360 Culture Lab* partners the Fleisher Art Memorial with collaborators in the Venezuelan and Indonesian communities for a series of experiential place-keeping cultural exhibitions and arts experiences. The project puts Fleisher’s assets including spaces, resources, and expertise into the hands of community members as a means to honor, preserve, and share Venezuelan and Indonesian cultural life and traditions.
Together, we create a lab for ideas: an arts incubator for new and growing immigrant communities in South Philadelphia and beyond. The end result is to provide the community members a space in our neighborhood in which they feel welcome and safe. Fleisher is committed to exploring with our partners new ways to promote the arts culturally, understanding that art means many different things to individuals with different cultural backgrounds.
We believe that during these challenging times, art can be a source of hope, resilience, solace, and purpose and makes us stronger as a community.
*Fleisher Arts 360 Culture Lab partnerships with Modero & Co and Casa de Venezuela are supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage
The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage is a multidisciplinary grantmaker and hub for knowledge-sharing, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, dedicated to fostering a vibrant cultural community in Greater Philadelphia. The Center invests in ambitious, imaginative, and catalytic work that showcases the region’s cultural vitality and enhances public life, and engages in an exchange of ideas concerning artistic and interpretive practice with a broad network of cultural practitioners and leaders.
Modero & Co.
Modero & Co is the cultural hub of the South Philadelphia Indonesian Community. Founded by Sinta Penyami Storms, an Indonesian traditional dance artist, this organization/group has one crucial purpose, to promote and preserve Indonesian traditions in the Philadelphia region. Whether through dance, music, crafts, food or art, this rich community lives by powerful and meaningful phrases originated in country villages: Gotong Royong (working together) and Sintuwu Maroso (living and building a strong community together).
Casa de Venezuela
Casa de Venezuela is an organization of individuals committed to the empowerment of their community. While the Venezuelan community is not necessarily gathered in one particular neighborhood in Greater Philadelphia, they make sure to stay connected by organizing events and gatherings to promote their culture and support Venezuela. Their reach goes beyond the Venezuelan community as they embrace and invite the Latinx diaspora in our region to join their efforts through music, dance, food, and the arts. The Casa de Venezuela Philadelphia organization is connected to a larger network that includes the Lehigh Valley, Delaware, and New Jersey.