Place Philadelphia Project Set for 2013 PIFA Line-Up

Last Spring, the Painted Bride Art Center introduced audiences to the artistic talents of noted playwright/director/actor Ain Gordon and announced an 18 month residency with Gordon and Philadelphia filmmaker Nadine Patterson. The residency was to unearth an overlooked or little known story from the city's history. The challenge was to find something in a city where history is an industry and stories abound. The artists have worked with several organizations across the city and have found inspiration in the women reformers who lived in the city from the early to mid-1800s. Place Philadelphia Project research will culminate in an as yet untitled workset to run at the Painted Bride, last weekend in April and the first weekend of May during the 2013 Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts. More information can be found at www.paintedbride.org, and www.pifa.org.

Gordon and Patterson have traversed the city in search of past lives. Gordon is interested in histories that leave scant tangible evidence. Touring the African American Museum of Philadelphia and considering Philadelphia's strong historical African American presence, the pair were led to the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, which in 1833, included free African American Women. They continue to research the women involved in the movement. They were women, who in the mid-1800s in Philadelphia, struck out against the prevailing codes of thought, conduct, and behavior to seek change through personal revolution.

"Their monumental bravery to go against everything the world around them said was right astonishes me, living, as I feel we do, in a relatively complacent time. I am interested in questions of personal courage and, simultaneously, relinquishing your personal life to public necessity," said Gordon, of his discoveries so far.

Many of the women they are looking at were members of the Female Anti-Slavery Society. A number of them were also Quakers. They are looking at both African-American and Caucasian women. The Quaker faith focuses on the light within and encourages questioning. They have also begun to research their husbands. They were men who stood firmly in the shadow of wives seeking to go against the societal grain.

The springboard for the piece has been the following questions: What makes a crusader? What makes someone stand up? What makes a wrong unbearable? How does personal faith motivate public action? Gordon adds, "I am discovering the overlaps between the reform movement then and art-making now. That joint territory is speaking to me."

The pair discussed this time period and the Women's Anti-Slavery Society with history scholars at Penn State and at Temple. One point in known history where virtually all of these women gathered was the burning of Pennsylvania Hall in May of 1838. The hall was built as a meeting place of the minds, where men and women of all races could meet and share ideas. It was a place where women were given the freedom to stand at the podium and speak up. Four days after it opened, it was burned down by an angry mob. These women were a precursor to the abolitionist movement and were talking about women's issues before suffrage and the women's rights movements.

"America at that point is less than 50 years old, really a new country, the people living in it had reached a point where they asked, 'Is this what we had in mind? Do want to be the country we have become?" said Gordon. "In Philadelphia, one of the oldest cities, people were ripe to question it."

Gordon and Patterson are continuing to explore in the frame of their current findings. They are also working with historical organizations to get permissions to use archival items from that time period. The have explored the archives at The Library Company of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Historical Society, and the Blockson Collection at Temple University.

The Painted Bride is working on community partnerships and will be constructing walking tours of the city in relation to the history behind this piece. A blog, www.placephiladelphia.com, has been set up to follow the process and get background information.

"The Bride has always been a firm believer and strong proponent of both art and advocacy within the community. They are equal parts within in our organizational philosophy and mission. Working with Gordon and Patterson with the distinct purpose of sponsoring and providing new insight and perspective into our great city's past will provide valuable reference for both our personal and collective histories/identities, said Painted Bride Executive Director, Laurel Raczka. "We hope this project will help to stimulate and foster greater mutual understanding as well as advance the innovative artistic approach Gordon and Patterson are employing in the field."

Gordon has built his career on work that focuses on marginalized/forgotten history and the invisible players who inhabit that space. His work carries a particular blend of historical fact/imagined truth. The Bride began conversations with Gordon in 2010 when he was part of the cast of Spalding Gray: Stories Left To Tell. The Bride realized they wanted to collaborate and began discussions. The Bride pairEd Gordon with Patterson, after he brought up how he likes to partner with a local artist, who centers his or her practice in another medium. Patterson is an independent producer of documentary, experimental and narrative film. She has experience in multicultural programming and works with artists and community organizations in using media to disseminate information and raise awareness about critical issues.

Gordon began writing and directing for the stage in 1985. He emerged on to the downtown dance/performance scene with four consecutive seasons at Dance Theater Workshop plus performances at Movement Research, The Poetry Project, and Performance Space 122. By 1990, Gordon was recognized in the inaugural round of the NEA's "New Forms" initiative – funding for artists whose work defied clear classification. In 1991, Gordon entered a multi-project relationship with Soho Rep that encompassed five productions and workshops. In 1992, he began collaborating with his father, highly praised playwright and director, David Gordon, on The Family Business. It was then he became Co-Director of the Pick Up Performance Company (founded by his father in 1971 and incorporated in 1978).

Gordon won his first Obie Award as one of the creators of The Family Business. He won his second Obie Award for his play Wally's Ghost. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting. Gordon won his third Obie for his performance in the Off-Broadway production of Spalding Gray: Stories Left To Tell. Other current projects include a new play to premiere at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts (VT) and the BAM Next Wave Festival, and a collaboration with S? Percussion premiering at the Walker Art Center (MN) and BAM Next Wave.

Nadine Patterson is an award winning independent producer/director. Her training in theatre, immersion in documentary film, and intense study of world cinema enable her to create works grounded in historical contexts, with a unique visual palette. Over the past 20 years she has taught video production at West Chester University, Temple University, Arcadia University, Drexel University, University of Western Sydney (Australia) and Scribe Video Center. She was the only filmmaker selected for The Biennial 2000 at the African American Museum in Philadelphia. Some of her films include : "I Used to Teach English", Winner Gold Apple Award 1994 National Educational Film/Video Festival, Oakland, CA; "Anna Russell Jones: Praisesong for a Pioneering Spirit", Best Documentary 1993 African American Women in the Arts Film/Video Competition, Chicago, IL; "Moving with the Dreaming", Prized Pieces award from the National Black Programming Consortium in 1997; "Todo El Mundo Dance!" selected for the 2001-2002 Council on Foundations Film and Video Festival. Other notable works include: "Shizue", screened at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1991; and "Release" shown at the Constellation Change Dance Film Festival of London in 2006. She recently completed her second masters at the London Film School in 2005. She received funding for her film work from The Philadelphia Foundation, The National Black Programming Consortium, The Bartol Foundation, and The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. She received a 2010 fellowship in the arts from the Independence Foundation. In 2011 along with Ain Gordon and the Painted Bride Art Center she received a grant from the Pew Philadelphia Theater Initiative for the creation of a new work about forgotten historical places in Philadelphia. For the third year Ms. Patterson curates the Trenton International Film Festival in November 2012. She completed two milestones in 2011: she published her first book Always Emerging and completed principal photography for her first feature film as director Tango Macbeth.

This two-year project has been supported by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage though the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative.

The Painted Bride Art Center collaborates with emerging and established artists to create, produce and present innovative work that affirms the intrinsic value of all cultures and celebrates the transformative power of the arts. Through performances and exhibitions, education and outreach, the Bride creates a forum for engagement centered on contemporary social issues.

Founded in 1969 by a group of visual artists who had recently graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, the Painted Bride Art Center is a presenting arts organization located in Old City, Philadelphia. The Bride is part of the Alternative Art Space movement, which is a small genre of cultural organization in America that grew from a movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This movement sought to establish organizations where artists had greater control over the presentation of their work and were able to present the work of the underrepresented in commercial or larger established institutions such as women, people of color, gay and lesbian artists and the disabled. The Bride has evolved into an innovative, internationally recognized, artist-centered, multi-disciplinary institution.

 

 

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