CENTER CITY QUARTERLY Newsletter of the Center City Residents' Association Vol. 6 No. 2 Summer 2016 Contents CCCulture CCCulture Unconventional Time Out for the Delegates .......... 1 Philadelphia's Anthem .....................................................21 It’s Academic An Unconventional Time Out for the Delegates Superintendent Hite Dialogues with By Virginia K. Nalencz Fitler Square Families ........................................................... 2 Choices: Public, Independent, Parochial or When the delegates to this summer’s preeminent landscape artist of the Hudson Charter Elementary School? ............................................ 4 Learning with a Focus on Service at The Democratic National Convention assemble River School, Thomas Cole, departed for Philadelphia School ............................................................. 5 in Philadelphia July 25-28, the question study abroad in 1829, the poet William President’s Report of what it means to be an American will Cullen Bryant wrote urging him to gaze Riches Enough to Leave One Speechless ................. 3 surely be on their minds. Art is one way to on the “fair scenes” of European art but Town Square CCRA's Earth Night Party Honors explore that question, and they’ll find an to “keep that…wilder image bright.” Babette Josephs .............................................................6 historic collection of American art at the Bryant’s advice traces a continuing motif, CCRA Celebrates Center City Living ............................. 6 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. waxing and waning, in American art. As CCRA Convenes Candidates for 182nd Legislative District Debate ................................................ 7 Broadway’s Hamilton raps, “This is not a Council Pres. Clarke's CCRA Town Hall ........................ 7 A step inside the great vaulted space of moment, it’s the movement.” US Congressional Candidates Debate the Issues ................................................................................24 the original building by Frank Furness Continued p. 2 Out & About and George Hewitt admits the viewer to Bala Golf Club Suits City Golfers to a Tee ................... 9 a cathedral of American art, founded in Friends of Rittenhouse Square Celebrate and 1805 as the first art school and museum in Beautify Our Neighborhood Garden .......................... 9 Philadelphia Ranked High in Walkability ................21 America. In the early years, artists sought Our Greene Countrie Towne to portray our “exotic” flora, fauna, and Center City's Green Oases ............................................10 native inhabitants to Europeans curious 2015 Neighborhood Beautification Campaign ....11 about the New World, while looking to Spotlight On... Trial By Fire: One Woman's Story of Loss Europe for artistic standards. PAFA’s and Recovery .........................................................................12 collection includes spectacular examples Bricks & Mortar of the European grand manner in the This Isn't Just Any Alley .....................................................15 giant canvases of Benjamin West, who Shop Talk CCRA Business Member Directory .............................17 traveled to Europe in 1760, eventually Merchant Members Discount Program...................21 becoming president of the Royal Academy To Your Health in London, and teacher of many American An Ounce of Prevention: Avoiding Substances that Poison Your Pet ...........................................................19 artists including Charles Willson Peale. Jefferson's Urgent Care at Rittenhouse ...................19 When Peale returned to Philadelphia he The Virtual House Call Has Arrived .............................23 had learned from West how to exhibit and What’s Going On sell paintings, establish an academy, teach. Summer Calendar of Events ..........................................23 Dates to Remember ........................................................24 At PAFA one can trace the impassioned evolution of American art, the land as CENTER CITY RESIDENTS’ ASSOCIATION aesthetic inspiration. Artists were no 1600 Market Street, Suite 2500 longer constricted by the hierarchy of Philadelphia, PA 19103 genres imported from Europe where 215-546-6719 myth, allegory, and history reigned, and Arts Academy of the Fine Courtesy Pennsylvania [email protected] landscape languished near the bottom “Modern Washington” by Brian Tolle called No. 1 (First Inaugural www.centercityresidents.org with the lowliest genre, still-life. When a Address), a cool new acquisition that will be in the show. Continued from p. 1 To coincide with the Convention, PAFA Gallery in PAFA’s Hamilton building, In this heightened political atmosphere, plans an exhibit that “draws attention to the Grooms’ version of George and Martha the way candidates present themselves has icons and issues of importance to artists was constructed for the city’s tercentennial renewed relevance, with many insisting on throughout the great American experiment.” in 1982. their status as a “common wo/man.” That The title, “Happiness, Liberty, Life…?” insistence has a long history in American refers to artists’ questions surrounding Anna O. Marley and Jodi Throckmorton, art. Consider John Neagle’s “Pat Lyon at the “inalienable rights” set forth in the co-curators of the show, say themes the Forge” (1826-27), a heroic full-length Declaration of Independence. The exhibit emerged organically from PAFA’s picture of a businessman who chose to have is defined by humor, protest and—as collection. When they began organizing his portrait painted in his earlier incarnation, emphasized in the nucleus of the show— the show they never expected that “Red, as a blacksmith at work. “Pat Lyon” stands portraiture: the Wall of Washington with White, and Blue” would be prominent, yet, in a proud succession of the “man of the 25 representations of George and Martha, “There it was,” says Throckmorton, “in people” American portrait descending from from classic Gilbert Stuart portraits to flags, parades, depictions of World War I.” John Singleton Copley’s “Paul Revere” modernist tweaks. (1768), a portrait of the silversmith in his Protest themes come in many forms, work clothes, showing off the teapot he Brian Tolle’s contemporary take on from Herbert Johnson’s cartoons about has made. A free man, proud of the work Washington’s image unites portraiture immigration—a recurring subject—and of his hands, work shunned as déclassé by and humor in a pair of acrylic busts often in the representation of women. A the British aristocracy, it foreshadows the from whose mouths the first and second visitor to PAFA may mark the kinship Declaration of Independence; such a person inaugural addresses emerge in long between Alice Neel’s “Investigation of will not for long submit to the rule of an strings of alphabet blocks like teeth, an Poverty at the Russell Sage Foundation” overseas empire. allusion to Washington’s famous dentures. (1933) and Sue Coe’s “Anita Hill” (1992). Red Grooms’ parade floatPhiladelphia In each, a woman is seen as “a case,” “a What can Convention delegates gain from Cornucopia is a flamboyant retread of problem” to be examined by powerful a visit to PAFA? “We have one of the the image of the first President, with men. Feminist commentary is implied in most beautiful buildings in America,” says Washington and other Revolutionaries Chitra Ganesh’s depictions of comic-scale Marley. “Great portraits, a strong collection riding on a good ship whose figurehead is women, derived from such sources as on 'Women’s Work,' a place of calm, a place Martha, beribboned, with flowing locks. Hindu mythology and manga comics. to think, to meditate about America.” Shown in the soaring Fisher Brooks It’s Academic School Superintendent Hite Enjoys Dialogue with Families in Fitler Square Neighborhood By Fran Levi Philadelphia School Superintendent Dr. including a fifth grader, William R. Hite held his ninth “listening spoke freely. session” with parents and students Monday, May 2, at the home of CCRA Education Hite described the district’s Committee Co-Chair Judy Heller. The planned improvements committee invited parents and children living throughout the system: within the CCRA boundaries; Greenfield, a literacy-development Masterman, Independence Charter School, program, the return of Central and Science Leadership Academy music and art, upgrading were the schools represented. technology, PSAT preparation and conflict Donna Strug Zachary Epps, Director of the Office of resolution. Next year, he Dr. William Hite speaks to the guests at a listening session at the home of CCRA member Advocacy and External Management, said, “Every school will Judy Heller. recorded the discussion, and Jura Chung, have at least one nurse and Chief Performance Officer, provided statistics. counselor.” Apparently, a request to be invited back to continue more money will be available, and each the discussions. Everyone appreciated Hite began by saying, “Great schools principal will receive an additional $60 per his willingness to meet with them, and should be close to where children live.” student in discretionary funds. welcomed the opportunity provided by He sought the audience’s thoughts on CCRA’s Education and Family Committee. what makes a school great. There was Hite then elicited questions from the considerable discussion, and students, audience. He closed the program with Page 2 Center City Quarterly | Summer 2016 CCRA BOARD OF DIRECTORS President’s