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With its new South of South headquarters and gallery space in the old Dickerson Building, an artistic haven is making a new name for itself, as its after-school program “Hip H’Opera” flourishes as a finalist in the Knight Arts Challenge.
Since being founded in 1998 at the Church of the Advocate in North Philly, Art Sanctuary, 628 S. 16th St., has been providing an outlet for black art to transform individuals through performing arts initiatives.
Most of the programs Art Sanctuary participates in are tailored toward bringing in a diverse audience.
“We use the black art as a tool to bring artistic programming as well as enrichment,” program manager Biany Perez, from Mount Airy, who has been working with the organization for three years, said.
The Hip H’Opera project, a collaborative initiative with Art Sanctuary, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Opera Company of Philadelphia and Philadelphia Young Playwrights, is a way to show students that “the art is really a way to express themselves and find outlets,” Perez said.
The program, working to combine two art forms that use the human voice to tell urban life stories, was exposed in 2007, and has since been growing.
Perez also hopes the initiative will help students, “understand that there are career opportunities in the arts.”
In the first phase of the project, Hip H’Opera has had artists teach workshops to students — whom the Art Sanctuary has established relationships with — in city schools, including E.M. Stanton, 1700 Christian St., and South Philadelphia High School, 2101 S. Broad St., enriching their knowledge of the history and aesthetics of hip-hop and opera. With this new expertise and understanding, students have been using their poetry skills to produce stories.
Phase two and three of the project, which the Art Sanctuary hopes the Knight grant would support, includes students coming out of the classroom to participate in field trips, group sessions and classes and then crafting the final, professional production to take place at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
Through motivation and education, this initiative has the ability to change the lives of art-inspired students in Philadelphia by “collecting all the student’s writing and bringing them all together for one Hip H’Opera,” Perez said.
Other finalists:
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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