Love Invaders was de-installed a few weeks ago (Aug 2012). The work was installed on the windows of the JFK Welcome Center at Love Park - the temporary public installation was extended for a whole year.
The spring 2011 Philadelphia Museum of Art press release:
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“LOVE INVADERS” TO TAKE OVER
LOVE PARK
Philadelphia
Museum of Art’s Delphi After School Art Club students display their creations
in Fairmount Park Welcome Center.
Philadelphia, PA—
“I hope
that our project will invade a sense of creativity and action into the positive
springtime energy that is already beginning to overtake the city,” says artist
Benjamin Volta, who conceived the community service project Love Invaders with
more than 200 5th through 8th graders from Philadelphia public and charter
schools. Demonstrating how art can alter an environment and initiate positive
change in the Philadelphia community, Love Invaders refers to the
student art work created by the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Delphi After
School Art Club which will be on view, covering the exterior of the Fairmount
Park Welcome Center (16th Street and John F. Kennedy Boulevard) April 14 – July
31, 2011.
From April 6‐8, from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., Volta will install the students’
work and on April 14, from 3:00‐ 4:30 p.m. (Rain date: April 15) the Delphi
After School Art Club will host an opening reception for students, their
families, teachers, and special guests at the Welcome Center. During the
reception, Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown will present a citation from
the city entitled “City Council of Philadelphia Citation Honoring and
Recognizing the Delphi After School Art Club.” Love Invaders was
produced in partnership with Philadelphia Parks and Recreation. The Delphi
After School Art Club is generously supported by Reliance Standard Life
Insurance Company and The Delphi Project Foundation.
“The Art Club gives
students from Philadelphia public and charter schools the opportunity to
explore their creativity, learn about art from the world's diverse cultures,
master hand and eye skills, and mature in their ever evolving social and
communication skills,” says Marla K. Shoemaker, the Museum’s Kathleen C.
Sherrerd Senior Curator of Education. “In After School Art Club, students are
mentored by some of the city's best teaching artists, get behind‐the‐scenes
experiences with Museum departments such as conservation, and become
comfortable and engaged with all that the Museum has to offer.”
For 19 weeks
every year, up to 240 students between the 5th and 8th grades participate in
the Delphi After School Art Club at the Museum. Each week, students tour
galleries and work with a professional artist to create art inspired by the
collections and special exhibitions. Artists teach them art history and the
process of making art. Students in the program create work for an
exhibition in the Museum’s
education space and attend a cultural performance as well as conservation
science presentations. Students in this year’s program are from the public and
charter schools General John F. Reynolds School, General Louis Wagner School,
Juniata Park Academy, Martha Washington School, Potter Thomas School, Russell
Byers Charter School, and Thomas K. Finletter School.
A music teacher at Potter
Thomas School, Rachel Hoke notes that one of the most common phrases she hears
from her students who participate in the Delphi After School Art Club is “I've
never seen anything like that before.” Hoke believes that the program exposes
students to art and culture that they never knew existed. “It's been amazing to
see the interest and curiosity sparked by these experiences inside the Museum,”
she says.
“I see the creativity that the students so often stifle in school
around their friends,” comments Zina Porter‐Mack, a teacher at General Louis
Wagner School. “The program provides them a creative outlet to express
themselves artistically which they don’t always have a chance to do in school.”
Terrell Brown, a student at Thomas K. Finletter School, says, “It was fun to
use a wide range of materials and have options in constructing it. In life I
can have many ways to approach a problem and to solve it.”
“I am happy to see
my art work displayed in the museum. I want to see if other people will react
to it or like it,” says Tyreek Galloway another Finletter student. “In the
museum you're allowed to express your emotions in your art. In the classroom,
you usually work by yourself without the input of others.”
Tammy Salvadore,
Executive Director, Delphi Project Foundation, notes “In these challenging
economic times, as the School District is forced to reduce exposure to the
arts, Delphi After School Art Club sponsor Reliance Standard Life remains
steadfast in its commitment to bringing the arts to students who may not
otherwise have the opportunity. Above all, the Delphi After School Art Club
provides students with a safe, stimulating and supervised place to gather after
school.”
Every year, since the program’s inception in 1998, it has culminated
in a community service project. Of the community service projects, Salvadore
comments, “Collaborative public works of art are not only beautiful to look at
but also create a sense vibrancy and pride in one's community. The community
service project teaches the students to work as a team, fosters creativity and
more importantly, showcases the positive accomplishments of Philadelphia's
public school students.”
Last year, students designed collaborative prints that
appeared on twelve Center City bus shelter posters, created in partnership with
Art in Transit and CBS Outdoor. Other past community service projects have
included murals throughout Philadelphia, created in partnership with the Mural
Art Program.
The Delphi After School Art Club’s 2011 community service project Love
Invaders is based on the idea of cross‐cultural tolerance, “Love
Difference,” which was reflected in the work of contemporary artist
Michelangelo Pistoletto in two recent exhibitions at the Museum. Love
Invaders was conceived
by Volta in collaboration with artists Roslyn Don, Cecilia Dougherty,
Doris Nogueira‐Rogers, Diane Pieri, Marta Sanchez, and Mariel Waloff.
With the
teaching artists, each student created a unique emblem inspired by something in
the Museum’s collection. Each emblem was scanned and printed on colored vinyl
and will be installed in the Fairmount Park Welcome Center, wrapping around the
building’s exterior windows. The emblems will transform the appearance of the
building and all of the students’ work will be highly visible to the public
from all sides.
“I love working on projects that will allow me to engage the
world and connect to others,” Volta explains. “Working with 200‐plus artists
allows all of us to see an idea explored in more than 200 different ways. While
most of us only worked in groups of 20, I love the fact that through a shared
creative experience we will all come together at Love Park to celebrate.”
Collaborating teaching artist Cecilia Dougherty comments, “I think that the art
[in Love Park] will attract attention to the students’ desire to do something
to better the city and empower others to do what they can to make a difference.”
A student at General Louis Wagner School, Alisha Riley says, “I feel excited
knowing that my artwork is going to be displayed in Love Park, and I can share
it with my family.”
Notes Shaiderah Campbell, a schoolmate of Riley’s “A lot of
people don't get opportunities like this.”
The
Philadelphia Museum of Art is among the largest art museums in the United
States, showcasing more than 2,000 years of exceptional human creativity in
masterpieces of painting, sculpture, works on paper, decorative arts and
architectural settings from Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States.
An exciting addition is the recently renovated and expanded Perelman Building,
with five exhibition spaces, a soaring skylit galleria, and a café overlooking
a landscaped terrace. The Museum also opened a new sculpture garden on the West
side of its main building in 2009, offering new exhibition space for outdoor
sculpture. The Museum offers a wide variety of enriching activities, including
programs for children and families, lectures, concerts and films.
