Highwire Gallery Exhibit June, 2009

For Immediate Release: 

THE NORTHWEST ARTISTS COLLECTIVE

Gone Fishin’ 

Opening Reception: June 5, 2009    5 - 9 pm

Exhibit runs June 5 - 28, 2009  

The Northwest Artists’ Collective (NAC) is group of over twenty painters, sculptors, print makers, photographers and fiber artists in Philadelphia’s Northwest corridor of Germantown, Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill. The Collective members are professional artists who meet on a monthly basis to discus local arts and projects to further their reach into the community through the arts. The members are professional artists who show independently and as a group throughout the region. Galleries in the greater Philadelphia area and beyond represent many of the members. The Collective is active in the Philadelphia Open Studio Tours (POST) as well as other community-based organizations.

This is the first group show for NAC at the Highwire Gallery. The members showing are: Eleanor Day, Elaine Bass, John Hollis, Gail Kotel, Judy Levy, Ellie Seif, Martha Knox, Suzanne Moller, Solomon Levy, Elena Aldrette, Debs Bleicher, Deborah Curtiss, Melissa Maddonni Haims, Jennifer Monahan, Michael Simonian, Don Ricardo Harrison Jr. and Dr. Valarie Ena Swain-Cade McCoullum.

can be seen at:

www.FishtownOnLine.com

Fishtown series

Reta Sweeney @ Gallery TwentyTwo.  Part of what DoNArTNeWs refers to as the School of Philadelphia (Peltzman, Barns, Monaghan…), Sweeney sees light with a delightful optimism and has the ability to create welcoming atmosphere in paint.  Reta’s paintings are joyous, reveling in the liquid medium, working quickly and efficiently, applying color with skill, so as to sign the work by scratching into the wet paint with satisfaction.

Philly AIDS Thrift in collaboration with Philly Side Arts is looking for artwork to be donated to the Philly AIDS Thrift fundraising benefit “Garden Party” silent auction. This is an exclusive offer just for artists that have created their profile on the Philly Side Arts website. This is a wonderful opportunity to contribute to your community and gain exposure at this very high-profile event!

Philly Side Arts is looking for four artists to contribute one piece of artwork each. It is preferred, but not required, that the artwork be Philadelphia-themed.

Contact:
Please email info@phillysidearts.com with a link to your profile and indicate which image of your artwork that you would like considered for the benefit. Include in the email the size and title of the artwork as well as your name and contact information.

Deadline:
Philly AIDS Thrift and Philly Side Arts will be selecting the artwork by end of day, Friday, May 29th and the chosen artists will be notified directly.
Artwork must be delivered to Philly AIDS Thrift (514 Bainbridge Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147) on Tuesday, June 2nd by 8PM.

Event Details:
“Garden Party” is a major fundraising event for Philly AIDS Thrift. Come join us Friday, June 5th, 2009 from 5 - 9 PM at Isaiah Zagar’s amazing Magic Garden. Live music performances by Dangerous Ponies and Young Republic with DJ Trans Am spinning the early Summer ambience. There will be food, refreshments, cash bar, silent auction, prizes, and much more all inside a gigantic work of art! Tickets are available at Philly AIDS Thrift and at the door, but get them quickly, this is an exclusive event and they will go quickly!
General Admission tickets are $25.
VIP tickets are $50 and includes an open bar and a gift.
Artists chosen for this event will be given 1 General Admission ticket.

More info about the event at:
www.phillysidearts.com/news
www.phillyaidsthrift.com

Philly AIDS Thrift presents “Garden Party” part of PAT’s Summer of Love 2009.
Friday, June 5th, 2009 from 5 - 9 PM
The Magic Garden
1022 South Street
Philadelphia, PA 19147

“Garden Party” is a major fundraising event for Philly AIDS Thrift. Come join us Friday, June 5th, 2009 from 5 - 9 PM at Isaiah Zagar’s amazing Magic Garden. Live music performances by Dangerous Ponies and Young Republic with DJ Trans Am spinning the early Summer ambience. There will be food, refreshments, cash bar, silent auction, prizes, and much more all inside a gigantic work of art! Tickets are available at Philly AIDS Thrift and at the door, but get them quickly, this is an exclusive event and they will go quickly!
General tickets are $25.
VIP tickets are $50 and includes an open bar and a gift.

Philly AIDS Thrift is a non-profit and tax-exempt charitable organization. Their mission is to sell lovely, useful, and interesting stuff that generous people donate to their thrift store and then distribute the proceeds to local organizations involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

The main beneficiary of Philly AIDS Thrift is the AIDS Fund. AIDS Fund distributes money to twenty-nine AIDS agencies in the 5 county Philadelphia region. The Fund passes on the donations from the thrift store every month with NO administrative costs. They also organize the Philadelphia AIDS Walk every October and monthly Gay Bingo fundraisers. In addition to the monthly cash contribution, Philly AIDS Thrift provides free store vouchers to Philly area HIV/AIDS service providers for distribution to clients in need of clothing assistance and household necessities.

For more info, go to: Philly AIDS Thrift.
Visit them in person at: 514 Bainbridge Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147
Phone: 215.922.3186
Email: phillyaidsthrift@aol.com

The latest round of updates on the website are complete!

1) Revised text on pages and updated the site map
2) Updated the backup protocols
3) Added artist search feature
4) Added category search feature
5) Separated the artist directory into multiple pages
6) Added delete account feature
7) Updated the Terms of Use
8 ) Auto-formatted the Shows and Fellowships section of the artist profiles

Be aware that some of the auto-formatting may have changed your data in the Shows and Fellowships section of your profile. Please make sure that your data is correct. Also, if you are experiencing any type of bugs, let us know.

Besides some future event planning, we are working on prioritizing the list for the next round of updates. Have any ideas? Contact us; we are listening!

Report bugs and suggestions to mail@phillysideart.com. Thank you again for choosing to use Philly Side Arts!

Art + Soul Food Festival
Saturday, June 13th, 2009
6-9pm
West Girard Avenue between 26th and 30th Streets

Art + Soul Food is a several block-wide festival highlighting the local culinary and cultural scene by staging exhibitions in currently unoccupied storefronts along West Girard Avenue. In conjunction, Butterʼs Soul Food and Deborahʼs Kitchen will present attendees with the opportunity to taste the traditional cuisine of what has been dubbed the “epicenter of soul food in Philly.” Ritaʼs Water Ice will also be offering free samples of water ice to festival goers.

Art + Soul Food is being thrown by the West Girard Business Association and MM Partners, LLC with the intent to showcase both the business opportunities created by the Brewerytown Renaissance and the long-standing local culture. The gallery exhibitions curated by Sarah Peoples and Beth Smallwood are to be staged in currently unoccupied storefronts along West Girard Avenue (2621, 2711, 2819 and 2943), and after the initial event on June 13th, will be open Saturday afternoons, June 20th and 27th. The show will conclude on July 4th when the Art + Soul Food artists will be enjoying the holiday atmosphere undoubtedly spilling over from the Art Museum festivities.

The celebration includes local artists of varied practices including sculpture, painting, taxidermy, digital video projection, ceramics, and jewelry. There will be free samples of Phillyʼs best soul food as well as musical acts ranging from funk/soul to hip-hop and even a live local high school marching band all serenading event goers with on-street performances as they stroll from gallery to gallery.

The multiple venues will house several shows with different themes, bringing artists together to produce unexpected and exciting exhibitions. Artists include: Beth Beverly, Maria Eife, Sarah Peoples, James Coughlin, Gabriel Byrne, Gregory Brellochs, Dan Murphy from Megawords, Natalie McDonald, Rob Sutherland, Ryan J. Greenheck, Josh Harmony, Rebecca Pulver, Pearl Bell, Bob Deane, John Blanchet, Ira Blanchard, and more.

Calling all artists!
Now is the perfect time to move your art career forward. Come meet other creative people, network and receive information about the financial issues of being an artist.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009 from 6 to 8 PM

London Grill
2301 Fairmont Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19130
www.londongrill.com
215.978.4545
CASH BAR and delectable hors d’oeuvres!!

Program:
Utilizing Free Websites: C. Todd Hestand, Executive Director of Philly Side Arts
Pricing Your Art, Maximizing Profit, Linda Dubin Garfield, President of smART Business Consulting
Navigating Finances in the Art Scene, Brian Applestein, CFP of Donnelly Steen & Co.

Isn’t your art career worth it?

$10 per person
RSVP: smartbusinessconsulting@verizon.net

smART Business Consulting
Philly Side Arts

Michelle Ciarlo-Hayes and Carl Christensen will host a Saturday reception for their joint show at Integrity Studio (New Hope, PA) on Saturday, May 16th from 6 to 8 p.m.

For more information, please visit the Integrity Studio site. All are welcome to attend!

As of May 4th, Philly Side Arts will transition its use of the Group page to the Fan page here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Philly-Side-Arts/91737089720?ref=mf

Regular Wall posts, Discussions, Links, and Events will only be updated through the Fan page.

The Fan page offers better visibility to the Philly Side Arts community; it acts more like an individual profile with posts showing up in your feed as they happen, so you don’t have to check the Group page regularly. It also offers better features when posting on the Wall, posting Links, and promoting Events.

Come join us on the new Philly Side Arts Fan page today!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Philly-Side-Arts/91737089720?ref=mf