Category: Art

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Focus on Frankford: Jennifer Mohr

Frankford Crafter Entrepreneur

Originally published on www.destinationfrankford.comIMG_5215 web

One sunny afternoon in October of 2012, I first met Jennifer Mohr at Overington Park  surrounded by children at the Fall Festival.  She was there volunteering with the Friends of Overington Park.  She sat at a table full of handcrafted jewelry and other things for sale. That kind of piqued my curiosity. I was surprised that this relatively young girl was out selling her own creations.

A graduate of Frankford Friends School and the Charter School for Architecture and Design (CHAD), she has been making and designing things almost her entire life.  CHAD seems like the perfect choice for someone who is creative.  It’s located on 7th street between Market and Chestnut in downtown Philadelphia.

Although she is now a Frankford resident, she actually grew up all over the northeast but mainly lived in Mayfair.  She spent a lot of time in Frankford with her aunt Lorraine. When she was looking for a place to live, Frankford came to mind because of the convenience for travel and also because she is comfortable here.  She says it’s not the best neighborhood yet but it certainly has a lot of potential and is affordable.  She doesn’t have a car yet, so the Frankford Transpiration Center is a great asset since you can get to almost any part of the city very easily.  She works full time in Northern Liberties.

On any first Friday of the month, you are likely to find her down around 2nd and Market Street between 5 and 9 PM.  The Old City Arts Association has been sponsoring First Friday in Old City since 1991.  Although the sidewalk vendors are not an official part of the event, they are not discouraged either.  The streets are filled with vendors selling everything and anything to the strollers who come out to tour the numerous art galleries.

It’s a perfect marketplace for her creations which are mainly silver jewelry, decorated boxes and crocheted items like hats and bags.  She is looking to get into candle making which is a very marketable line of business although it does require some new equipment.

She has also marketed her pieces at other vendors markets around the city and is in considering marketing on Etsy.  That is a marketplace for creative people from all around the world to sell their own hand crafted goods.

Jennifer is another example of the many creative residents in Frankford.  We’ve previously highlighted Nasifah Lewis and Flossy Stanowski who both built successful small businesses here.

She has aspirations to open a craft/coffee shop at some point in the future.  She is off to a good start, so that does not seem at all out of reach and we hope that the Frankford Avenue business corridor will be ready for it when she decides to take the plunge.

 

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Destination Frankford Invites Community to Open Meeting

Destination Frankford welcomes all members of the Frankford community to a public meeting on January 27 from 6:00  – 7:00 pm at the 2nd Baptist Church at 1801 Meadow Street.

The five Destination Frankford Womrath Park Sculpture finalists, chosen by a jury of project administrators, arts professionals, and representatives of the Frankford community from 100 applicants, will present their proposals for the park’s new public artwork.

Jake Beckman (Philadelphia,), Pete Beeman (Brooklyn, NY), Jim Gallucci (Greensboro, NC), Robert Roesch (Philadelphia), and Christine Rojek (Chicago, IL) were chosen on the basis of their past work and artist statements by the Destination Frankford selection jury to complete a design for a gateway sculpture in Womrath Park.

Each artist will show images of their proposal and will entertain questions from the audience. Ian Litwin (Project Manager), Marsha Moss (Public Art Consultant), and Leslie Kaufman (Art Director) will be on hand to answer any additional questions.One artist will be chosen by the jury to fabricate and install the winning project, expected to be completed in November, 2014.

A light dinner will be provided, and those interested in attending are encouraged to RSVP to Leslie Kaufman at lesliekaufman@verizon.net by January 22. This will be the only opportunity to see the final proposals before the selection is made, so make sure you are a part of this exciting event!

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Only Five More Days Left in the Frankford Library Silent Auction

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The Friends of the Frankford Library are holding a silent auction with a few interesting items up for bid. Stop by the library, 4634 Frankford Avenue, to place your bid on paintings of Frankford area landmarks, books of local historical interest, and other small items.  You just might find that unique holiday gift for someone on your list.  Winners will be announced on Monday, December 23, 2013.  For more information, contact Betsy Baxter, Branch Head, at 215-685-1473, or email baxterb@freelibrary.org.

  1. Watercolor of Frankford High School
  2. Watercolor of Bromley-Garsed mansion (Northwood Frankford Community Y building)
  3. Pen and ink drawing of the Frankford Library
  4. Book Kitty Foyle by Christopher Morley – later became a film with Ginger Rogers starring as a girl from Frankford living on Griscom Street
  5. Book Sixty Year History of Frankford High School 1910-1970
  6. Building 6: The Tragedy at Bridesburg
  7. 2 Buttons “I’m Frankford Friendly” plus one
  8. 2 Buttons “I’m Frankford Friendly” plus one
  9. 2 Buttons “I’m Frankford Friendly” plus one

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bromley building 6 buttons buttons2 library frankford hs kitty foyle frankford high history buttons3

 

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Moore College of Art and Design Teams Up with Harding Middle School

When Liz Gilly, Outreach and Public Programs Coordinator at The Galleries at Moore College of Art & Design, asked teacher Kelly Ann Coughlin if Harding Middle School would like to be the first school in the city to participate in a new community arts program, she didn’t hesitate for a moment.  She teaches Creative Writing at Harding and knew this would be once in a lifetime opportunity for her students.  The concept is that visiting artists would work in a school to create a culminating art project of some kind.

After getting the OK from Principal Michael Calderone they went to work.  So for the past few months, Harding Middle School students in Ms. Coughlin’s 605 Creative Writing class have been working on creating unique story lines for a fictitious movie, developing characters, a plot, and a setting with visiting artists Kathryn Sclavi and Jebney Lewis.

On December 3rd, students received the unique opportunity to actually create the world they imagine by photographing a scene wearing costume, makeup, and posing in a setting similar to the one they imagine with professionals from the movie industry! With this shoot, professionals will be photographing images that will later be used to create a full size movie poster.

This “movie shoot” day took place on December 3rd.  Students worked in groups of 10 to create 3 individual movie plots with characters and setting ideas. In Harding’s library, each group first gathered with a professional costumer, Julia Poiesz (from the Walnut Street Theater) and makeup artists, Marbella Chispe  and Anastasia Balabanova, to get dressed in a costume and makeup akin to their character.

Once students were dressed, they went to the location of the photography shoot.  Most photos were shot in the library, which was fully set up with a green screen and multiple lighting props, as well as a fog machine. There, they worked with a professional photographer, William Gregory Lewis (who flew in from Los Angeles), along with photo assistants, Rebekah Flake and Les Rivera, to shoot a scene. One group even shot out front of the school and in the nearby field to capture students dressed as zombies walking through the fog.

The students will get a chance to see the photographs and receive a copy of their image in January, once the images are edited and designed with a graphic designer.   Once students choose their favorite version of their movie poster, it will be exhibited at Moore College of Art on January 23rd.

The students learned much about hard work, collaboration, and creativity and it is something they will surely remember for the rest of their lives.  Ms. Coughlin’s 605 Creative Writing class is made up of Izayiah Adams, Estreya Aranda, Jerry Arroyo, Haja Bah, Nadirah Bell, Jermaine Berry, Najier Breland, Luis Domenech-Casillas, Ariiyus Elamin, Jaileen Figueroa, Marc Ganthier, Sylvia Garay, Angel Garcia, Alejandro Gomez, Ibrahim Hammoudeh, Lineda Jean-Louis, Aniyah Jenkins, Shyanne Johnson, Gavin Lichtenberger, Christian Love, Adiel Loya-Rico, Kristine Macatantan, Lamont Mull, Angel Padilla, Harry Rivera, Eric Simms-Stephens, Cory Sutton, Kathleen Thach, Istneydina Thomas, Iyania Whitfield, Marissa Wileczek and Quadir Wiley.