November 2014: Greensgrow Farms, David Lynch, & Visual Soundscapes

Greensgrow Farms

Art of Food — Produced by Monica Rogozinski

In 1997, tired of growing crops in New Jersey, Mary Seton Corboy and her friend Tom Sereduk finally found an empty lot in Kensington to start the local urban farming they have been hoping for and signed a two year lease. The lot had a terrible history of pollution and litter in the soil as most lots did in the post-industrial area of Philadelphia. But with the use of hydroponic growing systems and raised beds it is now a thriving center in the community. All kinds of crops and flowers are grown, and also new concepts and initiatives of sustainable practices are encouraged, tested and put into practice. There is never a dull day at Greensgrow Farms. Numerous accomplishments have come out of this visionary and transformative quality, such as the CSA (City Supported Agriculture), making prepared foods in the underused church kitchen down the street, collaborating with food trucks and food entrepreneurs, turning that into an education initiative with workshops for all kinds of people, and most importantly, developed an active and connected community of people and farmers from Philadelphia and beyond.

Visual Soundscapes

Art of Life — Produced by Karen Smyles

Visual Soundscapes for Mental Health Pathways to Recovery is a project created by award winning musician/composer, Leslie Burrs and the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services. The project is designed to establish a new model for mental health service delivery, education, awareness, and stigma reduction, through the art of film, music and poetry. The goal is to produce a multi-phased series of music videos on various mental health issues, that will be shared with people of all backgrounds.

The first video created is titled Autumn Journey and aims to educate people about mental health issues related to addiction and recovery. It features two individuals who have successfully gone through the recovery process and share their experiences in very touching, open ways. But, what makes this project unique is that it is nothing like the typical film dealing with issues like this. It is done in an artful way using beautiful images, music and poetry.

Friday Arts goes behind the scenes to experience the making of the music for Autumn Journey at Forge Recording in Oreland, Pennsylvania and talks with Burrs about the project’s creation. We also interview Arthur C. Evans, Jr., commissioner of Philadelphia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services, to learn why the organization decided to take this artistic approach. Bruce Zahn, EdD, a psychologist at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine also shares why he was eager to be a part of it all.

David Lynch

Art — Produced by Michael O’Reilly

David Lynch is an internationally known, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker who got into film accidentally while a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. His film ERASERHEAD is inspired directly by his time in Philadelphia in the 1960’s and 70’s but he tells us, “I only wanted to be a painter”. DAVID LYNCH: THE UNIFIED FIELD is the first and largest survey of his 2D work from his time at PAFA in 1967 to 2013. Robert Cozzolino, senior curator at PAFA, tells us about how the show all came together. He details why SIX MEN GETTING SICK (1967), the award-winning piece by then student Lynch on view for the first time since 1967, was a transformative piece, merging painting, sculpture, sound and moving images. This piece was inspired by an experience Lynch had in his studio where (and he insists he was not on drugs) he began to see the plants he was painting begin to move. He thought “oh a moving painting”, and in that small studio at PAFA, sounds and images revolving around the dark and absurd, with Philadelphia center stage as muse, began to flow in an unceasing stream.