Positively Philadelphia: Show Set For Groundbreaking Women's Art Collection
By Lauren Lipton
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Museums from all over the country wanted this upcoming exhibit, but the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia was chosen.
"The exhibit is called 'The Female Gaze: Women Artists Making Their World,' " says PAFA senior curator and curator of modern art, Robert Cozzolino. "(It is composed of) about a third of a collection that we received from Linda Lee Alter."
Cozzolino adds that Alter (right), a Philadelphia-based artist, collector, and philanthropist, gave her collection of about 400 works by female artists to PAFA after a long evaluation process.
"She talked to about eleven institutions. Eight expressed interest. And she chose us," Cozzolino says.
Artist Diane Burko lives in Philadelphia and is one of the artists in the show, which opens November 17th.
"I'm a landscape painter, and usually what I do is travel around the world and, wherever I can find an opportunity to stay, I will photograph, sometimes paint en plein air, right there," Burko tells KYW Newsradio.
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Artist Sarah McEneaney also lives in Philadelphia.
"My work is all autobiographical and narrative. So it's very much about my life, from the mundane to the horrific."
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Burko adds, "This show, I think, is groundbreaking. First of all, for the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts to get the collection is amazing, because it could have gone anywhere in the country."
Why Philadelphia?
"We really do a lot of outreach in the community," says Cozzolino, the curator, "and Alter knows that we'll be making it accessible to all. Also because of our role as an art school. Plus, Lee is from Philadelphia -- I think she really wanted it to be here."
The show runs November 17th through April 7th at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Broad and Cherry Streets ("The Avenue of the Arts"), in Philadelphia.
And that's "Positively Philadelphia!"
