Philadelphia Museum of Art. Dept. of Community Programs.

The Department of Urban Outreach (DUO) of the Philadelphia Museum of Art was established in 1970 as an effort to reach new audiences by bringing art and art programs directly into Philadelphia’s inner city neighborhoods. David H. Katzive served as the program’s Director from 1970 to 1976. In 1977, it became the Department of Community Programs with Penny Bach as Director. In 1979, Clarence Wood and Don Kaiser were named Co-Directors.

From the beginning, the work of the Department of Urban Outreach focused on its program of outdoor mural painting across Philadelphia. It produced no less than ninety murals over the course of its existence, which helped reduce graffiti and beautify neighborhoods, encourage community pride, and serve as tangible proof that the Museum could become part of every Philadelphian’s daily life. The Department also sponsored exhibitions of local works of art at its “Gallery 72,” and it administered the Thomas Eakins House and the Samuel Fleisher Art Memorial. In 1975, while the Museum was closed to the public for a massive construction project, the Department’s Rites of Passage exhibitions, held in several neighborhood facilities, celebrating cultural groups living in Philadelphia, kept the Museum in the news and in people’s minds. At different times, the Department sponsored a variety of other activities across Philadelphia, including, the traveling “Art Cart” and exhibit, “The Mind’s Eye;” summer camps; community arts and crafts programs; a traveling improvisational workshop; and instruction in music, dance, audio visual technology and photography. In 1976, it held the Inner City Cultural Arts Festival, which was a series of dance, film, music and theatrical events.

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