Barnes on the Block brings art, culture and community to life on the Parkway

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Hundreds gathered outside the Barnes Foundation on Sunday for the eighth annual Barnes on the Block event featuring a range of artists and performers celebrating creativity in Philadelphia.

The family-friendly outdoor festival, presented by PNC Arts Live, was in collaboration with Mural Arts Philadelphia as part of a series meant to inspire creativity and attract a broader and “diverse audience” to the Barnes Foundation, said Deputy Director for Community Engagement James Claiborne.

“Our collaborative exhibition with Mural Arts Philadelphia, where I’m from, also highlights social-impact artists who we work with in educational and community settings throughout the year,” Claiborne said. “It brings them to the Parkway and invites folks of all ages, backgrounds to come and celebrate the power and the enjoyment of arts and culture in Philadelphia.”

Artists set up tents along the festival’s entrance for educational workshops and to share their art with the people. Among them was Lemus, an independent artist who specializes in Latin American art, who returned to the event for the second year to teach traditional Colonia art.

“I want to be able to give a voice to the Latino community and the work that we’re doing through the knowledge of our own art practices and materials,” he said.

Lemus said he enjoys sharing his culture with people and likes that he can teach people about art they may not know about.

Among the tents and under the July hot sun, the dance group Batala kicked off their nearly hour-long performance as the audience clapped along.

The troupe performs traditional Brazilian samba reggae rhyme using a large drum.

“It’s so fun to get the people moving, and you can ask them to clap and participate,” said Ingrid Marti, a Philadelphia resident originally from Barcelona, Spain, who joined the group in 2018 as a way to find community.

“The crowd can engage with you, it’s amazing,” she said.

Tia Moen and Angie Kelley were visiting from Austin, Texas, when they found out about the event by “wandering up Ben Franklin Avenue.”

“One of the reasons why I love just wandering cities that I don’t really get to spend time in is that I feel like I’ll stumble upon like … what the people of the city are actually about and doing,” Kelley said. “We’re going to learn a little bit more about Philly and what their constituents are about is exciting and awesome.”

Moen said she appreciates art and is an artist in her own “personal, creative ways.”

“When you come to events like this, and you realize that everybody also wants to be out here with each other and create art and write poetry, it just grounds me into that humanness again,” Kelley said.

Claiborne said the Barnes plans to continue the event next summer.

“It helps us to reach and educate children and engage them in the arts to play and literacy,” he said. ”It also infuses Philadelphia’s cultural sector with capital in the way that we support individual artists, organizations and institutions.”