Philly Block Project: A New Model For Community Participation in the Arts

The Philly Block Project, launched by the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center in October 2015, is an 18 month-long, socially-engaged collaboration that provides a visual narrative of the South Kensington neighborhood’s past and present through photographs. It simultaneously creates shared spaces for fostering interconnectivity, celebrating the history, and preserving the heritage of the community. Lori Waselchuk, the Project Coordinator, will discuss the Philly Block Project, now at its mid-way point. According to Waselchuk, “because so much depends on community participation, the project evolves with every step.” Waselchuk’s talk will present the project’s inception, its goals, outcomes, challenges and successes. The talk is presented by the Visual Research Working Group of the Calgary Institute for Humanities.

Location:

Art Building Room 672

Speaker:

Lori Waselchuk, coordinator of the Philly Block Project, is a Philadelphia-based visual storyteller. Through photography, video and multimedia, Waselchuk tells stories that connect and engage communities. Waselchuk’s photographs have appeared in Newsweek, LIFE, The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times. She has reproduced photographs for several international aid organizations including CARE, the UN World Food Program, Médecins Sans Frontières, and the Vaccine Fund. Her first monograph, Grace Before Dying (Umbrage Editions, 2011), was recognized by Pictures of the Year International and the Louisiana Press Association. Grace Before Dyingcontinues engage national audiences through two unique exhibitions. A community exhibit, funded with an Audience Engagement Grant from the Open Society Foundations shows in prisons, churches, museums, libraries and community centers throughout the United States. Waselchuk’s awards and fellowships include the 2013 Leeway Transformation Award, the 2012 Pew Fellowship for the Arts, the Aaron Siskind Foundation’s 2009 Individual Photographer Fellowship, a 2008 Distribution Grant from the Documentary Photography Project of the Open Society Institute, the 2007 PhotoNOLA Review Prize, and the 2004 Southern African Gender and Media Award for Photojournalism.

More information at http://www.ucalgary.ca/events/calendar/philly-block-project-new-model-community-participation-arts