On yet another wet weekend, a group of ten braced a downpour to walk along the trails of Strawberry Mansion’s Discovery Center for a wild plant tour. Their journey began at the trail entrance, where an innocuous weed was growing. Tour guide Lady Danni Morinich, a local herbalist and forager, identified the plant as yellow
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For three days last summer, smoke drifted down from forest fires in the Canadian taiga, some of it shrouding 1800 North American Street, where volunteers were working on a climate justice mural. Mirroring the dramatic depiction of oil spills, deforestation and smog being painted on the 300-foot long wall, the very real smoky orange haze
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During her first class at the local Women Against Abuse shelter where she lived, the little girl stood distant and silent while The Clay Studio teaching artist Nitza Walesca Rosario made a pot. After a few weeks, however, the moist clay and the shapes it took wrought wonders in the child. “Working with clay is
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At NextFab, we believe that lasting memories start with the handmade. With an abundance of mass-produced goods stocking the shelves this holiday season, instead choose gifts that have that extra special touch. By shopping small and local you’re not only giving back to small businesses in your neighborhood but giving an everlasting gift made with
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What do you think the Philadelphia Art Commission does? You might correctly guess that it approves works of art purchased by the City or placed on public land, along with some street signs. But anyone who has tuned into a public meeting of the commission will have noticed that the nine-member body does more than
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At Spiral Q’s West Philadelphia headquarters, puppet artists cut out cardboard, shape it into bulldozers and paint it to prepare for a protest march against the 76ers’ plans for a Chinatown arena. “There’s something childlike about them,” says Jacque (who did not provide a last name), while taking a break from painting cardboard miniatures of
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In the fall of 2020 Maria DiMauro, an artist who lives in Old City, opened her Facebook account and clicked through pictures of warblers, vireos and catbirds that had died by crashing into Center City windows. She saw more than just dead birds. The pictures had been taken on October 2, 2020 by Stephen Maciejewski,
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The biggest muskie that Eric Hinkley has landed in the Schuylkill was almost four feet long. Muskie (short for muskellunge) are possibly the most challenging (and awesome) game fish to catch in North America. The long and muscular ambush predators sit and wait for food to swim by, but their discriminating eye makes it hard
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The paintings vibrate with color — bold greens, golds and blues transport the viewers to a quiet space that flourished during the pandemic and was widely loved for its healing powers, magic and beauty: the South Philly Meadows in FDR Park. Kate Kern Mundie’s series in oil, REST, captures a moment that the Meadows gifted
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A certain group that visited Ursinus College’s Berman Museum in the 2000s amazed Susan Shifrin, associate director for education at the time. During the visit, six patients living with dementia from a nearby Montgomery County care facility went from silence to talk to glints of joy while viewing paintings. “I realized there was a need
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