Chestnut Hill Local - News Story #2

Chestnut Hill to fall for fine arts on Sunday

by KATIE WORRALL

Celebrating the arts has been an autumn event in the Chestnut Hill business community for decades. Some in the neighborhood remember a clothesline exhibit of artwork in the parking lot of the former Frigate Book Shop on East Highland Avenue. Others recall a sidewalk show so popular and crowded that it was difficult for an onlooker to see the works of art.

The following year, in 1995, under the leadership of then-Chestnut Hill Business Association executive director Raymond Maas, the art show as we know it today became a reality. Maas created the Fall for the Arts Festival, a street fair in which Germantown Avenue was closed to traffic and artists set up booths on the Avenue, where they exhibited and sold works.

Entertainment, music and food were also part of the fun.
Local organizations were encouraged to host events over a several-week period, to celebrate the many cultural interests in Chestnut Hill. Although, there is not as strong a connection today, some local institutions have been having or will have cultural events. ( Woodmere Art Museum is planning an open house, with activities and demonstrations in printmaking and sun prints for the whole family on Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. The Stagecrafters recently celebrated its 75th anniversary with a production of Arsenic and Old Lace and the Morris Arboretum hosted a fall family festival last weekend.)

Sometimes, since then, crafters were included in the festival, but this year, the Business Association is refocusing on fine arts. The festival, scheduled for Sunday, October 12, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., will boast works by 160 fine artists from this area and as far away as Texas.

“The goal of the Fall for the Arts Festival is to show off Chestnut Hill and to benefit the Chestnut Hill businesses and to encourage them to be open on Sunday,” Suzanne Biemiller, the CHBA’s current executive director, said.

Not only will stores be open, but many of them will set up booths outside their shops. Most of the Hill’s eateries will also be participating, by selling food at a food court staged in front of Magarity Ford, Germantown Avenue and Hartwell Lane, or at other locations along the Avenue.

As always, entertainment will be presented at stages set up at the top of the Hill, and in front of Solaris, Germantown Avenue and Hartwell Lane. Community organizations will offer information and children’s activities will also be part of the fun. An antique car display is being organized by antique car buff Richard Maloumian.

Six Pack and Zydeco-a-Go-Go will perform on the stage at the Top of the Hill while the Reckless Amateurs and the Mighty Rhythm Band will play music at the stage near Solaris. Six Pack, a rock & roll band, has played at many business association events. Reckless Amateurs, an alternative country band led by Chestnut Hillers David and Rebecca Thornburgh, performed at one of last summer’s block parties. Zydeco-a-Go-Go, a Cajun band, and Mighty Rhythm Band, a rhythm and blues band, are new to business association sponsored events.

Activities for children and families will include rides, games, sand art, a climbing rock wall, paper-making demonstrations by Historic RittenhouseTown, toy making, face painting and fortunes told by a psychic Glenn Lash, the Intermission employee who entertains shoppers as “Pfeffernusse the Elf” during the holiday shopping season and as the Easter Bunny in the spring, will be costumed as Twigby the Autumnal Elf for the Fall for the Arts Festival.

Restaurants participating in the food court will be Cafette, Cin Cin, Chestnut Grill, Cresheim Cottage Café, Solaris, King’s Garden, Night Kitchen, Roller’s Restaurant, My Little Savannah and Fiesta Pizza. Jonathan’s Best, Solaris and Treat Street will also offer food in the 8200 block of Germantown Avenue.

Serving food in the 8600 block of Germantown Avenue will be McNally’s, Metropolitan Bakery, Cosimo’s, Osaka, Cosmic Catering and Irish Lassie Funnel Cake. Featured in the 8500 block will be Starbuck’s, Chestnut Hill Cheese Shop, Cake, Bredenbeck’s Ice Cream and Pianta. The Women’s Exchange and Caruso’s will offer food in the 8400 block of Germantown Avenue. In the 8300 block, there will be food sold by Rollers Express-O and Fiesta. Baker Street will give a bread-making demonstration in the 8000 Germantown Avenue at 2 p.m.

Other Chestnut Hill businesses that are having booths outside their shops include Wachovia Bank, National Penn Bank, Kitchen Kapers, Cosmic Catering. Sovereign Bank, Happy Butterfly, Manner & Knoll, Color Me Mine, Anne Hopkin Flowers, O’Doodle’s, Simply Cottage, Community Audio, Hill Company, Susan Beard Design, Hideaway Music, Antique Gallery, Talbot’s Petites, La Vie Creatif, Artisans on the Avenue, French Lemon, Antiques on the Avenue/Norio’s, Garden Gate Antiques, The Knit With, Mango, Penn Dental Center at Chestnut Hill, Imperial Accents, Sherlock’s Javelin Design, Edward Jones, Pacific Leather, Health World, Stylos, Talbots, Quelque Chose, Artisans, Too, PNC Bank, Delphine Gallery, Intermission, Xando, Rug Maven, El Quetzal and Chico’s.

Community organizations participating in Fall for the Arts are Wissahickon Hospice, Historic RittenhouseTown, Moving Arts of Mt. Airy, Keystone Hospice, Chestnut Hill Historical Society, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, Chestnut Hill United Methodist Church, Philadelphia Children’s School & Waldorf Education, the Chestnut Hill Cultural Alliance, the Chestnut Hill Community Association and the Chestnut Hill Local.

In addition, festival-goers are invited to bring art supplies for donation to Project Home, a Philadelphia service organization for the homeless. Members of Teenagers, Inc. will assist this booth.
Subaru is sponsoring this year’s festival; Janney Montgomery Scott is sponsoring the Top-of-the-Hill entertainment stage. Off-street parking will be available in the Chestnut Hill Parking Foundation lots for an all-day rate of $5. Rain date is October 19.

For more information, call 215-247-6696 or visit www.chestnuthillpa.com.

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