Young Curators Design Adult Show for Philadelphia Open Studio Tours (POST)

Fresh Artists artist-philanthropists had the opportunity to be young curators this fall. Four teens from the Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush, Parkway High School Center City, and Community College of Philadelphia had a wonderful time on Saturday leaning about connoisseurship, scale, and exhibition design.

They reviewed the Fresh Artists Call for Entries inviting all artists in the Scotts Mill Community of artists to submit entries for an outdoor, weatherproof exhibition to be displayed in honor of the Philadelphia Open Studios Tour days in October.

The theme of this installation is “Playfulness”, and embodies at least 4 word like energy, surprising, effervescent, radiant, luminous, lively or colorful.

Our talented young curators had a surprise meeting with several artists from Scotts Mills, and were invited to tour the artists studios of Dora Fischer and lighting designer, Lyn Godley to see their most recent artwork. They were fascinated to meet Professor John White, former head of the Art Department at Kutztown University, who had submitted four works for consideration.  The piece the kids wanted in the show required a little cropping in order to fit on the outside mounted panel, and they were able to discuss this directly with Professor White.  They were interested to hear him speak about his work, and which pieces would adapt to editing and which would not.

Aside from making really difficult choices that forced them to eliminate many pieces of much-admired artwork, the kids worked together brilliantly, advocating for favorites eloquently and with passion, but, in the end, reached consensus gracefully. This group of four teens have worked together often on Fresh Artists projects like Design Camp for Crate&Kids, a Design Lab for Stick-lets building toys and 4-week summer project with 8 interns from the Industrial Design Department of Jefferson University. Two of the teens volunteered to write letters to all artists who submitted work, thanking them, and telling of their acceptance or rejection - a task that takes compassion and grit.

“This is hard!”, said Anissa, “we wish we had room to show all the pieces!”

Jose remarked, “I now understand that a lot of hard work goes into even small exhibitions.”

The kids' POST Northwest show will be up from mid-October through Thanksgiving. They would be tickled to hear from people about their choices and the show’s design. You can write to them at info@freshartists.org and we will make sure to pass along your comments!

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