Last Thursday I caught up with metalworker Jason Roberts at his new building over in Frankford Valley. When Roberts struck out to start his own metalsmith shop, he turned into the Globe Dye Works‘ very first tenant back in January of 2008. But he always had it in his mind to work out of his own property.
The Center for Emerging Visual Artists is presenting Philadelphia Open Studio Tours. It’s the largest tour of artist studios and creative spaces in the Philadelphia region and will feature Globe Dye Works artists and artisans. The tour for studios east of Broad Street will take place Saturday and Sunday, October 15th and 16th.
Several artists with studios in the Globe Dye Works will open their studios for display. Along with them, the Philadelphia Wooden Boat Company, which according to their website:
Operating out of a newly renovated light industrial site in the heart of Frankford, our boatbuilding and sailing programs – which include school day, afterschool, and summer sessions — help middle and high school age students develop self-esteem, improve academically, and learn valuable real life lessons.
Research shows that kids learn best by doing. When they have meaningful opportunities to make vital connections between what they learn in the classroom and what happens in the real world, they become more engaged and successful students.
Also included will be metalworker Jason Robert‘s new digs down at Duncan and Melrose inside the Bermuda Triangle that I call Frankford Valley. His work includes Silk City’s Beer Garden and Northern Liberties’ Community Center. His work is second to none and he’s settled his trade in Frankford. It’s a must see.
The one downer is that the studio tour’s website calls both Jason Robert’s shop and the Dye Works Port Richmond. boo.
[link] Post Studio Tours
Chris Wink being immortalized at the studio in East Frankford
I haven’t been quite able to catch up to anyone at Philadelphia Productions, a photography studio that’s popped up under my very nose over in East Frankford, but that hasn’t stopped me from doing some internet sleuthing to learn a few things of about this dynamic bunch. According to their blog, partners Colin Lenton, Steve Boyle and Nell Hoving got tired of working out of home offices and decided to pick up their own studio space, and apparently, they landed in Frankford.
The Globe Dye Works complex gets a hefty nod from the city’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy. The Three-Year index of Creative Vitality in Philadelphia tries to measure Philadelphia’s creative economy against the nation.
Check out these awesome quotes from the report:
Creative entrepreneurs of all kinds—from a renowned steel drum maker to painters and art framers to a wooden boat company—are heading north. Not to New York, but to Frankford, the once-thriving, historically working-class neighborhood just six miles north of Center City Philadelphia. What’s drawing them there is Globe Dye Works, a former textile manufacturing site-turned-creative compound.
The complex is considered a great example of industrial reuse and adaptation by the city, which itself is considered to be ahead of the curve nationally in the creative economy.
The Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia is throwing a bash at the Globe Dye Works to benefit it’s Alliance Advocacy Fund. Entitled Endangered City, the exhibition will showcase the expressions found in Philadelphia’s architectural history. Help support local artists, celebrate our cultural past and future, and help protect historical architecture in our city. A $10 donation is suggested.
[link] Press Release for Endangered City
