Leeway Foundation Celebrates 25 Years with MAKING SPACE, a new Exhibition at The Galleries at Moore
August 23, 2018
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Erin Mooney
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LEEWAY FOUNDATION CELEBRATES 25 YEARS WITH MAKING SPACE, A NEW EXHIBITION AT THE GALLERIES AT MOORE
2018 marks the 25th anniversary of the Leeway Foundation , dedicated to grantmaking and community building among artists, cultural producers, and organizers in Greater Philadelphia. In celebration of this milestone year, Leeway announces the opening of MAKING SPACE: Leeway @ 25, an exhibition at The Galleries at Moore, running from September 20 through December 8, 2018.
“It is an honor to feature over 100 artists within this exhibition,” said Leeway executive director, Denise Brown. "From the collaborative installations and the work on the walls, to the Leeway library, showcasing a variety of books, zines and prints, we are so grateful for the contributions our grantees have made to MAKING SPACE as an expression of their continuing support of the mission of the foundation. These artists and cultural producers use art and culture, not only as declarations of resistance and protest, but as a chorus of voices, expressing the richness of all cultures and human experience,” Brown said.
The exhibition opens on September 20 at Moore College of Art & Design with a conversation featuring Lambent Foundation Executive Director Michelle Coffey, world-renowned South African photographer Zanele Muholi, and artists from The Women’s Mobile Museum. Moore’s Socially-Engaged Art MA/MFA program has worked with Leeway and the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center (PPAC) to present this dialogue with Muholi, who has developed a new project with Philadelphia Photo Arts Center and 10 local artists that make up The Women’s Mobile Museum. The event is free and open to the public. Registration is preferred but not required.
The exhibition features a curated selection of artworks by former Leeway grant recipients, as well as historical materials that recognize Leeway’s impact. Moore alumni and faculty are represented in the exhibition. Eighteen Moore BFA students worked with Leeway in preparation for the exhibition.
On view are works that demonstrate the powerful intersection of art, culture, community and change—the artists and visionaries who lovingly and courageously continue to “make space” for fresh stories and new realities to emerge. The exhibition encompasses collaborative works such as a front window installation titled One is Part of the Many, an altar honoring the legacy of forebears, and an installation from The Colored Girls Museum, as well as many other solo works, all by grantee artists.
Exhibiting artists include: Anula Shetty, Betty Leacraft, Michelle Angela Ortiz, Ana Guissel, Palma, Lori Waselchuk, Ruth Naomi Floyd, Syd Carpenter, Nanette Clark, Barbara Bullock, Ife Nii-Owoo, Yinka Orafidiya, Nancy Lewis Shell, Sandra Andino, Christina Johnson, Toni Kersey, Betsy Casañas, Marta Sanchez, Celestine Wilson Hughes, Denise Allen, Li Sumpter, Marie-Monique Marthol, Annie Mok, Beeta Baghoolizadeh, Camae Ayewa aka Moor Mother, Eva WÅ, Kerri Radley, Maria Dumlao, Mary DeWitt and Muthi Reed.
A Leeway Vision Poem by Walidah Imarisha and filmed by Anula Shetty includes contributions from grantees Andrea Walls, Boston Gordon, Debra Powell-Wright, Denice Frohman, Emily Abendroth, Indah Nuritasari, J.C. Todd, Julia Lopez, Kai Davis, Kavi Ade, Michelle Myers, Misty Sol, Mytili Jagannathan, Pat McLean, Sonia Sanchez, Susan DiPronio, Trapeta Mayson and Ursula Rucker and former Program Director Sham-e-Ali Nayeem.
