Happy Birthday, Alexander Calder!

Alexander “Sandy” Calder was born to two artist parents on July 22nd 1898 in Lawnton, PA.  His mother was a famed portrait painter and his father was a sculptor who specialized in public installations. Calder is most known for creating the mobile in 1931 as well as his public structures.  Many of Calder’s works have been showcased and currently reside in Philadelphia. In 1949, Calder’s mobile the International Mobile was the center piece at the 3rd Sculpture International held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art among 250 artists.  One of Calder’s mobiles known as “Ghost”, created in 1964 resides in the Great Stair Hall of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.   The Three generations of Calders; Alexander “Sandy” Calder, his father Alexander Stirling Calder and his grandfather Alexander Milne Calder, worked in succession to complete a series of works on the Ben Franklin Parkway.  Milne created the William Penn Statue atop Philadelphia City Hall. Stirling created the Swann Memorial Fountain (also known as The Fountain of Three Rivers) at Logan Square on the Ben Franklin Parkway.  Where these work lie, on the Parkway, is also the spot for the proposed Calder Museum, which would not only honor Calder’s great work but the great work of his father Alexander Sterling Calder and his grandfather Alexander Milne Calder.

Even the popular search engine site Google has chosen to commemorate Calder's birthday with a uniquely designed mobile as the banner on the homepage.  Further showing the impact Calder's art had on the world at large.

Surrealist Painter Frida Kahlo Born on This Day in 1907

Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderon, known simply as Frida Kahlo; was born on this day, July 6th in 1907 in Coyoacan, Mexico City. Frieda claimed that she was born on July 7th, 1910 although her birth certificate states she was born on July 6th 1907. Kahlo said she did this so that she would be “born” after the Mexican Revolution,which began in 1910 and ended with the creation of the Mexican Constitution of 1917. into the new, modern Mexican society. 

Self Portrait-The Frame (1938)

Frida Kahlo is most known for her surrealist self portraits stating, “I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best”.  Frida began painting after she became temporarily immobile from a car accident as a teen as a way to occupy her time.  Kahlo’s work was inspired by indigenous Mexican culture and religion combined with a Surrealist twist of her everyday life.

The Rain Parade: A New Booking Chronicling Art-Reach In-facility Artist Julia Blaukopf

Need summer reading material? Be sure to check out The Rain Parade, a new book chronicling Art-Reach In-facility Artist Julia Blaukopf’s journey in Ghana.

Read more about the book here.

Help Art-Reach Raise $1500 by June 30!

If we meet this goal, our $1500 will be matched dollar for dollar and we need your help to do it! If 60 people donate $25 each, we will reach it in no time.

Click Here to Make Art Happen!

Here's how you can help:

- Donate $25 to connect audiences with arts and culture by clicking on the link above

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- Tell your friends about this campaign! Send them this blog post with a note about why Art-Reach is important to you, or repost it in your facebook status.

Your donation will help us to provide arts experiences to underserved people in the Philadelphia region much like the outdoor Latin music concert pictured above . Here are some examples of what your gift can do.

$25 = Tickets for 20 kids to attend a theatre performance
$50 = 10 tickets for a guided tour of Philadelphia's Magic Gardens

Nonprofit Journal, Board & Administrator, Sites Art-Reach for Best Practice

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Art-Reach and one of our board members were involved with this article.
Individual Board Plans boost board enagement

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The rise of a new American culture

April 10, 2011
By Margot Sanger-Katz

Art-Reach In-facility Artist Gives Away An Entirely Green Music CD To Celebrate EARTH DAY

Art-Reach roster artist and area multicultural performer, DARIA decided to celebrate Earth Day in a unique way this year – she’s giving away 6 of her most popular songs to anyone who sends her a suggestion of how they care for the Earth.  The cd goes out to her fans in an all-downloadable format with liner notes, songsheets and activities all viewable online, without the need to waste any paper, discs, wrapping, packaging or other unnecessary components.  And because it’s free, it shares the idea of consuming less while still having fun with fun with your family, your kids, your classroom or your community.  The songs included on this cd include several that have been used in classrooms around the world to teach tolerance, and share positive values and build bridges between cultures.  As the Christian Science monitor put it in a recent article about her songs: “When Daria Marmaluk-Hajioannou makes music, the world listens– literally!” 

What does Daria do with the suggestions she receives about caring for the Earth?  She partnered with two other environmentally conscious artists and created a blog called: 1000 Ways To Love The Earth (1000waystolovetheearth.wordpress.com).  Since the blog launched on April 4^th, they’ve received a landslide of suggestions from countries as far away as Japan, Hungary, France, Uruguay, Australia, the Virgin Island, Russia and the USA. Says DARIA: “ It’s so inspiring to read how important this issue is to folks from around the world and how active they are in finding ways to make a difference in their homes and communities.”  Suggestions so far have ranged from serious to simple to silly; such kindergarten teachers who set up their own worm bins, to Japanese school children who eat by lunch by candlelight to conserve energy to a three year old who thought it would be good to “feed the birds and not squish spiders”.

The blog also features a popular spot entitled FREE AND GREEN where popular multicultural artist, Farah Aria offers free Earth Day posters (downloadable, of course) art activities and color poster give-aways.  Under that section there are also links to free Earth Day videos and animations plus activity sheets that share how to make instruments such as didgeridoos from all recycled components.

For more information, visit 1000waystolovetheearth.wordpress.com or check out the Earth Day tab on Daria’s world music for kids website at www.dariamusic.com.