Neighborhood Time Exchange exhibition opens in West Philly

Earlier this year, we took a look at West Philly’s Neighborhood Time Exchange (NTE), a unique and competitive studio residency program that embedded artists in local community service projects in exchange for workspace in a renovated storefront at 4017 Lancaster Avenue, Philadelphia. Now, an exhibition of the work produced is open to the public through December 11.

It happened thanks to a collaboration of the Mural Arts Program, the People’s Emergency Center, Broken City Lab, and the City’s Office of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy (OACCE). This year’s ten-month program, including local as well as international artists, had three cycles of artists who used the space between January and September for spans of one to three months. Participating artists got studio space, a monthly stipend, and basic tools and supplies onsite. Their community service efforts, ranging from churches to classrooms, focused on the Belmont, Mantua, Mill Creek, Saunders Park, and West Powelton neighborhoods.

The 2015 NTE artists are a diverse group, with work including fiber mixed media, drawing, performance, video, photography, sculpture, language, and many interdisciplinary approaches. Notable themes of the work include ending discrimination based on gender, race, or class; healthy living with HIV; and more.

Helen Haynes, the chief cultural officer at OACCE, said the residencies promoted artists’ creative development, as well as that of the community, which enthusiastically embraced the artists’ offerings: “The exchange of knowledge and skills has demonstrated that communities can be brought together at challenging times through art making.”

Mural Arts executive director Jane Golden hopes the program will grow in future years. “Neighborhood Time Exchange has been a fantastic experience, and we are excited to celebrate the project and think about where we go next with this kind of model,” she said.

The NTE building offers public gallery viewing hours from 1-5pm on Fridays and Saturdays. There will be a closing reception for the 2015 exhibition on December 11 from 6-9pm.