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Sketching Splendor, WANDERING, printPHILLY, and World Circus Day
The BSR Weekly Arts and Culture Roundup, April 18-24, 2024
Kyle V. Hiller
There is plenty to explore in the city this week. American Philosophical Society’s latest exhibit takes a complex look at natural history, Studio 34 plays with dance and music for soulful improvisation, and the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts celebrates World Circus Day. Be sure to check out the second annual printPHILLY Print Fair, a new exhibit at NoName Gallery and Fairmount Water Works.
Sketching Splendor
Through December 29, 2024
American Philosophical Society, 104 South 5th Street, Philadelphia
Sketching Splendor: American Natural History, 1750-1850 is the American Philosophical Society’s (APS) new exhibit for the year. Sketching Splendor explores how William Bartram, Titian Ramsay Peale, and John James Audubon made sense of nature’s complexities through their writings, drawings, and watercolor paintings, capturing the rapid intellectual, social, and political change along the way. Their journeys aren’t simple though, as the APS poses: “Their world was not just one of intellectual excitement, but one of systematic injustice and a complex national history.”
More than Words
Through April 28, 2024
NoName Gallery, 8127 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia
Avec Art Consulting’s exhibit More than Words uses language, abstraction, figurative shapes, and more to reflect on the human experience.
Free Float
Friday, April 19, 7:30pm
Studio 34, 4522 Baltimore Avenue, Philadelphia
Free Fleet, a collaborative effort between choreographers Loren Groenendaal and Curt Haworth, brings Free Float to West Philly’s Studio 34. The performance highlights the playful interaction between movement and sound as a live composition. The series brings a new configuration of musicians and dancers, and this edition features BSR contributor Aaron Pond.
World Circus Day with Philadelphia School of Circus Arts
Saturday, April 20, 11am-9pm
Philadelphia School of Circus Arts, 6452 Greene Street, Philadelphia
Philadelphia School of Circus Arts celebrates World Circus Day this weekend with this all-ages event with a variety of programming. A youth trampoline, a German Wheel class, and an aerial playground throughout the day culminate in a circus show to close the evening.
WANDERING: Observations of Our Watershed
April 20-July 27, 2024
Preview reception: Thursday, April 18, 4:30-7:30pm
Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center, 640 Waterworks Drive, Philadelphia
The new exhibit from Fairmount Water Works—they brought us the groundbreaking exhibit POOL—opens this weekend. The exhibit features a curated selection of vintage and contemporary drawings, paintings, and photography by Philadelphia artists and their observations of Philly’s rivers, streams, wildlife, tidal wetlands, and more. A preview reception happens on Thursday, April 18, with the official opening happening this Saturday. The exhibition is free and open to the public, with donations accepted.
printPHILLY Print Fair
Saturday, April 20, 10am-3pm
Dorrance Hamilton Hall at the University of the Arts, 320 South Broad Street, Philadelphia
The Philadelphia Print Consortium hosts its second annual printPHILLY Print Fair this weekend, raising awareness of the expanding print community in the city. Over 50 artists, studios, and institutions are participating and contributing to the free event.
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