Marks of Change
April 5 – May 6, 2018
About the Exhibition
The emerging artists featured in Marks of Change are members of the Guild, part of Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Restorative Justice program. The Guild serves young adults who are on probation or reentering their community after time spent in the Philadelphia Prison System: it provides these individuals the opportunity to reconnect with society through the arts and community engagement projects.
This winter, members of the Guild took art education classes in the Barnes galleries. They studied works in the collection and talked about “what makes art art?” Following these sessions, the group participated in hands-on printmaking classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where they had the opportunity to explore self-expression through the arts.
The works on view were made during those printmaking sessions and will serve as the starting point for the design of an outdoor public mural. In creating these works, Guild artists used both reductive and additive processes. Their marks were initially made through the application of ink on a flat, nonabsorbent surface. The resulting image was then transferred to paper using an etching press or hand-printing tools. These prints will undergo still further change when they inspire the production of the mural.
Sponsor
This program was made possible through a generous grant from the Connelly Foundation.
