Fresh Artists Blog 

Come celebrate the fresh children’s artwork installed throughout the World Cafe Live on Friday, October 22nd. With the support of generous corporate sponsors, we are refreshing the public spaces of the hottest music venue on the East Coast with brilliant artwork made and donated by K-12 Philadelphia school children.  Each sponsor is adopting a work of art that was installed last fall, and recycling it out into the community to freshen up a nonprofit community partner’s facilities. The sponsor’s name and logo will accompany the permanently-installed recycled artwork panels.  The sponsorship includes the new, fresh large-scale digital artwork that will be installed in its place for the next 12 months. To see details of this innovative sponsorship opportunity, click here freshartists_salon.

Our innovative partnership with World Cafe Live began last year, with their employees (wait-staff, bartenders, dishwashers and cooks) choosing 15 large-scale reproductions of artwork from the Fresh Artists collection to decorate the walls of their hip music cabaret. The response was so positive that they offered to host this fun party for Fresh Artists as an annual fundraising event to support artmaking and philanthropy among city kids. Most of the staff of the World Cafe Live are accomplished artists and musicians who care about keeping art alive in our public schools so it was a great fit. World Cafe Live founder Hal Real is an enthusiastic and generous supporter of Fresh Artists.

Jim Pinheiro of Pearl Pressman with artwork donated by Alex Valles CAPA '10

Art teacher Linda Heeg of MLK High School admiring the work of her student, Fresh Artists philanthropist, Angelina Hinson, installed at the World Cafe Live

In addition to viewing the freshest artwork in town, sponsors and guests will enjoy live music donated by our friends, Wyld Lyfe, plenty of beer, wine, soft drinks and a delicious Mediterreanean buffet for heavy grazing. A “merch” table will be front and center, filled with cool Fresh Artists stuff…t-shirts, posters, calendars and children’s box games, featuring the artwork donated by some of the 510 young artist-philanthropists that comprise Fresh Artists. Great place for unusual and meaningful holiday gifts!

Whether you sponsor (adopt) a work of art (hurry, they’re going fast!) or buy a handful of tickets ($15 each)…call up your pals, that bunch of special clients or someone you wish was a client…and make a date to meet after work on Friday, October 22nd, from 5:00 pm to 9:00.  Bask in the wonderful, inspirational artwork made by these generous K-12 kids, listen to great live music, have a drink and delicious food donated by the World Cafe Live, served by young artists and musicians who care deeply about nurturing and equipping the next generation of our creative economy. We promise you will be uplifted, engaged and inspired. Pretty cool for a Friday night on the way home from work!

Salon on the Schuylkill is an annual event organized by the Fresh Artists Business Advisory Council. The Council is led by Bob Reid AIA, Elevate Architects + Collaborators and includes the following wonderful team:

Jennifer Braxton (IKEA), Nicole Carville (Haworth), Rob Diemer (In Posse), Rosemarie Fabien (Fabien Communications), Lauren Fantini, Esq. (Caroselli, Beachler, McTIerney Conboy), Shawn Gibbons (CI Solutions LLC), Heather Gibson (Sentry Art Advisors), Jennifer Heller (Comcast Corporation), Valerie Lagauskas (Event Navigators), Lori Morrissey (SAP), Jim Pinheiro (Pearl Pressman Liberty Communications Group), Jeffrey Totaro (Jeffrey Totaro Photographer), Suzanne Turk (Goodwin College, Drexel University), Jerria Williams (SEPTA), Susan Yeager (Arch Insurance). If you are interested in getting involved, please call Barbara Chandler Allen, 215-920-3317.

Fresh Artists Business Advisory Council

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.

KIDS CAN START NOW AND HOLD A FRESH ARTISTS CLOTHESLINE ART SHOW

Click here to download complete instructions on how to organize a Clothesline Art Show.

freshartists-clotheslineartshow3

CLOTHESLINE KITS FREE TO THE CHILDREN!

By Thanksgiving, we plan to have an entire website page devoted to Clothesline. Then, 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 Barbara Chandler Allen, at 215-920-3317 for more information.

June 10, 2010, Philadelphia – A bumper-crop of 180 new Fresh Artists were honored at our annual “Sprout Fest” (annual celebration to honor our new, young artist-philanthropists) on June 10th in the beautiful Atrium of the Education Center. Young artists from kindergarten through 12th grade received thunderous applause from the more than 250 adults who came to congratulate them for their philanthropic gifts and extraordinary artistic talent.

This year’s Collection adds work from the partnership with the world-famous Barnes Foundation (mini-masterpieces “adopted” and interpreted by K-7 Fresh Artists kids).

Fresh Artists' 4th grade artwork coming soon to an installation on the Barnes Foundation construction fence

This year, we were proud honor Josh Giblin, Merchandising Manager of Weaver’s Way Food Co-op in Mt. Airy for helping us develop our new K-5 student-centric nonprofit design initiative called “Fresh Artists Sign Studio“, our new K-5 student-centric nonprofit design initiative.  The 18 children who made the vibrant paper mosaic pictographs of fruit, veggies and other healthy grocery store items were acknowledge by their “client” and the crowd assembled. All images are now available to our donors and will be seen throughout the little cooperative grocery store within the next couple of weeks.

Installation Fresh Artists work coming soon to the produce department of the new Chestnut Hill store of Weaver's Way Co-op.

The adoring crowd of parents, aunties, principals, corporate donors, art teachers and press were treated to the premiere dramatic reading of Fresh Artists first children’s book, Pablo, the Philly Philanthropist, written by Stephen Trueman with founder Barbara Chandler Allen. The book was illustrated by Gardner Allen and art directed by Roger Allen, Fresh Artists Design Director. The cast of readers was headlined by the unsinkable sparkle-plenty Molly McQuoid (grade 3) reading the part of Pablo.  Molly is an accomplished actor, currently appearing in Carousel at Plays and Players Theater!  Stephen Trueman, author, narrated. This wonderful children’s book can be read on our website by clicking the Pablo button on the front page.

Molly McQuoid and Steve Trueman reading "Pablo"

A cast of Fresh Artists community champions and volunteers played roles in the dramatic reading of Pablo, with Fresh Artists board member Nancy Wolff (above),playing Ms. Clarke, art teacher Robyn Miller, playing Pablo’s beloved art teacher and Ludy Soderman (head of the School District’s Office of Translation) as Pablo’s Tia Carla. Ludy personally translated “Pablo” into Spanish for us.  Jason James, Quincy Ellis and Luis Hernandez also did a terrific job reading parts.

Cheering the children on was Philadelphia School Reform Commissioner Johnny Irizarry, who also spoke directly to the children about staying true to their creative natures. Mr. Irizarry, himself an artist, spoke about how painting has enriched his life over the years. Head of the District’s Department of Creative & Performing Art, Dennis Creedon, also had inspiring words for the children.

Philadelphia School Reform Commissioner Johnny Irizarry spoke passionately to the children

An inscribed first edition of “Pablo” was given to every new Fresh Artist, as well as to their art teachers.  The kids kept author Trueman (below) autographing their copies for over an hour!  We are grateful to Jim Pinheiro of Pearl Pressman Liberty (PPL) Communications Group who helped with the printing of Pablo. PPL has filled their new headquarters/plant near the airport with Fresh Artists artwork.

Publication of the new book ”Pablo, the Philly Philanthropist“ was made possible by generous gifts from Barbara and Isaac Clothier in memory of their daughter, Melinda Clothier Biddle and Elizabeth Beatty, by C. Gloria Akers in honor of Delta Sigma Theta, and by Health Partners Foundation. The new book is available for a donation of $25 plus $5 postage by sending a check to Fresh Artists, P.O. Box 44, Lafayette Hill, PA 19444.  It will be available on our website as soon as we can get an e-commerce capability on the site! Any web developers out there who would like to make this happen for Fresh Artists, please let us know!

Pablo donors meet: Gloria Akers greets Barbara and Quartie Clothier

Each young artist-philanthropist went home with a 2010 limited edition t-shirt with their artwork on it and a framed “certificate of extraordinary artistic and philanthropic achievement” designed for us by well-known author David Macaulay, Advisory Board member and long-time Fresh Artists champion.

Each young artist-philanthropist wore the special “front stage pass” lanyard emblazoned with a full color reproduction of their donated artwork, so that all guests would be sure to talk with the youngsters about the art they donated.

NEWS FLASH! Within 24 hours of being inducted into Fresh Artists, the artwork (shown below) of kindergartener Rovic Merginio (shown above discussing his artwork with founder Barbara Allen) was chosen to be installed in the front hall of Drexel University’s Goodwin College of Professional Studies!

Kindergarten artist-philanthropist Rovic Merginio's artwork

This year, an new tradition was inaugurated: the gift of two little art kits, each containing a set of 12 professional oil pastels and a sketchbook, one for each of the Fresh Artists to keep for themselves, and one for each child to “pass along” and give to another child as a tangible, active symbol of the philanthropy of children. This idea came from Meredith Allen Wiggins, the editor of “Pablo“.  Art supplies were generously given by the Fresh Artists Business Advisory Council led by Bob Reid (Elevate Architects + Collaborators) and Heather Gibson (Sentry Art Advisors), as well as Merion Art and Repro (our art supply vendor), and Jan Van der Lande and Laura Kellner, of global design-leader, Kikkerland Design.

Fresh Artists  granted  its first Scholarship Award of art supplies  to Senior Fresh Artist Alexandra Valles. Alex will start her college career as an art major at Penn State Main Campus. Beginning in the 6^th grade, Alex donated four pieces of her artwork to Fresh Artists, and 15 corporations have chosen her artwork over the past three years. Alex’s philanthropy has made it possible to deliver art supplies to thousands of children in Philadelphia, and we are grateful for  her generosity. Senior Fresh Artist Alexandra Valles was given a scholarship of art supplies to start her college career as an art major at Penn State Main Campus. Alex has donated four pieces of her artwork, starting with piece she made as a sixth-grader at Greenerg Elementary!  Alex’s philanthropy has made it possible to deliver art supplies to thousands of children in Philadelphia as a result of 15 corporations choosing her artwork over the past three years. Fresh Artists wishes all its graduating seniors the very best as they go forth into the world.

We thank Chef John Gallagher, Head of the Pastry Department at the Restaurant School, whose students made and donated 600 special Fresh Artists signature sugar cookies in the shape of artist’s palettes in honor of the children, and to Jennifer Braxton, IKEA North America, for their delicious cookies.

At the end of the program everyone who had made and donated art, corporate and individual donors, parents and art teachers and all Fresh Artists’ staff and volunteers were asked to stand. That left very few sitting!

Barbara Allen asked everyone present to “Close your eyes…tight! No peeking,” and to imagine a gi-normous mountain of art supplies in front of them:

- 981 jars of tempera paint,

- 320 pounds of clay,

- 10,104 sticks of oil pastels,

- 25,016 sheets of heavy white drawing paper, and

- 5,800 juicy new colored markers

Barbara continued, reading from their newly published book, “Did I do this?” Pablo asked. “Yes,” Ms. Kelley says, “You did this!  Your art and your giving made a difference!” Barbara went on to say, “Now open your eyes. Everyone standing actually made this happen.  The children who made and donated their artwork… the teachers who guided these children in new techniques, skills and creativity… the parents who encouraged and praised them, putting their artwork on the fridge with big, fat magnets…and the generous corporate, foundation and individual donors who gave money to purchase the art supplies.”

Sprout Fest 2010 celebrates the powerful philanthropy of children, leading us all to be more generous change agents.  Thanks to all the generous children and all who support them as they go forth to make a substantive difference in the world!

(Special thanks to our talented photographers, Seth Shimkonis and Andrea Tucker, who generously donated their services for the Sprout Fest)

As a way of sowing the seeds for a grassroots initiative to empower children as philanthropists, we are launching our first national initiative to help any child or children, anywhere, provide art supplies for schools in need. The Fresh Artists Clothesline Art Show program springs from the publication of our first children’s book, Pablo, the Philly Philanthropist.  The book tells the story of little 8 year-old Pablo who was always getting in trouble for drawing when he ought to be doing something “more important”. In the story, Pablo’s artwork is discovered by Fresh Artists. He learns how Fresh Artists works, consults with his aunt about being a philanthropist, and readily agrees to include his picture in the Fresh Artists’ collection.  As Pablo learns about “philanthropy”, he sees that his artwork has the power to bring art supplies to hundreds of children in need.  As we developed the story, we realized that not every child’s artwork could be invited to be part of the Fresh Artists’ collection, so we designed a way for any child, or groups of children, to make, show, sell and donate the proceeds from the art sale to purchase art supplies for a school in their community that is struggling with severe under-funding of their art program.

The Fresh Artists Clothesline Art Show program will provide suggestions for organizing the show and a simple, fun “kit of parts” with templates to download from our website. The kit will contain sheets of Pablo-branded art labels, name tags, certificates of artistic and philanthropic achievement, and a simple reporting form to send back to Fresh Artists so we can keep track of the good works of children around the country…and the world!  We are designing a blog for children to post their experiences showing and selling their artwork to help other children, as we are interested in their response to this innovative call to social action.

We are hoping this program will encourage, engage and empower children of all ages to hold a little clothesline art sale and see the fruits of their creativity and generosity. We will be offering this program to one or 100 kids, in neighborhoods, scouting programs (wouldn’t this make a terrific Brownie or Cub scout badge!), faith-based organizations, public and private schools, Boys and Girls Clubs, PAL centers, and through the network of Big Brothers and Big Sisters.  A Fresh Artists Clothesline Art Sale can be one child making artwork, hanging it up in the back yard, and inviting his or her family and neighbors to come, see and buy…or an entire school could embrace this effort supporting schools in need.  The sky’s the limit!  We don’t know where this will go, but we have a hunch it will spread quickly as it is simple, direct, and effective.

Photo courtesy David Cruz, AL DIA

Please email ideas of how we can spread the word. We are interested in your feedback as we design this engaging little grassroots initiative to empower children as philanthropists.

We are proud of what we all have achieved in just two years:

• Placed 250 works of art in high-profile businesses throughout our region, Michigan, Washington D.C. and Massachusetts
• Received the gift of artwork from 395 generous and creative children
• Delivered the retail value of more than $100,300 in art supplies to 265 severely under-resourced inner-city art teachers

• Writing a children’s book called Pablo the Philly Philanthropist. Pablo loved to draw and paint, and sometimes got in trouble for drawing when he should have been doing something else. A talented boy, Pablo was invited by Fresh Artists to donate the use of his artwork to their program to help other kids in his city. Pablo agreed, and is told he is now a “philanthropist”.  He doesn’t understand the impact of his giving until he actually sees large-scale reproductions of his artwork hung in a large office building, and watches boxes of art supplies pour into his school.

Pablo is eight and three-quarters

He gets in trouble all the time for drawing.

I am profoundly grateful to three creative young men who have helped me:  Stephen Trueman, an aspiring children’s book writer jumped in and wrote a really charming narrative.  My son, Gardner Allen, volunteered to do the fabulous illustrations. Roger, my younger son and co-founder of Fresh Artists, has been doing a terrific job coordinating the artwork, graphic design, layout and pre-press work.

The book is now on our webpage (button on the homepage) in beta format and we will be printing it this month for use in our program. Love to have input, so please write us and give us your thoughts.  We hope to see it on Amazon in the future!

"Pablo" collaborators Gardner Allen (illustrator) and Steve Trueman (author)

• Designing a children’s box game based on the classic “memory” or concentration game, using the brilliant images from the Fresh Artists collection. We hope to have this inter-generational game widely distributed through the network of art and children’s museum shops, highlighting Fresh Artists’ mission of empowering the philanthropy of children through their artwork.

Prototype box game

• Creating “Sign Studio”, a real-life social entrepreneurial business where kids make and donate their art, see it used in a real-life application they can understand (a grocery store), and actively participate in delivering the art supplies to children in need within their community.

Please read the previous post to hear and see about Sign Studio!

As part of our program of “Conversations with Children” about social activism, Fresh Artists has designed an innovative way for a creative group of kids to be philanthropic: a miniature graphic design business for 3rd-5th graders! Twelve kids at Hancock Elementary School are piloting the new Fresh Artists “Sign Studio” in their after-school Art Club and producing in-store signage for the new Weaver’s Way Food Cooperative opening in Chestnut Hill in June.

The young designers work with their “client”, Josh Giblin, graphic designer and Merchandising Manager for the 35-year-old food co-op, and make paper-mosaic signs that will be used to identify products within the new store.  Apples, bananas, tomatoes, peaches, peppers, garlic, collards, blueberries and toilet paper are some of the first pictographs to come out of Sign Studio.  The kids make art on cut up cardboard boxes pulled from the recycling dumpster at the Co-op. Each piece of art will be photographed at high resolution and the digital images will be available to co-ops, restaurants and cafes for a donation to Fresh Artists. A full line of more than 50 images will be available within the year.

The kids learn about graphic design as a profession, working with a client to achieve objectives, and have a weekly “crit”, just like in art school, where they show their on-going work to Josh, and get feedback from him on technique and design.

Hancock Elementary’s amazing art teacher, Robyn Miller, has perfected the art of teaching mosaics using cut-up hardware store paint sample chips to make brilliant artwork. She eagerly agreed to trial this pilot program in her after-school Art Club. Although Weaver’s Way is our first client, we have discovered hundreds of small, community-owned food cooperatives across the country providing a potentially lucrative niche market for the children’s artwork. We feel that the values of small member-owned grocery stores featuring healthy, locally-sourced food is an excellent fit with Fresh Artists’ values.  Conversations about healthy food are heard while the kids work and fresh fruit samples from the Co-op fuel the Studio’s work sessions. We, too, are “locally-grown” providing a vibrant alternative to traditional “corporate” artwork to businesses needing decoration for their facilities!

The young artist-philanthropists are donating their time, and the funds raised in placing their artwork in Weaver’s Way will be used to deliver many boxes full of much-needed art supplies to a severely under-resourced public school in Philadelphia.  The children will be honored guests at the opening of the new store, and will physically make the delivery of art supplies to the children in the selected school.            We welcome inquiries about using this unique artwork in your business.

Sign Studio with finished artwork

Large-scale reproductions of these works will be installed on the construction fence as an outdoor art gallery the end of April, and remain up throughout the new museum’s construction. Reproduction images of the children’s “mini-Matisses, Picassos, Cezannes and Renoirs” are now available through Fresh Artists’ unique program of thanking donors with vibrant reproductions of children’s artwork.

Barnes Director Derek Gillman and his senior staff celebrate the children's creativity at the premiere exhibition of Fresh Artist's Mini Masterpices Program. Art teachers Robyn Miller of Hancock School in the northeast and Evelyn Bock of the CW Henry School in Mt. Airy worked for weeks on this innovative installation, and guided the children's exploration of impressionist paintings.

Barnes Director Derek Gillman addresses the children

Artist-philanthropist Molly M. presented flowers to Pam Birmingham, Woodmere's Curator of Education. Fresh Artists is grateful to Woodmere for hosting the first viewing of this unique art collection in their Millard Gallery of Children's Art.

A lot of work occurred before the premiere hosted by Woodmere Art Museum:

Interpreting Cezanne's Terracotta Pots and Flowers, 1891-92

Children were treated to private tours during two visits to the Barnes.  Back at school they drew and painted their adopted masterpiece.

Art teachers Robyn Miller and Evelyn Bock join Fresh Artists founder, Barbara Chandler Allen, Barnes DIrector of Education Blake Bradford and Marketing and Communications Director Andrew Stewart at the groundbreaking for the new building on the Parkway. The outdoor art gallery of children's work will be installed before the end of April.

5th grade Brandon Balsirow's interpretation of Cezanne's The Ginger Jar, 1895

Seventh grader Laresha Williams' interpretation of Matisse's The Red Madras Headdress, 1907

Fifth grader Syeed Haynes interpreted Monet's The Studio Boat, 1876

Large-scale digital reproductions of all sixty-four works of art are available to Fresh Artists’ donors as thank-you gifts from the children.

We have just completed the second annual delivery of art supplies to Philadelphia public schools. Added to last year’s grants, we have now exceeded delivering the retail value of $100,300 in much-needed art supplies to 265 severely under-resourced K-12 public schools!

Art teachers thrilled with supplies to freshen up their shelves!

This year Fresh Artists streamlined the delivery process by creating Art Kits from data obtained from last year’s orders and a questionnaire asking art teachers exactly what they most needed.  Twenty-four themed kits were created, all exactly of the same value. Teachers simply applied for a grant on our website, specifying the Art Kit they needed.  The delivery was simplified as well, with the Art Kits available to teachers on three pick-up dates at the School District’s central loading dock.

Temi Allen loads watercolors and Prismacolor sets for her art classes at Washington High School

Fresh Artists board member Nancy Wolff welcomes Linda Chen (Head of Teaching and Learning), Shaun Pritchard (art teacher for blind and partially-sighted students) and lead art content coach, Tessie Varthas, to the loading dock festivities