Official launch to feature program participants, map giveaway, contests, and more; New, innovative and accessible audio program for Philadelphia’s public art reveals untold histories of 51 outdoor sculptures through 35 unique audio segments

WHEN:      Thursday, June 10, 2010 beginning at 11:00 a.m.
11:00 a.m. Opening remarks followed by speakers
11:25 a.m. Sign dedication
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Select participant “voices” will be available for interviews at sculptures featured in the program along the Parkway

WHERE:     LOVE Park, JFK Plaza at 16th and JFK Blvd.
Rain location: Inside the Fairmount Park Welcome Center, 16th and JFK Blvd

WHO:    Penny Balkin Bach, Executive Director, Fairmount Park Art Association; Gary Steuer, Chief Cultural Officer, City of Philadelphia Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy; Mark Focht, Executive Director, Fairmount Park, City of Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation; and more. Voices include Pulitzer Prize winner Charles Fuller; Dr. Edward B. Daeschler, Acting President and CEO at The Academy of Natural Sciences; Kathleen A. Foster, Senior Curator of American Art and Director of the Center for American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Monsignor John Miller, Archdiocese of Philadelphia. A full list of participants in attendance follows below.

INFO:    This event is free and open to the public. Three attendees will have a chance to each win a 2GB iPod shuffle.

WHAT:     On Thursday, June 10 at Philadelphia’s famed LOVE Park beginning at 11:00 a.m., the Fairmount Park Art Association will celebrate the official launch of Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO, a multi-platform, interactive audio experience created to engage the public with Philadelphia’s preeminent collection of public art and outdoor sculpture.

The event will offer participants an opportunity to experience and learn more about the AUDIO program and to meet some of the audio segments’ “voices,” who will be stationed along the Parkway at various sculptures from 11:30 a.m. – 12: 30 p.m. Three attendees will also have a chance to each win a 2GB iPod shuffle pre-loaded with all 35 Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO segments.

Philadelphia has more outdoor sculpture than any other American city. Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO invites passersby to stop, look, listen and experience public art in a new light, through professionally produced three-minute interpretive audio segments revealing the untold histories of 51 outdoor sculptures at 35 stops along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and Kelly Drive. The diverse narratives are told by over 100 authentic voices with personal connections to the artwork.

Each Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO narrative compliments the viewer’s experience of outdoor sculpture with a program that is as unique as the artwork it describes, featuring different voices, themes, and production styles, produced by award-winning public radio producers and journalists. Programs explore personal and cultural connections to the art, while offering insights into the artists and their processes, what the sculptures represent, the history surrounding the works, and why the pieces were commissioned and installed at specific sites in Philadelphia.

SPEAKERS, LAUNCH PARTICIPANTS & GUESTS
The launch event will feature Penny Balkin Bach, Executive Director, Fairmount Park Art Association; Gary Steuer, Chief Cultural Officer, City of Philadelphia Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy; and Mark Focht, Executive Director, Fairmount Park, City of Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation.

Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO ambassadors will distribute program maps and guide participants interested in experiencing the program. From 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., each of the program voices below will be stationed along the Parkway at the four sculptures in which their story can be heard. Participants will be available to speak with visitors and members of the press. Voices and sculpture locations include:

• Kopernik (c. 1972) by Dudley Talcott, located at 18th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
Voice at location: Joseph L. Zazyczny was President of the Polish Heritage Society and a young Philadelphia City Councilman when he came up with the idea to commission a monument to Kopernik.

• Jesus Breaking Bread (1976) by Walter Erlebacher, located at Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul, 18th and Race Streets. Voice at location: Martha Erlebacher is a painter and the wife of the late sculptor Walter Erlebacher, who created Jesus Breaking Bread.

• Deinonychus (1987) by Kent Ullberg, located outside of the Academy of Natural Sciences, 19th and the Parkway. Voice at location: Dr. Edward B. Daeschler is Acting President and CEO at The Academy of Natural Sciences.

• All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors (1934) by J. Otto Schweizer, located at Aviator Park, Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 20th Street. Voice at location: Michael B. Roepel, community planner and President of the Committee to Restore and Relocate the All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors.

The official program launch will also include a sign dedication at the LOVE (1976) sculpture following the program introduction. On the Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO segment for LOVE by Robert Indiana, listeners have the rare opportunity to hear the artist himself talk about the now iconic sculpture.

Other launch event attendees include program voices:

• Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Charles Fuller, who can be heard on the audio program for the sculpture, All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors by J. Otto Schweizer. Fuller is the author of “A Soldier’s Play,” which was made into an Academy Award nominated movie. He has written a number of plays about racism and African American military life.

• Ann Kuttner, who speaks about The Lion Fighter by Albert Wolff and The Mounted Amazon Attacked by a Panther by Auguste Kiss, is a professor of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan Art at the University of Pennsylvania.

• Kathleen A. Foster is Robert L. McNeil, Jr., Senior Curator of American Art and Director of the Center for American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She can be heard on the audio program for the Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial – Sculpture Garden.

• Dennis Montagna is an art historian who directs the National Park Service’s Monument Research and Preservation Program based in Philadelphia. He can be heard on the audio program for the sculpture, General Ulysses S. Grant by Daniel Chester French and Edward C. Potter.

• Monsignor John Miller is a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia who helped develop the commission for Jesus Breaking Bread by Walter Erlebacher in celebration of the 41st International Eucharistic Conference held in Philadelphia in 1976.

• Clete Graham, who speaks about the sculpture John B. Kelly by Harry Rosin, has served as Commodore of Schuylkill Navy of Philadelphia, the governing body comprised of the rowing clubs along the Schuylkill River.

• James “Jimmy” Binns is a Philadelphia lawyer. A former Pennsylvania Boxing Commissioner and member of the Pennsylvania Boxing Hall of Fame, he played himself in the movies “Rocky V” and Rocky Balboa” and can be heard on the audio program for Rocky by A. Thomas Schomberg.

EXPERIENCE MUSEUM WITHOUT WALLS™: AUDIO
Accessible through multiple platforms, Philadelphia visitors and residents will have the opportunity to experience Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO programs for free on the street by cell phone, audio download, or streaming audio on the official program website: museumwithoutwallsaudio.org

• Permanent outdoor signage located at each sculpture features dialing instructions for accessing the program by cell phone by calling (215) 399-9000.
• The official Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO website offers online audio slideshows for all 35 audio programs, and high-quality stereo downloads of each program for use on personal iPods, MP3 players and other audio devices.
• An official Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO mobile application will be available for use on the iPhone, Blackberry, and Android.
• A free map and guide will be available at the Fairmount Park Welcome Center in LOVE Park and local visitor centers and nearby cultural institutions.
• The Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO website will also promote user-generated content, inviting Philadelphia visitors and residents to send in their own stories and submit personal photos of favorite public art works.

MUSEUM WITHOUT WALLS™: AUDIO SCULPTURES & LOCATIONS
Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO features 35 stops exploring 51 of Philadelphia’s outdoor sculptures. Sculptures installed at the locations below are all part of the Museum Without Walls™: AUDIO program. This list is organized by stop number.

1. LOVE (1976) – Robert Indiana
JFK Plaza, 15th Street and JFK Boulevard

2. Three Way Piece Number 1: Points (1964) – Henry Moore
Benjamin Franklin Parkway between 16th and 17th Streets

3. Three Discs, One Lacking (1968) – Alexander Calder
Benjamin Franklin Parkway between 16th and 17th Streets

4. Monument to Six Million Jewish Martyrs (1964) – Nathan Rapoport
16th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway

5. General Tadeusz Kosciusko (1978) – Marian Konieszny
18th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway

6. Kopernik (c. 1972) – Dudley Talcott
18th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway

7. Jesus Breaking Bread (1976) – Walter Erlebacher
Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul, 18th and Race Streets

8. Swann Memorial Fountain (1924) – Alexander Stirling Calder
Logan Square, Benjamin Franklin Parkway

9. General Galusha Pennypacker Memorial (1934) – Albert Laessle, initial concept – Charles Grafly
19th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway

10. Shakespeare Memorial (1926) – Alexander Stirling Calder
Logan Square between 19th and 20th Streets

11. Joseph Leidy (1907) – Samuel Murray and
Deinonychus (1987) – Kent Ullberg
Academy of Natural Sciences, 19th and the Parkway

12. All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors (1934) – J. Otto Schweizer
Aviator Park, Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 20th Street

13. Aero Memorial (1948) – Paul Manship
Aviator Park, Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 20th Street

14. Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Memorial (1927) – Hermon Atkins MacNeil
Logan Square, Benjamin Franklin Parkway and 20th Street

15. The Thinker (1902-1904) – Auguste Rodin
Rodin Museum, Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 22nd Street

16. Iroquois (1983-1999) – Mark di Suvero
24th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue

17. The Washington Monument (1897) – Rudolph Siemering
Eakins Oval in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

18. Rocky (1980) – Thomas Schomberg
Kelly Drive and Benjamin Franklin Parkway

19. The Lion Fighter (1858) – Albert Wolf and
Mounted Amazon Attacked – a Panther (1837) – August Kiss
Front Steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

20. Charioteer of Delphi (5th century B.C., cast c. 1977)
Artist Unknown
Kelly Drive near 24th Street

21. Joan of Arc (1890) – Emmanual Frémiet
Kelly Drive at 25th Street

22. The Wedges (1970) – Robert Morris
Kelly and Sedgely Drives

23. Abraham Lincoln (1871) – Randolph Rogers
Kelly and Sedgely Drives

24. The Pilgrim (1904) – Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Kelly Drive near Lemon Hill Drive

25. Thorfinn Karlsefni (c. 1918) – Einar Jonsson
Kelly Drive north of Boathouse Row

26. Stone Age in America (1887) – John J. Boyle
Kelly Drive north of boathouse row

27. Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial – South Terrace (1933-61) Six sculptures by artists Erwin Frey, Henry Kreis, Harry Rosin and Wheeler Williams
Kelly Drive, south of Girard Avenue Bridge

28. Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial – Central Terrace (1933-61)
Seven sculptures by artists John B. Flannagan, J. Wallace Kelly, Robert Laurent, Jacques Lipchitz, Helene Sardeau, Maurice Sterne and Heinz Warneke
Kelly Drive, south of Girard Avenue Bridge

29. Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial – North Terrace (1933-61)
Four sculptures by artists Ahron Ben-Shmuel, José de Creft, Koren der Harootian and Waldemar Raemisch
Kelly Drive, south of Girard Avenue Bridge

30. James A. Garfield Monument (1895) – Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Kelly Drive, south of Girard Avenue Bridge

31. Cowboy (1908) – Frederic Remington
Kelly Drive, northwest of Girard Avenue Bridge

32. Playing Angels and Sleeping Woman (See #33 or #34 for individual programs)

33. Playing Angels (c. 1950) – Carl Milles
Kelly Drive near Fountain Green Drive

34. Sleeping Woman (1991) – Stephen Berg and Tom Chimes
Near Kelly Drive, painted on Schuylkill River retaining wall

35. General Ulysses S. Grant (1897) – Daniel Chester French and Edward C. Potter
Kelly Drive and Fountain Green Drive

36. John B. Kelly (1965) – Harry Rosin
Kelly Drive near the rowing grandstands

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To schedule a camera crew or photo shoot, request audio samples, photos, and interviews or more information, please contact:
Canary Promotion + Design | Office: (215) 690-4065
Megan Wendell, megan [at] canarypromo [dot] com
Emaleigh Doley, emaleigh [at] canarypromo [dot] com
Electronic Press Kit | www.canarypromo.com/museumwithoutwalls