print the BIG, HUGE and UNUSUAL graphics you see all over the land has embraced Fresh Artists as their social responsibility partner.  As large-format digital imaging is Fresh Artists’ signature medium to promote art education for children in severely under-resourced public schools, it’s a marriage made in printing heaven!

““Specialty imaging” comprises digital imaging, screen printing and the many other imaging technologies SGIA members use, including those they’ll tap in the future. These are the imaging processes and technologies employed to create new products and to enhance existing products including point-of-purchase displays, printed electronics, membrane switches, signs, advertisements, garments, containers and vehicles. This is a perfect opportunity for SGIA members to use their expertise and imaging capability in support of inner-city education. In addition to supporting education, the program will create future business opportunities for participants while nurturing future talent for our industry. This is a great example of corporate social responsibility and sustainability in action.“, said Michael Robertson, President and CEO of SGIA.

SGIA hosted us as their guests at the October Expo in New Orleans.  We were the featured speaker at the annual dinner Thursday night, and were invited to meet with the Executive Committee of the national SGIA board at their reception Wednesday evening. Spending three days on the 15 acre convention floor meeting with representatives from every major manufacturer of digital imaging and printing equipment was like being a couple of kids in a candy shop!  We learned so much and made a ton of new friends. The folks at HP attracted alot of attention on the floor using some Fresh Artists images as demonstrations for their new equipment.

Board member Tim Markley, of Markley Enterprises (below4th from left) in Elkhart Indiana made the first connection with Fresh Artists through a professional discussion group about fine art digital printing (recommended by FA Advisor Rick DeCoyte of Silicon Gallery Fine Art) on Linked-In. He offered to donate some equipment to our new Print Studio workshop where we will work with teen apprentices to print our signature large format reproductions. As soon as Tim learned about our mission and accomplishments, he called Mike Robertson, SGIA President and CEO in Fairfax VA.  It was clear to them that we were the perfect fit…a worthy nonprofit that their industry could get behind in a big way. Their executive board readily agreed, and we were invited to be their guests at their national annual convention in New Orleans.

This partnership opens the entire country up to Fresh Artists. SGIA members are signing up to be Fresh Artists “Print Partners”, agreeing to print and install our large-format digital reproductions in cities across the country. They will use the same standards for resolution, fabrication, mounting and installation that we have created in the Philadelphia region, extending our reach to communities such as Seattle, Denver, New York, Phoenix, Cleveland and Miami.

We are already working with our first Print Partner on an art installation in Denver at Sungate Kids, a child advocacy center in Greenwood Village, just outside Denver. Executive Director Diana Goldberg discovered Fresh Artists through our partnership with the National Children’s Alliance in Washington DC, and was determined to bring our healing, transformational artwork into their new facilities for abused and maltreated children. Before our partnership with SGIA, getting our large artwork out to Denver and installed in their offices would have been challenging. But thanks to our new pal, Ann Brown, president of New Vista Images in Denver (and past National SGIA Chair), this is easy and efficient. Ann will have her staff print and install at Sungate for us!

Many manufacturers of digital printing equipment and supplies are stepping up to donate their products to Fresh Artists to support the new Print Studio we are opening in the next couple of months. This partnership will provide equipment, consumables, expertise and training to our organization as we grow, and its members are potential employers of the inner city teens who come through our apprenticeship programs.

Please click here to read the SGIA press release on this partnership.  We are grateful to SGIA’s Tim Markley, Mike Robertson, Ann and Gordon Brown (incoming SGIA National Chairman) and all the people who have so warmly embraced Fresh Artists with their generosity and enthusiasm for what we are building for creative children.  The sky’s the limit with people and professionals like this behind us!

An ordinary day turned extraordinary this week.

We got a call from a wonderful art teacher who had just been transferred to an inner city school, and the art room shelves were totally empty! The principal had no money to give her for supplies. She was desperate, calling to see if we could help. I told her to come over at 4:30. I would scrounge around in our storage space to see if there was anything we could find to help her. Our yearly distributions take place in late winter, but I would see what we could do. I wasn’t feeling very optimistic.

Exactly two hours later, the phone rang again. It was a young suburban mother whose 7-year-old daughter had a bunch of art supplies to donate to a needy school. Turns out this young philanthropist, Annabelle, had a birthday party and instead of bringing her expensive toys that she really didn’t need, she asked all her pals to bring art supplies for kids who had none.  The guests all complied and Annabelle had a ton of  neat loot to pass along to some really lucky kids. They had heard about Fresh Artists, and figured we might be able to help.

I told Annabelle’s mom to bring her over at 4:00 with all her art supplies, that I had a surprise for her.

They arrived, little Annabelle struggling with shopping bags full to the brim with sets of juicy colored markers, glue, tempera paint, scissors, reams of paper, and tons of glitter! Journals to write in, kits to tie-dye t-shirts, stamps and block printing kits. It was a true bonanza! I asked her to unpack everything, laying it all out on the floor in the late afternoon sun.We chatted about art, life, and why she chose this unusual way to celebrate her special day.

Then Miss Jane arrived, the art teacher with empty shelves.

   

There wasn’t a dry eye in the joint. Jane told Annabelle all about her school with 400 children and no art supplies. Annabelle heard how much her gifts would mean to so many children. She realized the power of her generosity and the circle of her philanthropy was complete.

Miss Jane met her little Art Angel, and was thrilled with the wonderful supplies that would delight her children the next day and days to come.

We were honored to play a small part in this happy serendipity.

Thank you, Annabelle, for making a difference in so many children’s lives, and helping a wonderful art teacher.

We are thrilled to announce Fresh Artists is a $75,000 winner in the Miami-based  for “best ideas” in arts innovation. With the additional local match of $75,000 from the CHG Charitable Trust we will develop the Fresh Artists Print Studio where inner city teen apprentices will learn large-format digital art printing by producing our signature Fresh Artists work for corporate client/donors. This is the next step in our original vision to have Fresh Artists be a child-centric philanthropic social business. Thank you, Knight Foundation and Carole Haas Gravagno for taking us into this next, exciting phase of Fresh Artists!

Read more…

And the same day that we won the Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia, we were covered in a full page article in the Wall Street Journal!
Read on…

Fresh Artists Angel Carole Haas Gravagno with board at Knight Foundation announcement event NEW ART ACQUISITIONS FOR 2011

This year’s new Collection is the strongest ever.  125 new pieces of art have been donated from delightful 2nd grade interpretations of beneficial bacteria to several astonishing charcoal self portraits created in senior art classes. We have invited the Norristown Area School District to join Fresh Artists and 15 students have donated their artwork to this year’s collection.

FRESH ARTISTS MAKES THIRD ANNUAL DELIVERY OF ART SUPPLIES TO TEACHERS

We delivered the retail value of more than $17,000 in art supplies to Philadelphia’s most severely under-resourced art teachers this spring. This brings the the total retail value of art supplies delivered in our first three years to $117,000.

COSMIC CAFE AT LLOYD HALL OPENS WITH FRESH ARTWORKS

Chef Peg Botto has been following Fresh Artists for years.  As soon as she sealed the deal to rent riverside space in Lloyd Hall through Fairmount Park, she contacted us for healthy food Sign Studio artwork.  We installed 16 large images…here are tossed salad, club sandwich, tomato soup and garlic made by 3rd thru 5th graders at Hancock ES. Pretty cool, eh?

SERVICEPOINT USA EXECUTIVE VISITS FRESH ARTISTS

Alex Brame of Service Point USA came down from New York City to see the work his company printed for the Fresh Artists-Barnes Foundation Project Exhibition. The Philadelphia office of Service Point USA provides the high-quality, large-format ink-jet prints that have become Fresh Artists’ signature in the corporate workplace.

SIGN STUDIO WORKING ON THEIR FRESH SPRING LINE

The ever-expanding collection of healthy food artwork now includes radishes, asparagus, watermelon, a citrus medley and baby lettuces.  All will be available this summer at the Fresh Artists Virtual Farm Stand!

SIGN STUDIO KIDS DELIVER THE GOODS

The young artist-philanthropist-entrepreneurs delivered $500 in art supplies to Art teacher Andrew Zimmerman and his 2nd graders at Howe Elementary School in North Philadelphia. This was the culmination of Fresh Artists Sign Studio, the year-long pilot project where 3rd – 5th graders at Hancock Elementary voluntarily made healthy food artwork for a “client”, Weavers Way Co-Operative. Funds were raised to cover the cost of the food signs to be made and installed in the new little grocery store and the kids were honored by the co-op in October. A needy school in North Philadelphia was identified, and the kids delivered the art supplies purchased with funds they raised.  After hauling the hundreds of pounds of supplies into the school, they taught Howe’s second graders how to make the beautiful paper mosaics that Sign Studio has become famous for…thus passing along not only much-needed art supplies but also a precious skill they have acquired from their beloved art teacher, Robyn Miller. It was pretty moving.

We are grateful to professional photographer, Joan Cimino, who volunteered to document this important day for us with sensitivity and skill.  Look at these brilliant photos!  And to talented writer Maureen Neville,who captured the children’s impressions in words. Thank you, Joan and Maureen!