CURATOR: Follow me through the looking glass

Our revived and slightly tweeked weekly column features a selection of must-see exhibits, handpicked by our resident "curator" and art-geek extraordinaire.

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CURATOR: Follow me through the looking glass

POSTED: Friday, January 13, 2012, 2:10 PM

Filed Under: Arts The Curator

The Crane Arts Building I'm embarrassed to say that I just discovered Crane Arts and all its magnificence. In any event, if you haven’t been there yet, put it on your schedule. The building alone makes the visit worthwhile, and its permanent and rotating exhibits, performance spaces, and artist lofts and studios are inspiring examples of what can happen when an urban renewal project is done right.

Built in 1905 out of cast concrete with brick facing, the Crane building was originally home to a plumbing warehouse, with a three-story stable adjacent to it. The warehouse was carefully and lovingly transformed in 2004 (complete with gas fire places and preserved beams), and now houses four floors of gallery space and artists studios, as well as the Stable, Whitespace, and the Icebox — originally a huge concrete block on the first floor that functioned as a freezer, now an ultimate project space. An added bonus? Crane supports the arts and the environment: During renovations 450 solar panels were installed on the roof.

With permanent homes in the main building, the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center and Indigo Arts (a folk-art center) are currently featuring Laura Heyman’s portrait series from Port-au-Prince, entitled “Pa Bouje Ankò: Don’t Move Again,” and works by the late Nigerian-born UNESCO Artist for Peace, Twins Seven-Seven, respectively. Opened yesterday in the main building’s “The Hall” space is a collection of photographs by Robert Solomon. In the exhibit, the artist has compiled a provocative series based on views looking out of one window over the course of a year. Whew. And that’s only the tip of the ’berg at Crane. Go get your art/(Philadelphia)history on. Free, Crane Arts Building, 1400 N. American St., 215- 232-3203, cranearts.com.

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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