Pennsylvania Historical Marker Recognizes the Fleisher Art Memorial

Image: Nancy W. Wright (Fleisher's associate director), the Hon. Babette Josephs (state representative, 182nd District) and Wayne Spilove (chairman, Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission) unveil the new marker in front of the Fleisher Art Memorial

On Tuesday, September 13, 2005, the Fleisher Art Memorial and the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission dedicated a new marker honoring the Memorial's contribution to the history of the commonwealth. Wayne Spilove, chairman of the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, read the following statement describing the Art Memorial's continuing role:

"Fleisher Art Memorial, founded by Samuel S. Fleisher as the Graphic Sketch Club in 1898, is now the nation's oldest tuition-free, community-based art school. From its inception, Fleisher’s mission has been to guarantee access to professional arts instruction, especially for minority and low-income populations. Fleisher continues to be guided by the spirit of its founder, who believed that the arts were vital to the life of any community and wanted to reduce barriers, both real and presumptive, to participation in the arts. His beliefs were rooted in the ideals of William Morris and John Ruskin about the salutary effects of the arts on the human spirit and paralleled the groundbreaking work of Jane Addams at the Hull House in Chicago.

"Founded as an arts program in the nearby Jewish Union Building, the free tuition-classes of the Graphic Sketch Club soon outgrew the facilities there and were relocated in the abandoned St. Martin School for Indigent Boys at 715 Catharine Street. In those early days, some of Philadelphia’s most important artists both taught and learned. Portrait painter Robert Susan, father of novelist Jacqueline Susann, and sculptor Albin Polasek, who became the Dean of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago were on faculty. Students of the Graphic Sketch Club in those early days included a young Frank Gasparro, who grew up to become the 10th Chief Engraver of the United States Mint and the most minted engraver in history, and a young Louis I. Kahn, who developed into one of the seminal architects of the 20th century. Both men maintained a life-long affection for this institution that provided them with an introduction to the world of art, and support along the way to make their dreams come true.

Image: Hon. Babette Josephs, Wayne Spilove, and Fleisher board member John Louchheim

"Today students from throughout the Delaware Valley’s tri-state region enjoy the Memorial’s open admissions policy, free of residency requirements and economic barriers. Throughout its 107-year history Fleisher programs taught by professional artist/educators have impacted more than 500,000 individuals, whether through its in-house art classes for adults and children, or, more recently, via in-class and after school programs in area schools.

"Fleisher Art Memorial is at the core of a growing movement of community-based arts programs that become assets not only to the individuals who walk through its doors but also anchors to the stability and health of the neighborhoods they work in. Last year over 4,000 students attended programs that offered more than 80 choices for visual arts study weekly. Additionally the exhibition and performance programs over the past thirty years have featured and promoted the work of innumerable local, regional, national and internationally known artists.

"Although the Fleisher Art Memorial has been a presence in this neighborhood for over a century its impact throughout the region and beyond is spread through every artist who has studied or exhibited here, as well as each person who views an exhibition or attends a performance. This state historical marker for Fleisher is one of the few in this area that commemorates the rich history of an institution that is still so very much alive — if not more so now — then when first founded over one hundred years ago."

Image: John Louchheim, Fleisher's executive director Thora Jacobson, Hon. Babette Josephs, and Wayne Spilove

Photographs: James G. Mundie