Tag Archives: State Museum of Pennsylvania

Bob’s Art Blog: A Year in Art

January 6, 2020 | by Bob MacGinnes

The painting of more than a dozen murals was a highlight of the year in art in Harrisburg.

With one year ended and another just beginning, “end of year lists” are a common feature in publications of all ilk. “Bob’s Art Blog” for TheBurg is no exception. In a year filled with great art happenings on both sides of the Susquehanna, there were many exhibits and events to choose from. So, here is a baker’s dozen—you be the judge.

Most likely to leap tall buildings: In September, Sprocket Mural Works’ unveiling of 14 spectacular citywide murals led right into the 31st edition of the Gallery Walk art tour. As always, Gallery Walk kicked off the fall art season under the auspices of the Art Association of Harrisburg’s CEO Carrie Wissler-Thomas, who celebrated her 40th year with the AAH.

Art tackles socially relevant issues in a way that words cannot accomplish. With just one painting or photograph, the collective conscious grasps the import and deeper meaning brought to light by its focus. In a year when social debate reached its zenith, art activist Carrie Breschi, at the Carlisle Arts Learning Center, mounted a show that resonates resoundingly almost a year later. Shining a much needed spotlight on the plight of the homeless and its ever growing population, Breschi, within her context of cardboard, “Home Sweet Home, The Real Faces of Homelessness,” struck at the very core of why art exists in the first place.

Right on CALC’s heels in terms of social awareness and its call for equality, the Art Association of Harrisburg’s dual show celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City, which advanced the rights of the LGBT community. Curator Rachel O’Connor, with the blessing of Barry Loveland of the LGBT Center of Central Pennsylvania, presented a history in varied mediums of the community’s struggle for acceptance and inclusion. Paired with Maria Maneos’ “Brush With The Law” initiative, highlighting the opioid crisis through art, both exhibits struck home.

Beware the “Ides of March,” as March 15 began my journey in covering 3rd in the Burg art events. In the center ring upstairs at H*MAC, boxer Charles Bootleg Feathers met fellow avant-garde artist Gary Bartlett for a bare-knuckled brawl with the last man standing having bragging rights. In the end, it was a split decision. Both artists delivered a powerful punch with knocked-out art.

Earth Day was spent with Mother Earth, Vivian Sterste, and Father Time, Jackson “Jeb” Boyd, at Vivi on Verbeke, providing the perfect antidote from a long winter. Pottery, photography, pterodactyls and more brought the promise of spring, delivered to the door at 258 Verbeke St., Harrisburg. Over at CALC, an over-the-rainbow fantasy, curated by Cathy Stone, showed interpretive works from found-object sculptor, Sharon McCullough. It resembled Paris in the spring, with a darkly rich palette from painter Arlyn Pettingell’s advanced portrait studies of Parisian vocations. In the Upstairs Gallery, instructor Thomas Oakes’s collection of art from CPARC students demonstrated that disabilities have no bearing on creativity.

In the merry month of May, my birthday surprise was opening night for the Art Association’s 91st “International Juried Art Show.” Art from all over the world filled the upstairs and down, and curator O’Connor’s delightfully dizzying delivery of central PA artists made for quite an experience.

The State Museum of Pennsylvania’s 52nd edition of “Art of the State,” curated by Amy Hammond and Carol Buck, brought varied work from 100 artists selected statewide, representing 35 counties, to center stage for a star-studded awards ceremony, kicking off its three-month run in June. Pictured: “Best Seat in the House” by Donna Barlup.

Summer in the city brought “Picasso: A Life in Prints” to the Susquehanna Art Museum, which connected its Executive Director Alice Anne Schwab to the Big Apple’s John Szoke Gallery in New York City with serendipitous style. The erudite Mr. Szoke’s talk and gallery tour was one of the highlights of the summer season. Two late summer shows, one at the Carlisle Arts Learning Center with “This Place I Call Home,” featured the poetic photography of Lori Snyder and potent pottery of Kurt Brantner, providing a serious study in art appreciation. “Eclectic Energized,” across the river at AAH, presented the perfect counterpoint with psychedelic trappings from Enola artist Andrew Brodisch, as well as York-based portraitist Rone Del Galeone’s use of bold colors and brush strokes.

St. Stephen’s Riverfront Gallery upped the ante with its fall arrival of “Icons in Transformation,” a moving and monumentally meaningful show filled with a personal side of mourning, shared with the world by artist Ludmila Pawlowska.

What constitutes great art was shown to us on an August 3rd in the Burg, starting with the Millworks’ hive of activity. Artists were abuzz gearing up for the citywide Gallery Walk. Tara Chickey, art director for the Millworks, gave us the tour of artists’ studios, enabling us to meet a coterie of creatives. Venturing further up Verbeke, we experienced an Earth Day déjà vu, running into Vivi and Jeb out on their perfect-for-people-watching bench at Vivi’s. Capping off the night with a jolt of energy, Elyse Irvis, entrepreneur extraordinaire, elaborated at her eclectic enclave, La Cultura. On hand for the evening’s festivities was artist Dillon Mitchell. In the end, “Atmosphere, Relationships and Time” created the acronym ART for another memorable 3^rd in the Burg.

Art displayed at Nyianga Store in Harrisburg.

October proved to be the busiest month on the art calendar. Paper Lion Gallery in Lemoyne opened it with a roar as owner Chuck Schulz brought an ancient Peruvian celebration in photographic splendor by Dilmar Santos to its freshly painted walls, displaying “Mamacha Carmen, The Festival of the Lady of Mt. Carmel” for its first new exhibit. Next was the celebration of American Craft Week at One Good Woman in Camp Hill with local painter’s Gail Coleman’s color-laden bursts of imagination, Toby Bouder’s wood-turned vessels in wonderfully wrought wood and Charlie Feathers’ teapot tureens in a highly creative presentation.

October’s 3rd in the Burg took us to meet Harrisburg’s newest gallery owner, Michael Hertrich, at his eponymous Hertrich Fine Art and Frame. In addition, Chantal Nga Eloundou, proprietress of her gallery/clothing and jewelry emporium, Nyianga Store, greeted us as we entered a bit of her native land, Cameroon. Closing out the 3rd, the Harrisburg Sketchers finished their run at the De Soto Gallery in the Susquehanna Art Museum. Also, Valerie Larko, artist of abandonedness, gave a tour of her paintings found off the highways and byways that she has come to know and love.

“It’s a Nice Night for a Picnic” by Peter Ydeen

November heralded a big top event, celebrating the 70th year for the Paxtang Art Association’s Annual Art Sale of over 3,000 paintings, led by ringmaster/instructor Nick Feher. Featured throughout, pop artist Michele Phillips, not of the Mamas and Papas but famous in her own right, displayed vibrantly colored and quirky character studies of people, places and animals. Over at SAM, Lauren Nye’s curation featuring Peter Ydeen’s haunting photographs of “Easton at Night” were safely locked up in the De Soto Vault with Inka Essenhigh’s “Other Worlds” showcased upstairs in the Main Gallery, which was like Dali meeting Disney. “War is Only Half the Story,” a photographic expose, rounded out the show.

December’s gifts came in small and big packages. One Good Woman’s original owners kicked off the month arriving back in town as Joe O’Connor, Poet Lariat, “roped” in a standing-room-only audience to hear his readings from his newly published book, “Why Poetry?” Joe and Holly were back for a one night only, closing out their fall book tour in their beloved Camp Hill.

The big red bow of a present waited to be untied at the State Museum of Pennsylvania as a gift to be treasured with its exhibit on muralist Violet Oakley’s preparatory sketches for her art depicted inside the state Capitol. As Midtown entered the new “Roaring 20’s,” the year-end icing on the cake was like an art salon of Paris in the 1920s with an open house by “Bootleg” Charlie Feathers and Reina “R76” Wooden, showcasing new works and admired by local luminaries and art lovers.

In the end, it was a memorable year and, judging by the exceptional works displayed, it is safe to say the art scene in central Pennsylvania is vibrantly alive and well.

Issues of youth incarceration, criminal justice featured during first-ever Sankofa Film Festival

December 31, 2019 | by Yaasmeen Piper

Johntrae Williams, Dominic Dupont and Michael Kenneth Williams speak on stage during the Sankofa Film Festival.

The audience was silent as “The Wire’s” Michael Kenneth Williams appeared on screen across from four incarcerated young people. In the barbershop-like room, they opened up about their time in and out of the juvenile justice system, some starting as young as age 12.

“I was 15 years old,” Jabar told Williams in the documentary, “Raised in the System.” “Just five years [after] I was believing in Santa Claus. I mean, I’m going on three years—and I got 50 more.”

Issues of youth incarceration, community violence and police brutality were highlighted last Friday night at the Sankofa Film Festival, Dauphin County’s first African American film festival.

The evening featured Williams’ and activist Dominic Dupont’s documentary, “Raised in the System,” and the novel-turned-film, “The Hate U Give.” Even though the event was just two days after Christmas, the State Museum of Pennsylvania was packed with people waiting to see the films.

The festival opened with “Raised in the System,” which showed the causes and effects of the mass incarceration of young people. According to the documentary, as many as 200,000 juveniles have been tried, sentenced or incarcerated as adults in the United States. Those featured in the film said that crime was all they knew growing up.

“I don’t know how to be a doctor because there are no doctors in my community,” one of the young people said. “I don’t know how to be a lawyer because there are no lawyers in my community. All I know are gangsters.”

Williams himself grew up around violence in his neighborhood of East Flatbush in Brooklyn, N.Y. Though he never went to prison, he began visiting people he knew in prison since he was 17, he said.

Things were different for his “The Wire” co-star Felicia Pearson, aka “Snoop,” who appeared in the documentary. Pearson talked about how growing up around drugs, gangs and limited resources ended up with her getting a second-degree murder charge at age 15.

“I’m thinking I got to go to war as soon as I get in here because I’m locked up with adults,” she said. “This ain’t no place that a child is supposed to grow up.”

The documentary highlighted some of the issues these young people faced, but also some of the programs and people who are trying to help. There was an Ohio judge who makes it her mission to try to keep juveniles out of incarceration and “Pay for Peace” in Richmond Calif., where youth can earn up to $1,000 a month for community work and good behavior.

“We put all those things against young people,” Williams said. “We have become a nation that criminalizes adolescence.”

A panel discussion followed the documentary, featuring Williams, Dupont and Johntrae Williams, local filmmaker and founder of 3atrical Productions. The three talked about their past run-ins with the law and what they learned since filming and watching “Raised in the System.”

Dupont, who was featured in the documentary, served over 20 years in prison before he was granted clemency. Since being released two years ago, he has worked with Williams, local law enforcement, juveniles, community members and others to try to create or get involved with programs that target at-risk youth. He even joked that he spent more time in prison speaking out against youth violence and mass incarceration than he did when he was serving time.

They then opened the floor to the audience for questions. One attendee shared how he was in and out of prison for 22 years before turning his life around, and another asked Williams how he went from a kid in the streets of Brooklyn to an Emmy-nominated actor.

“Instead of me worrying about how I got here, God asked me, what am I going to do with this?” he replied.

The next screening was “The Hate U Give,” based on the book by Angie Thomas of the same title. The film follows the fictional tale of Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg), whose friend Khalil (Algee Smith) was shot and killed by a police officer while he was unarmed. The killing becomes national news and, from there, the film tackles racial tension, the failures of the criminal justice system, protests, riots and more.

“To see it and to hear these kids, the same age as my son, I have a 17-year-old, then I also have a 9- and 8-year-old, and to hear what they’ve encountered and what they’re living through, and how one mistake can not just ruin but alter the course of things so intensely, it’s just so heartbreaking,” said audience member Manuela Hooper.

Along with the film, the festival featured many local vendors such as The Cupcake Lady, Reign & Tay’s Lemonade and the Harris Family Brewery, as well as numerous community groups.

Dauphin County Commissioner George Hartwick gave the Sankofa team a special recognition by declaring Dec. 27 Sankofa Film Festival day in the county.

“Tonight was inspirational,” he said. “The ability to partner with Sankofa and bring real-life history to the stages of Harrisburg and making sure the African American experience is represented in a real way is a true blessing.”

For more information on the Sankofa Film Festival, visit www.sankofatheatrehbg.com.

A Study in Brilliance: Exhibit offers context, understanding to Violet Oakley’s stunning Capitol murals.

December 30, 2019 | by Erika Firestone

“The Constitutional Convention 1787”

If you’ve ever toured the PA Capitol, you probably agree that Violet Oakley’s spectacular murals are a highlight.

You now can learn even more about the painter and her famous works with a new exhibit at the State Museum of Pennsylvania, one that places her murals into personal and historical context.

“One of the most fascinating things about the studies is watching her think through the narrative of these murals and seeing how she changes her mind along the way,” said Fine Arts Curator Amy Hammond.

As the first American woman to receive a government mural commission, Oakley spent much of the early 20th century painting 43 murals throughout the Capitol. The new exhibit focuses on the nine murals in the Capitol’s Senate Chambers, blending in Oakley’s significant historical legacy and profound artistic ability.

Dr. Curtis Miner, exhibit co-curator, said that Oakley embodied the “New Woman” ideal of the early 20th century, in that she was skillfully entering professional spaces that had historically been reserved for men.

“When she was asked to take on the project after the former artist had passed, she said, ‘Yes, but I will be getting the same pay, correct?’” said Miner. “She did not see gender as a barrier and asserted her opinions freely.”

In 1982, the museum acquired 400 pieces when the Violet Oakley Memorial Foundation dissolved. The Senate Chamber mural studies were chosen not only for their scope and scale, but for their timing. Oakley created these murals during both World War I and the apex of the women’s suffrage movement.

In general, civic murals tend to represent milestones and broad themes, such as battles won and the forward march of progress, Miner said.

“She followed this well-established tradition but with her own twist,” he said. “She used these murals to tell her version of Pennsylvania and U.S. history.”

Miner and Hammond pointed out many examples of this throughout the exhibit. Oakley, for instance, began her murals with Quaker ideals of tolerance in panels depicting the freeing of slaves and the early interactions with Native Americans. She also made women and African Americans visual focal points in scenes such as the Constitutional Convention and the Gettysburg Address.

“With these studies, we have been able to bring fragments of her work together in a meaningful way,” Miner said.

The exhibit’s title, “Picturing a More Perfect Union,” comes together in the final portion, which focuses on the largest of these murals, “Unity.”

In this mural, the armies of the earth, depicted in modern, World War I attire, and the people of the earth lead up to the figure of Unity, whose outstretched arms seek to bring them all together. This portion of the exhibit is accompanied by a video with recordings of Oakley’s own voice and drawings of the Unity figure in various positions.

Both Hammond and Miner said this was Oakley’s radical message from Pennsylvania to the world—a kind of Utopian vision of peace and international human dignity.

Hammond compared the wide platform that Oakley had at such a young age to modern social media influencers, in that she used this platform to share her ideals of peace and tolerance, which still can be applied to current events today.

“She wanted her work to stand the test of time,” Miner said. “And it does.”

“Picturing a More Perfect Union: Violet Oakley’s Mural Studies for the Pennsylvania Senate Chamber, 1911–1919” runs through April 26 at the State Museum of Pennsylvania, 300 North St., Harrisburg. For more information about the exhibit, visit www.statemuseumpa.org.

In conjunction with the exhibit, Jason Wilson, historian for the Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee, will conduct tours on the history and preservation of Violet Oakley’s Senate Chamber murals. These tours will take place in the state Capitol on Sunday, Feb. 16, 2 to 3 p.m., and Friday, Feb. 21, 12:15 to 12:45 p.m.

The Week that Was: News and features around Harrisburg

December 20, 2019 | by Lawrance Binda

Three partners of The Bridge discuss their development plans with our reporter.

Christmas is knocking and the year is winding down, which often means a last-minute rush of to-do items around Harrisburg.

That made this week especially hectic, as the city passed a 2020 budget, the school district made a big change and new players on the city’s redevelopment scene introduced themselves. As we do each week, we have all our local stories tied up in a nice package in case you missed any of our coverage.

Christmas for Italian-American families traditionally has included a meal called “The Feast of the Seven Fishes.” Our food writer Rosemary offers a twist on that tradition in her monthly column and recipe.

Clear toy candy is a traditional way to celebrate Christmas in central PA. The craft may have gone out of style, but there are still a few Harrisburg-area candy-makers who are keeping the tradition alive. Read our feature story from the December issue.

Forster Street in Harrisburg is a menace to pedestrians, necessitating immediate action by PennDOT. So says TheBurg’s editor in an editorial that urges PennDOT to understand its obligation to both pedestrians and motorists. Read his plea here.

Harrisburg passed a balanced budget that does not raise taxes but will result in higher pay for police and faster debt relief for the city. The budget process lacked the drama of many past years as the administration and City Council agreed on budget priorities. Click here to read the details.

Harrisburg school district is making a change at the top, as the acting superintendent is stepping down, but not without taking a parting shot at the former administration and a key state legislator. Find out why he’s leaving and who’s replacing him in our online news story.

A medical marijuana dispensary can proceed with construction on Allison Hill after a split City Council approved its development plan. Council also OK’d the building plan for an AutoZone store in Uptown Harrisburg. Read the details here.

Open Stage has undergone a complete transformation with a recent renovation of its downtown Harrisburg theater. Read our feature story then go pay them a visit to see a great holiday show.

Sara Bozich has your list of fun events for any free time you may have between last-minute holiday shopping trips this weekend. There are still many holiday options, as well as monthly favorites like 3^rd in the Burg.

State Museum of Pennsylvania has opened an exhibit on muralist Violet Oakley’s preparatory sketches for some of her work inside the state Capitol. Our fine arts blogger wrote about his recent visit.

The Bridge offered TheBurg a tour of the old Bishop McDevitt High School, where the development partners plan to begin building out work, community and living space. Check out our photo gallery to see what the building looks like before its pending transformation.

Whitaker Center recently opened up two newly reconstructed spaces: KidsPlace and the STEM Design Studios. Find out why these improvements were made to the 20-year-old downtown Harrisburg arts center in our feature story.

Do you receive TheBurg Daily, our daily digest of news and events delivered right to your inbox? If not, subscribe here!

Bob’s Art Blog: A Gift for the Season

December 16, 2019 | by Bob MacGinnes

The entrance to the current State Museum exhibit.

Some of the best holiday gifts arrive early.

This one arrived right before Thanksgiving, and now the people of Harrisburg have the holiday season to open the big red bow. It is a wondrous package to be enjoyed by all. In honor of the 100th anniversary in 2020 of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote, the State Museum proudly unveiled “Picturing a More Perfect Union: Violet Oakley’s Mural Studies for the Pennsylvania Senate Chamber 1911-1919.”

Anyone who has toured the Capitol building is well familiar with the stunning murals Violet Oakley completed over a span of almost a quarter of a century. The sheer magnitude of her life’s crowning achievement has been seen by thousands of visitors in thrall to the beauty in word and picture from her brush. They are a testament to an artist and a woman of high ideals and lofty hopes for a world where peace would reign. The story of how the Capitol’s murals came to be under Oakley’s vision is a story of destiny and fate. Lightning does strike the same place twice.

It was the “Golden Age” of illustration. Her contemporaries, artists of inordinate skill, like her instructor at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Howard Pyle, and world-renowned muralist, Edwin Austin Abbey, both were slated to decorate the walls and ceilings of the Pennsylvania State Capitol. Abbey had just completed four lunette murals under the dome of the Capitol Rotunda and one painting for the Senate Chamber when diagnosed with cancer. Pyle, pegged to take his place, died in Europe before even starting.

Oakley, the first female to receive a government mural commission, had already completed the panels for the Governor’s Reception Room five years earlier. Thus, undertaking the Senate Chamber murals fell to her. She called the new commission, “The need to pick up the threads and weave again,” finding it both a burden and a blessing. Her painstaking planning and detailed execution, as seen in her sketches, come alive in the dense and richly textured exhibit.

The main panel that opens the exhibit makes for a dramatic beginning with an overlaid photograph of Oakley and a full color rendering of the “Unity” mural. It creates the sensation of a book cover as one enters a portal going back in time to the artist’s studio and viewing her sketches firsthand.

The span of history the exhibit encompasses predates the passage of the 19th Amendment, which does not get ratified until months after Oakley’s completion of the Senate Chamber murals. This tumultuous era entails the war that shook the world, The Great War (World War I 1914-18). The United States entered it in its final year, dashing all hope for Oakley’s vision of world peace. Her feminism and vocal advocacy for peace formed the cornerstone for her murals, which embraced Quaker ideals that come across both through William Penn’s vision and those of Oakley’s. She was an artist of great conviction and was highly attuned to human suffering throughout history by all peoples.

If any one mural speaks volumes regarding her views it is “Unity,” the pinnacle of her work. The frieze is majestic in size and scope, running 46 feet long and nine feet high. In the exhibit, it is represented as a mural composite image. Three separate sketches take the viewer from its inception to its natural end incorporating gouache, watercolor, graphite and ink on paper and pastel and chalk on paper. Perhaps the apex of the exhibit is a tape recording made in 1955 accompanied by visual text to Oakley’s voice when she returned to the State Capitol to discuss her murals. Hearing her words today resonates even more deeply, given the state of our world. Oakley was and still is revered as a unique voice in championing women’s rights, a pioneer for other women no matter their field, as professional status was difficult to attain in a world dominated by a male hierarchy.

The State Museum of Pennsylvania, under a triumvirate of historians and curators, mounted this magnificent, multi-faceted exhibit. Preeminent Oakley scholar, Dr. Patricia Likos Ricci, provided expert advice for the exhibit. She has studied Oakley for more than 40 years and also is an art historian and professor at Elizabethtown College. Dr. Curtis Miner, the State Museum’s senior curator of history and Amy Hammond, fine arts curator, collaborated on the collections shown. Ricci interviewed Oakley’s life partner, Edith Emerson, who provided instrumental background to the thought process and attention to detail that Oakley brought to life in her sketches. Ricci was responsible in large part for bringing the Oakley sketches to the museum for inclusion. Beyond the art academics is the exhibit’s designer, Meghann Dekan, who transferred the Senate Chamber murals to wood panels framing the exhibit. They provide exact duplication to those Oakley executed in the Senate Chamber. Dekan orchestrated the constructs of the walls as well as the interpretive materials that accompany the exhibit.

The museum’s treasure of this exhibit is yours for the asking, a gift for all to be savored and enjoyed to its fullest. I cannot think of a better season to carry out Violet Oakley’s underlying wish for world peace. May you have the warmest of holidays.

“Picturing a More Perfect Union: Violet Oakley’s Mural Studies for the Pennsylvania Senate Chamber, 1911-1919,” runs through April 26 at the State Museum of Pennsylvania, 300 North St., Harrisburg. For more information, visit their website.

Conversations on Screen: Sankofa Film Festival aims to build relationships, understanding.

November 29, 2019 | by Brandie Kessler

Michael Kenneth Williams

Sharia Benn has been planting seeds through conversation since she was a girl growing up in Baltimore.

Back then, one of the only African American children in her class, she didn’t invite those conversations, but she engaged because she was often the focal point.

Now, as the cofounder of Sankofa African American Theatre Company in Harrisburg, Benn is the one intentionally facilitating those conversations. She has decided to stand in the spotlight and pull onto the stage topics like veiled and overt racism, police brutality and other issues that some might want to keep hidden.

On Dec. 27, she hopes to start another robust community conversation, as Sankofa hosts the region’s first African American film festival. The event will bring Emmy-nominated actor Michael Kenneth Williams to Harrisburg to discuss his film, “Raised in the System,” which focuses on youth in the criminal justice system. That film, along with “The Hate U Give,” another film that explores themes of family, white privilege, police brutality and love, will be shown during the film festival, to be held in late December at the State Museum.

“Everything in my life has led up to this,” Benn said of her work with Sankofa and its continued growth through events like the film festival.

She recalled how her white classmates and peers back in Baltimore saw her as “just this strange being,” and how her fellow Girl Scouts wanted to touch her hair when she went on camping trips with them.

As an adult, those feelings of being different from many of the people around her have continued.

Now living in Harrisburg, Benn still finds herself in the middle of occasionally awkward conversations, as she is one of the few African Americans in management in the insurance industry, she said.

Some of the things she hears would cause people less practiced in such conversations to turn away—racially insensitive opinions and assumptions. When Benn has those encounters, she embraces them. They’re teachable moments.

When she chooses to engage, to teach, she has often found that people truly don’t realize what they’re doing, and they have an interest in learning, in getting better.

“I believe that a lot of the tension, the pain, is because people on both sides, African Americans (and) whites, don’t know, don’t understand the other perspective,” she said. “And when you do understand it, when you’re exposed to it, what you do after, that’s a choice.”

Sankofa is all about exposing its audiences to themes that open the door to understanding.

Johntrae Williams, 39, a graduate of Harrisburg High School and the University of The Arts in Philadelphia, and the vice president of Sankofa African American Theatre Company, said one of the missions of Sankofa is to give African Americans more exposure to the theater world.

“There’s not enough trained African Americans in the field,” he said.

And, he added, most theatergoers are white.

“One of our goals was to get African Americans as theatergoers,” Williams said.

He added that Sankofa is not about creating an experience exclusive to African Americans, but to create an experience for everyone, where African Americans are driving the message of their own stories and their perspectives, to welcome everyone to be part of the conversation.

“When you create a safe space, you don’t want to preach to the choir,” Williams said. “You want all parties involved to come and talk about the issues.”

Hosting a film festival to draw attention to the theater company and to hopefully draw in financial support for it—it’s a nonprofit that was incorporated in June 2017—came about through another connection. The Sankofa 21 Institute in Harrisburg, which is an entirely separate organization, is partnering with the theater company for the event.

Williams got to talking with Paul Carey, president of Sankofa 21 Institute, and realized they both wanted to bring a film festival to Harrisburg that was focused on African American themes. Carey is the brother of Michael Kenneth Williams—most famous for his roles in “The Wire,” “Boardwalk Empire” and “12 Years A Slave”—and made the connection with him possible.

“This (film festival) is an opportunity … to be a voice,” Johntrae Williams said. “It’s an opportunity to cultivate change. But it’s really an opportunity to bring the community together, to bring two Sankofas together.”

Benn said she hopes to sell out the State Museum auditorium.

“We want to fill all of the seats there with people who want to know and who want to live better,” she said.

She added that it’s about more than just entertainment.

“It’s about opening minds and hearts to these human experiences,” she said. “For 300 years, African Americans were not even thought of as human.… When you can wrap your head around those things from a historical perspective and a sociological perspective and even an economic perspective, then maybe you can start to see in the present why things are the way they are, and decide and understand what we have to do differently so we can all coexist harmoniously.”

The Sankofa Film Festival takes place on Dec. 27, with doors opening at 6:30 p.m., at the State Museum of Pennsylvania, 300 North St., Harrisburg. General admission tickets can be purchased online or at the door. VIP tickets are also available. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.sankofatheatrehbg.com.

Angled parking, wider sidewalk coming to Harrisburg’s Capitol neighborhood

November 25, 2019 | by Lawrance Binda

Road work on N. 3rd Street in front of the State Museum.

If you walk or drive near the state Capitol, you may have noticed that big changes are afoot.

Today, workers were busy painting lines in front of the State Museum, where the parking configuration is changing from parallel to angled.

According to Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse, that change is a part of larger plans in the area.

“There are several components that are working together,” he said.

The city opted for front-in, angled parking in front of the museum for two reasons, Papenfuse said.

First, the city soon will install eight electric-car charging stations in front of the museum, funded by a $40,000 state Department of Environmental Protection grant. These charging stations will require vehicles to pull in front-wise.

Also, next year, the city will complete the sidewalk-widening project around the Capitol, extending it along N. 3^rd between State and North streets. About eight years ago, the state widened a strip of concrete surrounding the Capitol along Walnut and N. 3^rd streets, but stopped at State Street.

That sidewalk project will eliminate about nine parallel parking spaces. However, those nine spaces will be made up by the new angled configuration in front of the museum, which permits a greater density of parking, Papenfuse said.

The new parking configuration has removed the right-hand lane traveling north on N. 3^rd Street just before Forster Street. Starting today, there are just two lanes on N. 3rd in that area: a center lane and a separate left-turn lane, which was first created about three years ago.

Farther down 3^rd Street, the city has reduced the number of vehicle lanes from two to one from Walnut to Chestnut streets. It then took the left-hand lane to create a new bike lane.

Papenfuse said the bike lane was created as part of an east-west connector project that is designed to link the downtown with bike-friendly spaces as the Capital Area Greenbelt and Riverfront Park. He said the bike lane also should make 3^rd Street more pedestrian-friendly.

“Hopefully, the city is becoming safer,” he said.

Bob’s Art Blog: “Dreams” at SAM

November 18, 2019 | by Bob MacGinnes

“Pink Line” by Peter Ydeen

There is a creature that inhabits Easton in the manner it approaches its prey, the cover of night allows it to hunt unnoticed.

Photographer Peter Ydeen claims nocturnal Easton as his territory. His home turf of the past number of years comes alive under the gossamer gaze of his lens. It is like Ydeen is using night goggles while the rest of the world is experiencing tunnel vision.

The captivating results create a world of atmospheric abandonment and eerie enchantment. He is both an urban landscape photographer and an artist of abandonment. His nightscapes are infused with an internal yearning for a city that has gone missing. His photographic portrayals of emptiness give an otherwise static universe an umbrella of “underground” uniformity. A surreal script, non-linear in its narrative, and the dragnet it throws create “colors and contrasts” and places of substance and shadow.

No one knows better than the Susquehanna Art Museum’s (SAM) Director of Exhibitions Lauren Nye that, when one door closes, another one opens. She was responsible for not only bringing Valeri Larko’s “Hidden City” painted paradise of abandoned spaces to SAM but curating it, as well. Filling the lobby gallery over its three-month run, that exhibit closed on Sunday.

As it became history, Ydeen’s urban landscape photography opened nearby, and I saw it for the first time during last Friday’s 3rd in the Burg. Nye rightfully placed it like a jewel in the DeSoto Family Vault. Ydeen’s “Dreams,” like Larko’s before, share the thread of longing and loss with things and places once inhabited and imbued with life that have become mere relics of the past. Under her steady hand and gimlet eye, Nye showcases “Dreams” in the most intimate of spaces at SAM. When you enter the Vault, you enter a world from another dimension, one that pays homage to isolation and interpretation, to imagination and idylls.

“It’s a Nice Night for a Picnic” by Peter Ydeen

Snapshots from the Vault include “Pink Line,” which derives its title from the neon glow capping the top of the frame. A used car dealership is romanced in its depiction as “Car Heaven” with its pop of pink doubling as a halo. Another, “Garden of Eden,” takes place in nearby Bethlehem, which occupies a space of lush green foliage leading to an open area. The only thing missing are Adam and Eve. Ydeen’s self-deprecating humor is evident in his photo titles like “Tree Eats Mall,” “Digestion,” and “Vogue Couture, Paris, Pennsylvania.”

In producing a sobering study in languid landscapes, Ydeen does not take himself too seriously. He shoots when the lights come on, giving his stage sets life. Swathed in a sodium vapor that is admitted by streetlights, his images cast an ethereal essence that evaporates as night lapses into day. Any semblance of those who once danced and dreamed have been wiped clean, leaving only the props for posterity. The exhibit is a testament to time’s mutability and matter over memory. Ydeen’s photography is both poetic and potent, allowing the viewer to fill in the blanks, populate the portraits or not and wander through the city and landscapes haunted or in harmony with the present state of being.

While at SAM, venture upstairs to see the Main Gallery exhibits—painter Inka Essenhigh’s fantastical “Other Worlds” and the thought provoking “War Is Only Half the Story,” an exhibit from 40 photojournalists that depicts war in all its myriad meanings.

Art in its purest form is meant to fire the imagination, open up new worlds, inspire and challenge, stir emotion and create a connection between art and life, even if landscapes are the only sign of life in the frame.

Art This and That: Upcoming events of note in November

Nov. 22: “Picturing a More Perfect Union: Violet Oakley’s Mural Studies for the Pennsylvania Senate Chamber 1911 to 1919,” opens at the State Museum of Pennsylvania.

Nov. 30: The Odd Ones Bazaar, with over 50 artists and vendors, takes place at the Millworks in Harrisburg. Small Business Saturday is on this date, so support your local galleries, merchants and museums. Shop small, think big!

“Dreams” by Peter Ydeen shows through Jan. 12 in the DeSoto Family Vault at the Susquehanna Art Museum, 1401 N. 3^rd St., Harrisburg. For more information, visit www.susquehannaartmuseum.org.

Burg Blog: Art Impact

September 3, 2019 | by Lawrance Binda

Artist Juuri and her husband Eric stand on a lift as they continue painting their mural today at 1005 N. 3rd St. in Harrisburg.

Art is often hard to put into words, to measure and quantify its effects on a community.

But if Friday night’s VIP kickoff celebration of the Harrisburg Mural Festival is any indication, many in the Harrisburg community are embracing, excited and uplifted by the 14 new murals being created under the umbrella of the nonprofit Sprocket Mural Works.

More than 300 people gathered—artists, community leaders, mural sponsors and volunteers—on the plaza between the PA State Archives Building and the PA State Museum to celebrate the 2019 festival launch, which will add 14 colorful new murals to the city’s collection.

It was an impressive showing, and I was excited to emcee the event. Likewise, TheBurg is honored to be a strong supporter and media sponsor of the festival, as we believe that the murals both beautify Harrisburg and foster community here.

So, what is it about public art that has drawn hundreds of people together?

“Murals are making this town beautiful, interesting and dynamic,” said Brad Jones, president and CEO of Harristown Enterprises.

The company, which owns Strawberry Square, sponsored murals for both the 2017 and 2019 festivals. One such mural is currently being created on the entire back of International House, an apartment building housing students from around the country and world, located at 314 Chestnut St., with the mural along its rear-facing Blackberry Alley.

“I want to thank all the wonderful muralists who are bringing their art and their stories here to Harrisburg to share with us—you’re giving us a really special gift for our community,” Jones said to the crowd gathered Friday night.

Artist Marka 27 puts the finishing touches on his mural at the back of International House.

While Harrisburg’s mural gifts are still being unveiled and unwrapped, so to speak, other communities have already measured and studied the effects of murals, which send ripples beyond their colorful surfaces and into the surrounding community landscape.

Sprocket co-founders Meg Caruso and Jeff Copus are inspired by many city mural programs, including the groundbreaking Philly Mural Arts, considered a national and international leader in the mural arts movement.

What started as an anti-graffiti movement in 1984 has blossomed into an organization considered the nation’s largest public art program with a portfolio of 3,600 murals.

A 78-page, 2003 impact study cited both economic and social benefits from Philly Mural Arts’ work.

“For a government agency or public program, costs and benefits are never calculated only in economic terms,” stated the report. “A community mural represents a public good, both as a process and product, and is therefore worthy of public investment.”

“Murals are part of a community ecosystem in that they are a way to engage and mobilize people to address other local issues,” the report said. “Murals are part of a cultural ecosystem in that they intersect with other cultural programs and traditions, urban design and local history.”

While Harrisburg’s mural program is still in its infancy compared to Philadelphia’s program, many in the community recognize the power of the arts to energize Harrisburg.

“Nothing is better than seeing local businesses and artists from all over the world come together to make our city a more beautiful place and we are honored to be a part of that,” said Anna Vazquez, marketing director at XL Live, which is sponsoring an abstract mural incorporating Jimi Hendrix, by nationally known artist Ryan “ARCY” Christenson, on the exterior wall of the live music venue.

Friday night, Jones acknowledged that Sprocket’s second full-length festival is only the beginning for Harrisburg.

“We are so excited for the 2019 murals to be done because then we will truly have a mural trail connecting the many murals in downtown walking up to Midtown,” Jones said. “Public art like this inspires people in so many positive ways.”

The Harrisburg Mural Festival runs through Sept. 8, with a block party on State Street in front of the state Capitol building, and coinciding with 2019 Gallery Walk. This week, many artists will be painting their murals, and they urge you to stop by and watch them at work. For more information, visit the Sprocket Mural Works’ website.

Textured Life: Ceramist Amy LeFever sees patterns all around us.

August 30, 2019 | by Yaasmeen Piper

During a good portion of our interview at Little Amps, Amy LeFever was staring at the brick wall behind me in the Harrisburg coffee shop.

“I love a lot of the textures in there, the patterns—how it’s breaking down,” she said. “That’s as good as my piece in the State Museum. I would hang that.”

It’s everyday sights like these that inspire LeFever and help launch her into her next project. The Middletown resident created hundreds of ceramic pieces full of unique textures and patterns. One of her latest works, rectangular white tile pieces covered in diagonal lines and divots, landed her first place this year in the ceramics category of the annual “Art of the State” competition.

“It was a sense of affirmation of what you do,” said LeFever, a HACC adjunct professor. “I came in and hung the piece myself. I was kind of nervous about it. It was something I shouldn’t have been nervous about, but I was. I was thinking about everything that could possibly go wrong, but it went super smoothly.”

Before her piece was hung in the State Museum, before winning numerous awards, and before traveling across the country to study art, LeFever was a musician. She started playing classical piano when she was in the third grade, her favorite being Chopin.

It was in high school when LeFever first started “messing around” with art. Her sister Letitia, who was an artist, would fish out clay from the creek behind their house and together they would create different creatures and objects from it.

It wasn’t until she started at HACC in 2004 that she really fell into the ceramics world. For her general studies major, she needed an art elective, so she took “Ceramics 1.”

“It sucked me right in,” she said. “I just spent all my time in there, and then I just continued down that path.”

From then, she won first and second place in two student art exhibits at HACC and was a featured artist in the Radius Gallery in the State Museum.

After earning her associate’s degree, LeFever studied at Alfred University in New York and earned her bachelor’s degree in fine arts. Her art then took her across the world to study at the Jingdezhen Ceramics Institute in China. For a month, LeFever went sightseeing in various cities, such as Shanghai, and learned different clay techniques.

“[My favorite part] was seeing ceramics in a new way, a new place, and working with new material,” she said.

Between her residencies at HACC and George Fox University in Oregon—and eventually earning her masters at the University of Tennesee in 2018—LeFever created numerous pieces and even dove into new media such as fabric work and digital design.

It wasn’t until three years ago that she started to really develop her signature look. Her art is known for having unique shapes and lines and for mixing different textures and patterns. It wasn’t something that was planned out or analyzed. According to LeFever, usually, when she is working on a piece, she doesn’t have a final look in mind. Instead, her work is the result of a series of reactions from the time she initiates the piece until she feels as if it’s finished.

“In some ways, I have a few different trajectories in ceramics that all come together at a certain point,” she said. “ I love rough sorts of textures and really playing with the material.”

Her upbringing also had a part in shaping her, and, therefore, her art. Living in Lancaster County with her conservative Mennonite family but going to church on Herr Street in Harrisburg, she saw a lot of different cultures mixing together.

When LeFever was in the eighth grade, her eldest sister was in a car accident that severely altered her brain.

“There was a certain tearing apart of the physicality of her brain, but also our family and how that changes you,” she said. “I always played with the concept of making a form, cutting it apart and reassembling it in different ways.”

Though these and other events have influenced her, she doesn’t really show them through her art.

“I wouldn’t say that my art is depicting these things, but they are integral to who I am,” she said. “I don’t think it’s why I’m interested in that certain visual language, but it just sort of makes sense to me.”

When asked what’s next, she shrugged and laughed. Her family keeps her pretty busy so she doesn’t have a firm timeframe for her art. However, she is still on the hunt for new shows, and, she says, making new art is always the goal.

But right now, having her work hanging in the State Museum where hundreds of people can see it—that’s enough for her.

You can check out Amy LeFever’s work at “Art of the State” at the State Museum of Pennsylvania through Sept. 8. To see more, visit her website at www.amylefever.com.

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