Ashley on Art Sanctuary

X-Sender: ashleyh@postoffice.sas.upenn.edu
Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2001 12:06:31 -0400
To: whseminar@dept.english.upenn.edu
From: Ashley Hellinger 
Subject: Special Report- Art Sanctuary Project


	I spoke with Lorene Cary this week about the project that she
founded, "Art Sanctuary."  Lorene's work with the project is relevant to
our study of June Jordan, as Lorene has spent the semester focusing her
energy on teaching literature in the community.  This program is designed
to bring together students from community centers, schools, non-profit
organizations and universities. According to the project's mission
statement, "This educational initiative intends to bring new readers to an
intimate experience with America’s master writers."  The focus of this
semester's project has been June Jordan, and the teaching of her work
within the community will culminate with Jordan's visit on April 22.
	The project's mission statement can be found at
www.artsanctuary.org and reads as follows: "Art Sanctuary is an
African-American arts and letters organization devoted to presenting
outstanding regional and national talent in the literary, visual and
performing arts. Our mission is to bring our visionaries - live and in
person - into direct contact with the community. Housed in the Church of
the Advocate, a Historic National Landmark in the heart of North
Philadelphia, Art Sanctuary brings to Philadelphia artists who display the
brilliance and transforming power of Black art."
	My conversation with Lorene yielded a much more personal response
about what the program strives to accomplish and why it is so successful.  
Lorene got the idea for the program three years ago.  She said that she
wanted to bring first class artists to speak in the inner city because
these artists are rarely brought to these kinds of venues.  Even if the
artist came to speak in West Philadelphia, the event was held at a
university or a commercial venue, such as a bookstore.  Lorene lamented
that it became too commercial for her taste and was not available to the
people who needed it the most, outside of the university setting.  In
Lorene's opinion, "Art is essential to being human."  It was too important
to sit back and let the trend continue.
	The program continues to grow, almost exponentially.  The first
year of the program, from January to June 1999, there were six events.  
In 2000, there were ten.  This year's program consisted of sixteen.  The
educational initiatives have grown, and the program has surpassed Lorene's
expectations.  The major challenge that Lorene dealt with when trying to
get the project started was funding.  She was able to get some sponsors
because she was well known as a writer, but she did not want that name
recognition to carry the program forever.
	Lorene wanted to create an organization that was capable of
sustaining itself.  She thought that it would cripple the program if it
continued to attract people based solely on her persona.  The program
needed to be able to survive once she was gone (get to know her and you
will find out that she is not going anywhere anytime soon).  The project
also needed to have strengths outside of Lorene's involvement.  She knew
that people would not be willing to continue to support it financially if
it had not established itself as an organization that was doing good
things.  The project has been incredibly successful and continues to grow.  
Individual memberships now make up 17% of the funding.  This is a growing
percentage and allows the project to rely less on Lorene's name and more
on the strengths of the programs they are bringing in.  Speakers like
Terry McMillan and June Jordan certainly do not hurt.
	The program is growing, but Lorene is not quite sure where.  She
has recently put an emphasis on integrating more young people into the
program.
 She stressed that when you are trying to get a program of the ground, it
is vital to have people that are at least 30 or 40 years old.  They are
established and have the experience to launch a project.  Now, Lorene sees
the need for young energy and this is evident when looking at some of the
events from this season.  They will be visited by a hip-hop curator and
will hold an animation workshop.
	In Lorene's founders statement, she so beautifully encapsulates
what she is trying to do.  She says, "Our model has been to start each
phase on a shoestring, with volunteers, part-time helpers here and there,
and advisors in addition to our director-which is fine to start. It's too
much, too ambitious, and growing too fast to sustain at that level, of
course, but the best way we've found to get the wider community to see and
believe the excellence that can spring up in North Philadelphia-and help
nourish a region."
	As much as she would deny it, her presence is vital.  In just
thirty minutes, Lorene inspired me to be more involved.