Painted Bride Art Center records Ms. Coll. 516 Finding aid prepared by Patricia D. Hopkins. Last updated on April 13, 2017. University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts 2005 Painted Bride Art Center records Table of Contents Summary Information....................................................................................................................................3 Biography/History..........................................................................................................................................4 Scope and Contents....................................................................................................................................... 6 Administrative Information........................................................................................................................... 9 Controlled Access Headings..........................................................................................................................9 Collection Inventory.................................................................................................................................... 11 Exhibitions, Performances, Readings and Events.................................................................................11 Business Records................................................................................................................................. 124 Grant Records...................................................................................................................................... 155 Press Records.......................................................................................................................................162 Audio Visual Records & Computer Records [RESTRICTED].......................................................... 164 Miscellaneous.......................................................................................................................................168 - Page 2 - Painted Bride Art Center records Summary Information Repository University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts Creator Painted Bride Art Center. Title Painted Bride Art Center records Call number Ms. Coll. 516 Date [inclusive] 1969-2002 Extent 223 boxes Language English Abstract The Records comprise 6 series, the largest and most significant of which is the first: I. Exhibitions, Performances, Readings, and Events, 1970-2002 (125 boxes). Arranged alphabetically by artist/program, this series contains correspondence, publicity material, programs, funding material, and the like for each event or performance. The remaining series entail: II. Business Records, 1970-2002 (40 boxes); III. Grant Records, 1972-2002 (15 boxes); IV. Press Records, 1970-2000 (6 boxes); V. Audio Visual Records & Computer Records, 1970-2001 (29 boxes); VI. Miscellaneous Records, 1976-2000 (6 boxes). Cite as: Painted Bride Art Center Records, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania - Page 3 - Painted Bride Art Center records Biography/History The Painted Bride Art Center began in June of 1969 as a cooperative gallery of painters. It was located in Philadelphia in a former bridal salon on South Street, a dividing line between the affluent Society Hill section to the north and the struggling Black community below. Its success lay not only in its adhesion as a group but also in its ability to recognize other artists. This visionary group comprised Frank Vavricka, John Kammer, Gerard Givnish, and Deryl Mackie. The Painted Bride has grown, since those early days, and become the primary venue for the emerging, independent, visual and performing arts in the greater Philadelphia region. Many of the characteristics for which the Painted Bride has become known were present in that original collective venture. A major contribution that the Art Center has made to the local arts community has been the provision of space itself, free of charge to featured performers and artists. It is a flexible space, able to accommodate the visual and plastic arts concurrently with performances of virtually all the lively arts. The Painted Bride defines its community as local, unaffiliated artists, or those who, due to the experimental or non- commercial nature of their work, are denied access to established theaters and galleries. To cultivate the growth of new ideas in this community, artists and performers of national and international stature are included in the program. The Bride’s program embraces both the avant-garde and the traditional and has always exhibited a multi-ethnic diversity. Its organizational structure and the design of its space, which places the audience on the same level as the performers on a non-proscenium stage and which is totally accessible to the physically handicapped, have always made the Bride’s program highly participatory. During its first twelve years, the Painted Bride was housed in a rented storefront on Philadelphia’s South Street, an artists’ neighborhood, which at that time was experiencing a surge of commercial and residential development. In that small theater/gallery, the Art Center began programming the uninterrupted 160-event seasons for which it has since become known. It was during these years that the organization’s working structure emerged and was first tested. A formal Board of Directors was established in 1974, drafting the first by-laws and the application for incorporation as a non-profit organization. With the award of a CETA grant in 1977, the first paid staff was hired, with six employees taking responsibility for administration, theater management, promotion, fund-raising, and maintenance. A third major component of the Art Center’s operations that emerged during this period is a staff of artists-consultants, or artists active in their specific fields, who curate programs in various disciplines. This arrangement gives the Pained Bride inexpensive access to expert advice in specific areas, plus a group or representatives who are recognized in the field. In 1982 the Painted Bride purchased and began renovation of a structurally-sound, 12,500 square-foot industrial space in Philadelphia’s Olde City, another neighborhood near Center City that has seen marked investment and redevelopment. Since the receipt of a $100,000 Challenge grant from the National Endowment of the Arts in 1984, a capital campaign has brought several improvements to the space, including construction of a separate, two-story gallery, an adjoining lobby, and a favorable restructuring of the Art Center’s mortgage. Half of the original space remains undeveloped, providing rental income and awaiting future development as a multi-purpose space. - Page 4 - Painted Bride Art Center records Funding for the operation of the Art Center has come from every sector of the funding community, including the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the City of Philadelphia, the Pew Charitable Trust, local and national corporations and foundations, local small businesses, individuals, and members. The Painted Bride Art Center is a non-profit organization, managed by artists. This presenting organization selects and produces regular series in music, dance, performance art, theater, poetry, art exhibitions, and video in a 45-week season. A literary quarterly and live radio jazz broadcasts are other activities that the Center brings to the community. The Painted Bride’s program has kept pace with organizational and capital development as it has evolved over the years. The Art Center is among the charter members of the National Performance Network and represents the Mid-Atlantic region in the National Endowment for the Arts/Rockefeller Foundation- sponsored Grants Program for Interdisciplinary Artists. Other major program initiatives include: * The Painted Bride Quarterly, founded in 1976, which features Philadelphia and national literary and visual artists; * ADELANTE!, a celebration of Latin Arts, founded in 1988; * KUMBA, featuring African-American creativity, founded in 1988; * the establishment in 1987 of a formal Artist-in-Residence Program, which provides the general public with access to working artists; * Voices of Dissent, a consortium of multi-cultural, community-based organizations who have joined together to explore the potential of the arts as a vehicle for social change, first held in 1987; * the Popular Education Community Workshops, piloted in 1988, in which the Painted Bride Art Center acts as liaison between local artists and neighborhood groups, introducing the latter to the concept of the arts as a participatory organizing tool; * a community Advisory Council, formed in 1986 and composed of leading artists and art administrators from the city’s Black, Hispanic and Asian communities, meets quarterly to assess the Art Center’s service to their constituencies; * an ongoing relationship with ARTREACH (since 1986) with regard to a ticket-distribution program providing access to cultural events for disadvantaged or handicapped persons in the Delaware Valley/ South Jersey region. * a comprehensive Five-Year Plan, begun in 1989, targeting further program development, extending outreach and marketing initiatives to expand and build upon current audiences, maximizing existing physical facilities, and focusing on financial, personnel, and Board development. The Painted Bride Art Center’s mission statements say all one