Current Projects

Artists and Communities 2009

Asian Arts Initiative, Philadelphia, PA                                                            
Jeff Cylkowski,  Brooklyn, NY
During a five-month residency, the hip-hop and visual artist will work with local youth and artists to create a site-specific installation in the entranceway of the organization’s new facility in Philadelphia’s Chinatown.


August Wilson Center for African American Culture, Pittsburgh, PA                    
Ping Chong, New York, NY
Exploring the experiences of women living in the city’s Hill District, over a six-month period the  renowned theater artist will create a new work, Women of the Hill, involving local residents to be presented during the inaugural season of the organization’s new facility in Pittsburgh’s Downtown Cultural District.


Cosacosa Art at Large, Philadelphia PA                                                         
Janet Goldner, New York, NY & Lonnie Graham, West Chester, PA
During a two-month residency, steel sculptor Goldner and photographer Graham will collaborate with inner-city youth and seniors to create a touring photography exhibition, a sculpture to be permanently installed at a youth residency center, and an electronic gallery, all of which will be informed by the participants’ experiences of life in the neighborhoods of North Philadelphia.


Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE                     
Benjamin Arthur Volta, Philadelphia, PA
Over an eight-week period, the artist will work with local at-risk teens to create an installation, entitled “Graphic Sound,” incorporating audio and visual media to be exhibited at the contemporary art space. 


Federation Employment and Guidance Service, Brooklyn, NY                    
Angelo Ciotti, Erie, PA
The environmental artist will work with patients with severe mental illnesses at the organization’s facility over a five-month period to construct the Surf Avenue Sea Garden, a permanent installation featuring a 60’ earthen ramp and meditation pavilion.


GoggleWorks, Reading, PA                                                                            
Michael Brolly, Bethlehem, PA
Over a six-week residency, the artist will work with members of the Reading community to create multiple installation works for a project, entitled “Bringing the Mus(e)ic to the People,”  that will transform parts of the organization’s campus into musical sculptures.


Quest: arts for everyone, Lanham, MD                                                          
Andrew Richardson, Pittsburgh, PA
During a six-week residency, the artist will work with deaf, hard of hearing and hearing students from a Washington-area secondary school and Galludet University to create short films that will be used in and as the basis for a visual theater work investigating nanotechnology and genetics as they relate to deafness.

Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia, PA                                       
George Ferrandi, Brooklyn, NY
The installation and performance artist will work over a ten-week period with local teens and adult members of Philadelphia’s southeast Asian community to collect stories and artifacts that will be incorporated into multi-media sculptures to be exhibited at the facility as part of a new quadrennial celebration of the printed image, Philagrafica 2010.

Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, PA                                                
Edward Grout, Erie, PA
Working with local high school, university and continuing education students over a month-long residency, the artist will create a glass and tile mural, to be displayed indefinitely, as part of the town’s annual Kaleidoscope Arts Festival.


Step Afrika!, Washington, DC
David Pleasant, New York, NY
David Pleasant, New York-based master percussionist and choreographer, will conduct artist residencies with seniors and youth in collaboration with Step Afrika! This project will help to create a new work that will make clear the links between early African American percussive dance traditions and the collegiate stepping created by African American fraternities and sororities.

The Queens Museum of Arts, Queens, NY                                                   
Damon Rich, Newark, NJ
During a six-month residency, the artist will conduct interviews with various Queens communities to inform an installation to be exhibited at the museum, entitled “Queens Credit Crunch,” which seeks to personalize the public’s understanding of the subprime mortgage crisis and its effects on local businesses and homeowners.

Village of Arts & Humanities, Philadelphia, PA                                                      
Barbara Bickart, Jersey City, NJ
The interdisciplinary media artist will work with individuals from North Philadelphia neighborhoods over a five-month period to create a video performance piece, entitled “WHEN: Philadelphia” that explores how the history of violence in America is portrayed and commemorated.

Yorkarts, York, PA                                                                                         
Jonathan Van Dyke, Brooklyn, NY
Over a six-month period, the media artist will collect stories from York residents and work with students from a local arts magnet school to create a video that will document the experiences, perceptions and history of the city as seen through the eyes of its citizens and interpreted by the artist.