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“Because of my history with homelessness, I definitely know what it’s like to be hungry,” Susan DiPronio said. “However, many others don’t want to believe malnutrition exists in our city and don’t want to look outside their sphere.”
The resident of the 700 block of St. Albans Street will begin her next mission to assist suffering citizens tonight at Da Vinci Art Alliance, 704 Catharine St., as she and creative colleagues open “Artists Against Hunger,” a four-day exhibition set to funnel funds to The Food Trust, a Center City nutrition-oriented organization.
Along with using it to extend her affiliation with the Bella Vista facility and frequent collaborator Linda Dubin Gargield, DiPronio will call on the show to address the ramifications of continued caloric neglect.
“Hunger goes hand in hand with educational problems that prolong cycles of futility across generations,” the Buffalo native said of observations from her 25-year South Philly tenure. “I hate to say this, but many individuals have a sense of entitlement with respect to food. I hope through this display that people decide to become more aware of the plight of others.”
Anyone who inspects her prolific résumé would find that DiPronio has established herself as an introspective and humanitarian director, performance artist, photographer and writer, with the FringeArts, Philadelphia Film and Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian Film festivals and The Walnut Street Theatre, among others, featuring her work, but her perusing an August 2011 study by the Washington, D.C.-based Food Research and Action Center bred her current and most likely provocative endeavor. The report ranked Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District, which includes parts of South Philly, as the nation’s second-worst nutritional location for households containing children, with nearly 50 percent of minors suffering from hunger. That statistic prompted DiPronio and Montgomery County’s Garfield to align their artistic interests with the altruistic aims of The Food Trust.
“Hunger is happening right under our noses,” the latter figure, a printmaker and mixed media artist, said. “We’re looking to make politicians and neighbors cognizant that being fed is a minimum requirement and consider The Food Trust a great partner because of its emphasis on education, especially for parents.”
Through the nonprofit, the allies engendered the Artists Against Hunger Project, an initiative whose successes include a “Yummy Rainbow” mural banner made with students from Eliza B. Kirkbride School, 1501 S. Seventh St., to address diabetes. For Garfield, the various tasks offer increased perspective on the fragility of the human condition, which she and DiPronio have come to master through their roles as breast cancer survivors.
“Reading that report really freaked me out,” she said of the analysis, which also tabbed Philadelphia as the poorest city with a population of more than a million because of its 25 percent overall poverty rate. “Our country has such an abundance that anything the creative community can do to alleviate troubling situations is a must.”
Friends for at least seven years, DiPronio and Garfield have held workshops at East Falls’ Endow-A-Home, which guides head-of-household females from homelessness to home ownership; Fairmount’s Project HOME, which aids adults, children and families in their fight against the same travail; and Germantown’s Covenant House, which offers resources to homeless youths, with their united efforts serving to benefit the agencies’ financial operations. More than a year in the making, their latest vocation will feature fine art representing numerous styles and media and will have Moe Brooker, chairman of the Mayor’s Commission of the Arts, jurying submissions.
“DaVinci is a very active, very engaging site for cultivating creativity,” Garfield said of the space, which Italian-American artists, enamored with countryman Leonardo da Vinci’s influence, acquired in the late 1960s after having used their studios as gathering haunts since their ’31 formation. “We’re happy to use it again, especially to tackle a matter as gigantic as hunger.”
The award-winning visionary, whose lengthy list of affiliations includes the founding of ArtSisters, a group for professional female artists who completed their “It’s About Time” painting and works-on-paper display at Da Vinci April 27, has collaborated with DiPronio numerous times. Their “Invisible/Invincible” brainchild earned them a Leeway Foundation Art for Social Change grant in ’07 from the eponymous Center City entity because of its emotional blend of portraits and stories from Endow-A-Home participants, and they find enticing each occasion to couple their passion for expression as a catalyst for honest looks at society’s flaws and wonders.
“I expect this exhibit to be a reinforcement of that philosophy,” DiPronio said.
The Bella Vista dweller is feeling even more enthused about the show because of its theme’s relation to her life. She spent portions of her adolescence and early adulthood on the street, using her introductory time minus a residence as inspiration for her ’06 short film “Nighthawks.” Having logged years as a North Philly-based food company employee, she has grown especially sensitive to the city’s hunger crisis, with no area escaping its scope.
“Different parts of the city definitely have people from diverse cultural backgrounds, but that doesn’t mean they don’t share hunger as a similarity,” DiPronio, who like Garfield had planned to submit as many as two pieces for the exhibit, said. “South Philly certainly hasn’t been spared, and some places [here] are likely among the worst we have to help.”
She and her peers are paying $35 per entry, with all of their cash to go to The Food Trust, which also will receive 25 percent of the profits.
“We are expecting to have pieces from the floor to the ceiling and are hoping for a great turnout,” she said.
Working within professions that often aim to provide profound lessons on humanity and one’s quest for knowledge of the world at large, DiPronio is approaching this show with an easily digestible message.
“Art is about awareness,” she said, “and I can think of nothing more obvious to be aware of than that people need food.”
Contact Staff Writer Joseph Myers at jmyers@southphillyreview.com or ext. 124.
Titled “Failure to Thrive,” this piece addresses the nutritionally inferior diets that many Philadelphia children must endure.
Staff Photo by Greg Bezanis
Staff Photo by Greg Bezanis
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