South Street, Philadelphia. Image from Google Maps.
Every artist and arts organization must have heard by now that South Street will be "the" new place to see exhibitions and performances starting as soon as March. There are over 25 vacant storefronts now and the idea is to give arts groups FREE space. By having life in the now empty spaces they hope to bring people back to South Street using a similar model from the 70's.
My hope is that the process will be handled in a fair way and that it doesn't end up just being an extension of the same old, same old. It would be exciting to see artists and groups do things differently than the current system, and that because of the bad economy which made this whole thing possible, artists will be more experimental and worry less about the commercial aspects of making and presenting their work. I guess we shall see.
On January 22 a piece was published on Phillylist.
Today the NYTimes has an article that features unusual places for fine art to be displayed: condo lobbies, fashion boutiques and other retail outlets.
