March 2014

Salon Dinners

Art of Food — Produced by Monica Rogozinski

Located in the South Kensington Arts District, Front & Palmer is the home to Feast Your Eyes Catering owned by Lynn Buono and her husband Skip Schwarzman. Feast Your Eyes has been in business for 34 years, originally based in Northern Liberties and moving to their current location 13 years ago, they have been perfecting their food centered, customized approach to catering ever since.

Starting in 2004 Feast Your Eyes threw their own party where they chose the food, invited local artists, and then encouraged guests to donate to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami victims. From the success of that party came the Salon Dinners, a party thrown every winter featuring a cultural mash-up of music, art, and food with proceeds donated to a local charity of their choice. This month, Art of Food will be visiting Feast Your Eyes catering company at Front & Palmer to see new meals, new people, and new cultures during their winter Salon Dinners. The Bollywood themed event on February 7th featured authentic Indian food and Bollywood dancing. On March 15, 2014 will be Big Night, offering a lavish Italian dinner, entertainment from Heath Allen, a cash bar, and glass art installation from New Jersey’s WheatonArts Glassblowers.

The Power of Music

Art of Life — Produced by Karen Smyles

The mission of the Melodic Caring Project is to bring genuine love and compassion together with the medically proven healing properties of music and share them with children in need. To provide love, encouragement and healing through music to every child in need and to inspire communities worldwide to do the same.

The Melodic Caring Project is a non-profit organization which bridges the gap between music, technology and patients battling serious illness by streaming LIVE personalized concerts to kids and teens in the hospital. Melodic Caring Project embraces the medically proven healing properties of music to alleviate pain, reduce anxiety and aid in the overall wellness and wellbeing of the patient. The Melodic Caring Projects model meets a real and pressing need in the market with its new innovative approach, offering ease, accessibility and comfort to those suffering from serious illness or injury, especially those quarantined and/or suffering from immunodeficiency.

The Melodic Caring Project is about one artist, or band, playing a LIVE and extremely personal concert for a select group of patients. That performance is filmed and streamed LIVE directly to the patients hospital bed, or home where they can watch the show in the comfort and anonymity of their own room. Through a live-chat feature, patients can chat throughout the concert with friends, family and outside supporters sending real-time messages of love and encouragement, creating a true sense of community and support. This unique service is free to the patient and free to the hospital. Revenues generated by donations, grants, sponsorships, merchandise sales etc., are re-distributed in the form of music to provide therapy, hope and empowerment to those suffering from serious illness.

Recently, The Melodic Caring Project was in Philadelphia at World Café Live to stream a concert by singer/songwriter, Brandi Carlile. Art of Life had the opportunity to sit down with the founder of the organization, Levi Ware, to talk about why this organization has taken on such an important role in his life, and his hopes for it’s future. We also got to experience his personal musical talents in a studio performance of his hit song “Hey, Hey”, which has become the theme song for the organization.

The Houses of Louis “Lou” Kahn.

Art — Produced by Michael O’Reilly

Louis Kahn was an architect known for designing and building monumental structures in service of “the institutions of man”, but he also designed and built a handful of houses for clients that knew him simply as Lou. An exhibition and book about these houses has been developed by George H. Marcus and WIlliam Whitaker, scholars from the University of Pennsylvania – the same school at which Kahn taught. In the ART segment, we go inside two of these Philadelphia-area houses – the Esherick House in Chestnut Hill and the Korman House in Fort Washington – and talk with the current owner of the Korman House, Larry Korman and Kahn’s only son, Nathaniel Kahn. The remarkable film made by Nathaniel from 2003 – MY ARCHITECT – detailing the architect’s extraordinary career and his familial legacy after his death in 1974 – was nominated for a “Best Documentary” Academy Award in that same year.