'Spread Your Wings' exhibit flies high at Cherry Street Pier

A new exhibition at Cherry Street Pier will offer visitors the chance to spread their creative wings by experiencing and engaging with multiple forms of expression. Spread Your Wings combines photography, video, mural art, writing, and dance to serve its goal of inspiring creativity. The exhibition will include the newest work from David McShane, an artist with Mural Arts Philadelphia. Fittingly, McShane’s mural models the innovative conversations with art that Spread Your Wings aims to generate: it is inspired by photographs of Pennsylvania Ballet company dancers by Shawn Theodore.

I want to fly away

Large-scale photographs of the dancers by Theodore, Vikki Sloviter, and Arian Molina will also be on display. In addition, Spread Your Wings includes a video directed by Michael Candelori. On opening weekend, visitors will have the opportunity for a special treat: live dance performances by Pennsylvania Ballet II, the second company of the PA Ballet, choreographed by Maria Konrad. Konrad’s choreography has been featured in venues including the Florida Dance Festival and the Come Together Festival, as well as Philadelphia productions of musicals such as West Side Story. For Spread Your Wings, dancers will perform to original classical music, spoken word, electronic music, and jazz. The performances will take place at 7pm on Friday, May 7, and again at 2pm on Saturday, May 8.

Spread Your Wings is on display through June 6. Cherry Street Pier works closely with the City of Philadelphia and follows state and federal guidelines to prevent the spread of COVID so visitors can enjoy spring and summer along the Delaware River Waterfront. Partners for Spread Your Wings include Cherry Street Pier/Delaware River Waterfront Corporation, Pennsylvania Ballet, Mural Arts Philadelphia, Fleisher Art Memorial, Big Picture Alliance, Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus, Art-Reach, and Mighty Writers.

What, Where, When, and Accessibility

Spread Your Wings arrives at the Cherry Street Pier on Friday, May 7, at 7pm and is on display through June 6, 2021. The opening weekend will feature live performances by Pennsylvania Ballet II. For more information, visit online.

Image Description: An illustration of two ballet dancers in motion. The image includes spiraling blue and green lines that come together to mirror the dancers and compose floral-like shapes. A flower blossoms in the bottom left corner, a swan flies in the top right.