Fleisher Art Memorial

Fleisher Art Memorial is the nation’s oldest tuition-free community art school. Today, Fleisher offers over 70 classes and workshops for adults per term, operates a year-round exhibits program including the prestigious Wind Challenge Exhibition Series, and provides art instruction to young people in Philadelphia’s public schools through its Community Partnership in the Arts programs well as through its renowned Saturday Young Artists' program. For more information, visit www.fleisher.org.

The Sanctuary Series was developed in support of Fleisher's mission to make art accessible to everyone. The series provides low-commitment learning experiences for our creative community to explore its interest in the arts. Supporting and supplementing Fleisher's regular class and workshop offerings, Sanctuary Series events range from artist talks, film screenings, musical and dance performances, as well as hands-on workshops. The Sanctuary Series is free and open to the public.

• Help to promote each week’s series through distribution of materials
• Reaching out to guest artist for Sanctuary Set up and material needs
• Setting up for Wednesday evening Sanctuary Series Events, including AV, refreshments, promotional materials, and workshop materials if needed.
• Welcoming guests and distributing/collecting evaluations
• Documenting events with still photographs and video
• Assisting with closing procedures, clearing the space, putting away AV equipment

• Attention to detail
• Ability to multitask
• Clear written and oral communication skills
• Strong knowledge of Microsoft Excel and Word
• Event photography  

Fleisher is always looking for experienced artists to lead our classes, tuition-free classes, and workshops for children and adults. To be considered, applicants must include the following items:

An artist statement
Current résumé
Images of current work (maximum of 12)
Images of work created by students (maximum of 12)
Three professional references
Course descriptions and curriculum outlines for courses taught
Other supporting documentation, including evaluation and assessments of previous teaching experiences

Please note, an up-to-date PA State Police Criminal Record Check and PA Child Abuse History is required to teach for the Children and Youth program. You do not need these documents at the time of applying, only if extended a formal invitation to work at Fleisher.

Fleisher is always looking for emerging artists to assist with our classes, tuition-free classes, and workshops for children and adults. To be considered, applicants must include the following items:

An artist statement
Current résumé
Images of current work (maximum of 12)
Images of work created by students (maximum of 12), OPTIONAL
Two professional references
Any supporting documentation that demonstrate any experience assisting in a classroom, OPTIONAL

Please note, an up-to-date PA State Police Criminal Record Check and PA Child Abuse History is required to teach for the Children and Youth program. You do not need these documents at the time of applying, only if extended a formal invitation to work at Fleisher.

The Fleisher Art Memorial is excited to announce the call for entries to the 41st season of the Annual Wind Challenge Exhibition Call for Entries. Established in 1978, the Wind Challenge Exhibition is an annual juried competition that is committed to enriching and expanding people’s lives through art. Three Wind Challenge Exhibitions are held from September 2018 through May 2019. 

As the Wind Challenge continues its fortieth year, the call for entries is an opportunity to explore and test directions for the renowned program that reflect the evolution of the exhibition and artistic practices. Artists are welcome to but are no longer required to define their work within a specific medium. Artists and curators are being invited from the Northeast corridor to participate as jurors, and artists from the Northeast corridor of the United States are welcome to apply, bringing attention to the local Philadelphia arts scene and local artists. The Wind Challenge has been an esteemed exhibition opportunity to artists in the Philadelphia region, serving as a critical breakthrough for many emerging creative voices. We hope to continue building the legacy of the Wind Challenge exhibit.

Selection Process

A two-stage selection process is used to review applicants. 

Round 1: Two jurors, an artist and a curator, are assigned to review submitted artwork. Artwork is reviewed online, and the identity of the applicant remains anonymous. From this initial review, approximately 10% of candidates are selected to advance to the second round. Finalists are notified via e-mail by the week of August 7th via e-mail.

Round 2: Finalists are required to deliver an original work to Fleisher, which is reviewed along with their original image selections by the full artist-juror panel (Installation artists have the option of submitting a specific proposal for the Fleisher gallery.) Again, the identity of the applicant is anonymous -- the jury process is based on the merit of the work alone. Applicants selected to exhibit will be notified by the week of September 4th via e-mail.

2018-2019 Jurors

Elizabeth Grady is the Programs Director of A Blade of Grass, and a curator, critic, and scholar of socially engaged art. She was Program Manager of smARTpower, a U.S. State Department program run by the Bronx Museum that sent artists to fifteen countries to do projects that engaged local communities (2010-2012). She served in the curatorial departments of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and San Francisco MoMA. As an independent curator, she did projects for the Moscow Biennial, the Biennial of the Canary Islands, and the Havana Biennial. For the latter, she curated Proyecto Paladar, a participatory food-based project at the Wifredo Lam Center (2012). She taught at FIT-SUNY in Art History and the Graduate School from 2002-2013. She has published many essays, articles and other publications, including her most recent book, Future Imperfect (2016). Ms. Grady holds a Ph.D. in art history from Northwestern.

Miguel Luciano received his MFA from the University of Florida. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including exhibitions at the Mercosul Bennial, Brazil; La Grande Halle de la Villette, Paris; El Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City; The Ljubljana Biennial, Slovenia; The San Juan Poly-Graphic Triennial, Puerto Rico; Zverev Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow, and The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.He is the recipient of Louis Comfort Tiffany Award Grant, the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Award Grant, NYFA award for painting, and the Artists and Communities Grant from the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.

His work is featured in the permanent collections of The Smithsonian American Art Museum, DC; The Brooklyn Museum, NY; El Museo del Barrio, NY; the Newark Museum, NJ, and the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, PR. Luciano recently created a public art project in Nairobi, Kenya as fellow of the smARTpower Program - an initiative of the Bronx Museum of the Arts and the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and cultural Affairs.

Eligibility

• Artists must currently live in CT, DE, MA, MD, NJ, NY, PA, RI, or Washington, DC.
• Artists may not show the same major body of work in a local Philadelphia gallery or alternative space in the same year as the Wind Challenge exhibit.
• Students enrolled in a full-time degree/certificate granting program during the year of the exhibition are ineligible.
• Artist must be able to transport their work to Fleisher Art Memorial. 
• Previous Challenge artists are ineligible.

Exhibition Schedule

The Wind Challenge Exhibitions are held in the Dene M. Louchheim Galleries. The 2018-2019 Challenge exhibitions are tentatively scheduled for: September 2018, December 2018, and March 2019.

Selected artists receive:

• The opportunity to display recent work in a five-week, three-person exhibition. 
• An honorarium of $750.
• A public reception on the opening night, during which they speak of their work to guests.
• Support from Fleisher staff to create a public event or activity in conjunction with the exhibition.
• A Saturday “Talk About” which is open to the public and includes families and young people and allows artists to enter into conversation with participants about their work. 
• Inclusion in Fleisher's publications, electronic and print announcements, and online profile.

Deadline: Midnight, July 14, 2017

To learn more, including viewing past artists and exhibits, please visit fleisher.org

Please direct inquiries to: 

José Ortiz-Pagán
Exhibitions Manager
jortiz@fleisher.org
(215) 922-3456 ext.333

The Wind Challenge Exhibition Series is made possible with thanks to generous support from the Wind Foundation and through Fleisher members.