Event #3: The Ongoing Adventures of Philadelphia Academies Students’ Cultural Treasure Hunt

The latest session of the Cultural Treasure Hunt began at the four-star Crowne Plaza Hotel at 18th and Market streets at 4:30 pm.  Deneen Cooper, Banquet Manager and Board Member of Philadelphia Academies, provided an all-access pass to the facilities at the 445-room hotel. In addition, Deneen shared her college experiences and tips for upscale service with the students. She led a group through an exercise of setting a table for a formal banquet event, with the proper placement of multiple spoons, forks and knives. A student named Natalie told me, “Now I know where everything goes and why it goes there. It makes sense to me”.  Natalie helped set a “blank table” and folded crisp napkins, using a previously set table as a guide for completing the task. By the time she and her fellow students finished setting the table, it was ready for a food magazine photo shoot.

Our group toured the hotel laundry facilities, ballroom/conference rooms, met the hotel’s General Manager Bob Cosgrove, and observed Chef Jon Bauer in the kitchen. The level of behind-the-scenes access was very comprehensive and impressive given the fact that the hotel was filled to capacity on the day of our visit.

Having worked up an appetite during the tours, the group reconvened in the dining room for dinner.  In keeping with the elegant surroundings, Chef John presented a multi-course meal with an extra special surprise: an intermezzo course (palate cleanser) of lemon sorbet served on an orange slice, which refreshed the diners between the salad course and main course. This was truly dining at its finest! I stopped by a table from George Washington High School to gauge the students’ reactions to the menu, and everyone gave their approval. Markita and Quadirah particularly liked the lemon sorbet.

Chef John and Sous Chef Peter provided dessert via a live culinary demonstration of Bananas Foster on Iced Lemon Pound Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream.  All the students gathered around while Chef John flambéed the sliced bananas in rum with a giant whoosh of flame and loud “oooooohs” from the group. The fire burned off the alcohol, but left a pleasant sweet flavor on the bananas. Chef talked thorough the recipe and the need for safety when flambéing. Dessert was a nice finale to the first half of the treasure hunt experience, and the students were fueled up and ready to travel to Allens Lane Theater in  Mount Airy.




Art Reach Program Manager Matt Bryan greeted the students at the theater. Matt coordinated the logistics of the cultural portion of the Treasure Hunt, and likes the fact that the activities take place after classes “because the students seem more relaxed after their day at school is finished”. 

During the bus ride, on the way to the theatre, students sang “school bus” songs like “Old MacDonald” with updated lyrics. I used the time to get to know some of the teachers a little better.  NEWSFLASH:  the teachers and Philadelphia Academies staff really love their students!!  They talked about their individual students’ aspirations and dreams, and how activities like the Cultural Treasure Hunt truly make an impact on student learning and interest in career development. One of the teachers, Joanne, mentioned the fact that she was currently teaching the Harlem Renaissance.  She continued, “The play we will be seeing tonight Blues for an Alabama Sun, is timely for our class”.

Allens Lane Theater is a relatively small venue that accommodates about 75 people in cabaret style seating at small round tables. This intimate space heightens the impact of the dramatic action taking place on stage, and the students were very attentive during the performance. At the end of the performance, they asked questions during a talk-back session with Director Kaleo Bird and cast members.

One student asked the cast “Do you really dress like that in real life?” The actor responded no, and explained the conventions of stage productions, mentioning the costume designer and the research she conducted regarding the period garb worn by the actors. An interesting revelation came about when a student asked about the actor’s personal lives and professions. As it turns out, a few cast members work with in the Philadelphia School system during the day and act in the evening. The cast instilled in the students the value of having dreams, pursuing passions, and find a way to do what you love, even if it is not as a full time vocation.

With the conclusion of the talk-back session, it was time to head home.  I thought back over the events of the evening and something that Philadelphia Academies’ Corvette Kittrell said at dinner really resonated with me: “ …we know that we have a direct impact on [student] college decisions. The behind-the-scenes tours also have a big impact on helping to make informed choices on career decisions”. In light of that comment, I give Cultural Treasure Hunt Event #3 a big “Mission Accomplished”!
 
The fourth event in the Cultural Treasure Hunt is scheduled for April 8, 2010.  Check back for an update on this exciting initiative.

-by Maureen Zug

Take 2: Philadelphia Academies Students Continue to Pursue Cultural Treasures

On Tuesday March 2, a group of tenth and eleventh graders from the Academies’ Culinary Arts and Hospitality program participated in their second session in the Cultural Treasure Hunt series. 

Students, teachers and Philadelphia Academies personnel participate in the Cultural Treasure Hunt on a volunteer basis after a full day of school or work. The programs usually start in the late afternoon and conclude around 9 pm, illustrating that our students and adult staffers are really passionate in the pursuit of knowledge and culture.

This session of the Cultural Treasure Hunt began with a visit to the Marriott at 12th and Market for a behind the scenes tour of the hotel’s rooms and meeting with two of the chefs on staff. Following the tour, dinner was served in the hotel’s Restaurant, 13. Hector, a Culinary Arts student, reviewed the dinner menu for me: prime rib, broiled tilapia, mashed potatoes, assorted vegetables and cheesecake for dessert.  He particularly “enjoyed the prime rib and visits with the hotel’s 2 chefs [Executive Chef and Assistant Chef].” Hector has high hopes for a career as a chef and perhaps even as an “Iron Chef” competing for culinary supremacy on TV. We will be cheering for you, Hector!  

After dinner, the treasure hunters proceeded to the Arden Theater to see a production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.  I sat next to Hector and Emily during the performance.   Both students had read the play in English class during the previous school year.  Dressed for a night out at the theater, Emily told me that she “was excited to see the play since I already know the story. Seeing the play will help me understand the story even more and make it real to me.”     

This version of Romeo and Juliet was no ordinary hose and doublet affair!  The stage was set up as a bi-level open platform so that the acting took place all around with the players running up and down the aisles of the theater. I asked soft-spoken Nicholas, who was sitting behind me, what he thought of the play. He answered, “The modern suits and tuxedos worn in the play bring the story to our generation.  There is lots of energy and action in the sword fight scenes -- I read the story last year and I now really understand it when I see it.”

 Just like his classmates, Lucian, tall and thin in a dark blue pullover, had read the play previously.  During intermission, Lucian told me, “Parts [of the play] are funny.  The last time I was in the theater, I was in kindergarten.  These seats are really close to the stage.  I think I would like to come to the theater again”.

Philadelphia Academies’ Harvey Goss told me that the students are “..like sponges”.  “They soak up so much – you can see it in their eyes.  You really can see how art makes a difference in their lives.  Events like these are so worthwhile!” 

After intermission, our group settled in for the second half of the performance with its well-known roller coaster of dramatic action -- the joyful love of Romeo and Juliet, the violence of Capulet-Montague sword fights, the tragic tomb scene, and the grieving reconciliation of Romeo and Juliet’s families. Our cultural treasure hunters followed the action with careful attention and enthusiastically cheered the actors at the end of the performance. 

Thus our Philadelphia Academies’ Culture Treasure Hunters successfully (and sleepily) completed their second segment of their five-part journey. The next part of the Cultural Treasure Hunt is scheduled for March 11, 2010.  Check back around March 22 for an update on the continuing saga of the Philadelphia Academies students’ quest for culture.

-by Maureen Zug

A Successful Day of Healing

As a roving ambassador, sometime blogista, and not so undercover Art-Reach board member, it is truly my pleasure to be able to “Share the Experience” with you, the reader. I want to tell you how Art-Reach and Build-a-Bridge (an Art-Reach member) combined forces on Friday, February 19 to combat the “Groundhog Blues” at a Day of Healing for over 40 caregivers. 

To kick off the Day of Healing, Penelope Reed, Artistic Director of Hedgerow Theater lead the entire group through a number of “Theater Games” designed to break the ice and get the neurons moving. Folks were paired off to perform mirroring movement games which helped them to get to know each other and offered tools they could later use with their own clients.

Workshops followed Penelope’s presentation, and were conducted for groups of 4-10 participants, designed to engage body and mind in creative, relaxing activities – Poetry, Clay Sculpture, Breading Baking, Beaded Jewelry Making, and International Folk and African Dance Movement Class.  Workshop time was definitely designed to be non-stress playtime for adults!  Debi, Recreation Supervisor from Riverview House, explained that she was so excited to attend the Day of Healing that she would have even taken the day off to attend on her own time.

Lenape Nanticoke Shaman and Assistant Chief Brother, Ron Wandering Feather, led a Bead Jewelry Workshop. Monique, a supervisor from Woodstock Family Center, said, “I am interested in beading on an ongoing basis, and a number of ladies in our class are wearing the beaded earrings they made today.”

In the kitchen Chef Chiwishi Abney, instructor for Build-a-Bridge’s Discovery Program and owner of a catering firm, led a bread making workshop.  The chef prepared several types of dough for the class to work on, and gave each of the participants recipes for whole wheat bread, challah, and a “letting go” (pizza) dough.  Unlike the first two types of dough, the letting go dough was a therapeutic tool used to release tension, anxiety and negative emotions.  Participants kneaded the letting go dough to remove “doubt”, “fear of change” and “fear of flying”.   After lunch, the loaves were removed hot from the oven and everyone sampled the bread with jam or butter. Yum!

Next I visited the Poetry Workshop conducted by Dr. Naia Claude Schulte.  Naia read some sensory evocative works of Langston Hughes, and urged the caregivers to find their own voices and inspirations for imagery. Jane, Program Director of Drueding Center/Project Rainbow, was “…very interested in developing imagery, composing poems and learning how to listen to poets.  I think that a poetry program can have a big impact on Project Rainbow”.

Across the hallway from the poets, Michelle, from Mosaic Delaware, participated in international folk dancing with peers and instructors Anne, Bill, and John. Caregivers learned a number of Eastern European and Greek dances accompanied by the accordion. Hands were waving, feet flying and handkerchiefs fluttering in the joy of movement.   Michelle told me that she enjoyed both the folk dancing and African dance because the instructors talked about types of music and national traditions regarding the dances.”  Angela Watson conducted the second part of the workshop with African dance moves.  She encouraged the caregivers to listen to their bodies and work out their emotions through music and dance movement. 

Visiting clay sculptor, and Art-Reach in-Facility artist, Beth McGuiggan’s session was my last stop. She led participants in creating tiles using coils and slabs of clay.  As I walked around the room to look at the caregivers’ work, I was really impressed by how much each participant had built in such a short time with little previous experience.  Yasmin, Director of Elwyn New Visions shared her experience, saying that the workshop “Gave me the opportunity to look into myself to express how I feel, not only to be something to others, but to focus on my own feelings.  This is not something I ordinarily do.”  What a great accomplishment, Michelle! And all before lunch!

During lunch Angel Baby Music, an Art-Reach In-Facility artist, provided smooth jazz entertainment. At this point many of the caregivers had received their chair massages from Pamela Brown of Pampered Bodies Spa & Wellness Center and floated into the room to enjoy the music.

After lunch, Vivian, Co-Founder and visionary of Build-a-Bridge, conducted the most worthwhile speed networking event I have ever attended. She wisely used this time to give participants the chance to explain the good work they do. During the networking, I discovered that many of the caregivers were volunteers.

For the last group activity, Vivian marched the caregivers, maracas in hand, into the conference room to experience the final activity– a full scale drumming circle with Art-Reach In-Facility artist Tony Mascara. All 46 participants had an instrument, and could be heard enthusiastically drumming all the way down the hall way.

My new friend Eddie best summed up Day of Healing “… this is a wonderful day for networking and no stress!  I would give it an A.  More than a day of healing it is a chance to refresh, rebuild, retool, and renew.  Art Reach and Build-a-Bridge always do a good job!”

I could not have said it better myself, Eddie!  


-by Maureen Zug

Hot on the Trail of Cultural Treasure Hunt

Some seek the elusive, ivory-billed wood pecker.  Others try to track down Sasquatch. In our city on Thursday, January 21, 50 enthusiastic tenth and eleventh grade Philadelphia Academies students and their dedicated teachers traveled on their first of five cultural treasure hunts.  This series of treasure hunts are the result of a collaborative partnership between Philadelphia Academies, Art Reach, local hospitality businesses, and cultural institutions.

The students, from Benjamin Franklin, Horace Furness, Jules E. Mastbaum, Swenson Arts & Technology, and George Washington high schools, participate in the Philadelphia Academies Restaurant and Hospitality magnet program. As part of the program, they had the chance to take a behind-the-scenes look at the Omni Hotel at Independence Park, dine at the hotel’s 4-star restaurant Azalea, get career tips from Philadelphia Academies Academy Resource Manager Corvette M. Kittrell, hear updates on the city’s tourist scene from Katherine Ott-Lovell, Mural Arts Chief Advancement Officer, participate in an orientation on the Treasure Hunt with Art-Reach Program Manager Matt Bryan, and experience live theater with InterAct Theater Company.

I tagged along as an Art Reach board member/Ambassador/culture vulture to share this fun, fast-paced, informative experience.

The hotel’s Director of Sales, Christopher Laufer, arranged for a cooking demonstration with Executive Chef Bamba Konate. Chef and Sous Chef Beni demonstrated how to make Azalea’s signature crab cakes and fresh tomato bruschetta. Not only did all of the students get to sample the food, but Chef also provided take-home copies of the recipes altered for the students’ home kitchens. Morgan, a tall, serious student interested in cooking and baking, shared with me his interest in trying the recipes at home to surprise his parents on Valentine’s Day!

Tony Venuto, Executive Housekeeper and staff provided room tours of the 150-room European-style boutique hotel. The students were able to visit typical rooms and learn about room amenities (cushy bed linens, cozy bathrobes, mini snack/bar, and room service). William, a quiet, handsome student and avid Philadelphia sports fan, asked questions about providing security for visiting sports teams and had a close-up look at the room safe. Overall, he liked the room amenities, especially the flat-screen TV and internet access. I definitely can picture William as the Director of Security for a major hotel some day.

Having completed the tour, we headed back to the hotel’s restaurant Azalea for a delicious, three-course dinner prepared by Chef and staff.  While eating dinner, Corvette M. Kittrell reminded the students that the restaurant and hospitality field was not just about “cooking and housekeeping.” For example, she indicated the need for attorneys, accounts, and decorators to support the tourism industry in Philadelphia, a world-class tourist destination. Kathryn Ott-Lovell talked about the Mural Arts Program's mural tours, which served 10,000 visitors in the last year by taking guests to see the artwork on walls in our neighborhoods. The Greater Philadelphia Hotel Association presented its 2008 award to MAP for its outstanding promotion of tourism in our city. Many students in the audience have murals in their respective neighborhoods or have worked on painting a mural at their school, so they were very familiar with MAP and its mission.

After dinner while we were lining up to ride the school buses to InterAct Theater, I asked fashionable, pretty Kareemah what she thought of the treasure hunt so far.  She told me that “the food was outstanding and [she] loved the plates and decorations” in the dining room. She also mentioned that the demonstrations and tour made the textbook information more “real and understandable”.

For our final experience of the evening, we arrived at InterAct Theater. Artistic Director Seth Rozin greeted us in the lobby before we took in the play City of Numbers. Seth talked about the history of the theater company and its mission of providing work with socially topical themes for Philadelphia audiences. City of Numbers was produced by InterAct in conjunction with the Mural Arts Program and the Violette de Mazia Foundation, and illustrated yet another way that hospitality, tourism and the arts work together. The production is a one-man show telling the story of a young writer who travels to Graterford prison in an attempt to understand the inmates’ lives and the impact of art, specifically murals, on their time behind bars.

Sean, the actor and playwright, transforms himself from warden, to inmate, to prison guard and other characters in this 75 minute production. His greeting of “Yo Philadeldelphia Academies, wassup?” was heartily returned by our Cultural Treasure Hunters. The play covered many sensitive topics, like the Philadelphia murder rate and the tedium of life behind bars.  The students enthusiastically responded to Sean’s hip-hop dancing and became thoughtful at the photos of our city’s murder victims. The play moved very quickly and soon our first Cultural Treasure Hunt experience had ended.

What an experience for all of our participants. One of the student participants, shy tenth-grader Daria, best summed up the experience: “I am not sure what I want to do…but I am here to explore…this [event] makes everything so much more clear than the class and books and it’s fun!” 

Stay tuned to this blog for the second Philadelphia Academies Restaurant and Hospitalities Cultural Treasure Hunt program in March, 2010.
-By Maureen Zug

Two Shared Experiences for the Price of One!

Mural Arts ASL Tour
The Nor’easter rains finally cleared and Sunday, October 18th turned into a fine, soft and gray day for the first ever Art-Reach/ Mural Arts Program (MAP) ASL tour.  A small but mighty group of about 14 tour participants got together with Art-Reach Director Michael Norris, Donna and Brian, our ASL interpreters from Hands Up Productions, and me, Maureen Zug, Mural Arts Guide and Art-Reach Board Member for a tour of Broad Street murals. Our group included both hearing and deaf participants who came from Bethlehem, Hopewell, NJ and the Philadelphia area.

We saw over 32 murals -- the day’s gray diffused light really made the paintings colors pop from the walls. As a special feature of the tour, we stopped at the “Independence Starts Here” mural located at Broad and Race Streets. MAP artist Don Gensler boarded our trolley and talked about his work with the disability community to make this mural a reality over a period of three years.  Don answered our questions about the artist’s process of painting this very large and complex work.  Of particular interest was the ASL alphabet depicted on the wall.  Don worked with students from the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf who modeled the individual letters.  He talked about the challenge of retaining the kinetic nature of the ASL letters on a static medium, which is the painted wall.  After our stopover with Don, our group proceeded on our tour.  Along the way, we talked about the individual murals we viewed, MAP’s community-based art program, the Broad Street neighborhoods, and buildings, a little history of the city and the importance of providing art access to all Philadelphia communities.

Louis, our trolley driver, negotiated the narrow streets in North Philadelphia to give us great views of murals just off Broad Street.  With the street traffic, weather, and other external factors, mural tours are not like a visit to a gallery or art museum! I always say that mural tours show “real-time art” in a community context.  The final phase of our tour showcased murals on the Avenue of the Arts South and the 2 “Lincoln Legacy” murals on the return to the Independence Visitors’ Center.

Our tour was a great way to celebrate Mural Arts Month and the 25th Anniversary of MAP.   The post-tour surveys were very positive and a typical response was “I would love more ASL tours…it was amazing…More, More, More Please!”  As a tour guide working with Donna and Brian, I realized the exciting possibilities of including more folks in the beauty of the art experience.

If you are interested in finding out more about accessible cultural events in Philadelphia, please visit www.PhillyFunGuide.com/access.

-Maureen Zug



Serving Reshaped My Thinking

Tonight will be my first time serving as a Host Ambassador for Art-Reach and I’m really excited! I find the opportunity to help serve the community through the arts to be uplifting and fulfilling. Over the summer I served an abbreviated internship in the Art-Reach office as an Intern Ambassador. Though not the best fit for my serving interests and capacity, the Intern Ambassador track had lasting impact and helped reshape my thinking about the accessible needs of others. This became apparent to me a few weeks ago when attending class.

I am an architecture major enrolled in the Drexel University part-time evening track program. This term I’m attending classes with a gentleman who uses a wheelchair. Our first assignment required a site visit to Mt. Pleasant – a historically commissioned mansion here in Philadelphia which is not accessible. Upon visiting the site, I thought of my classmate who uses a wheelchair and how I could help serve his need to complete the assigned task. I photo documented the site and e-mailed the photos to the professor to forward to my classmate.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m neither saint nor sinner but, I’m convinced that volunteering with Art-Reach helped reshape my thinking and encouraged greater consideration on my part for the accessible needs of others. Some have said to me “oh, poor guy; that was nice of you”. I beg to differ however. Poor us who don’t take the time to share our experiences with others who may not have the good fortune to experience them in the same capacity… thanks Art-Reach for sharing your capacity to serve with me.

For more information about serving with Art-Reach's Ambassador Program visit www.art-reach.org.

-Dawn Hood