Bill Perthes, the Bernard C. Watson Director of Adult Education for the Barnes Foundation discussed founder Albert Barnes and his foundation’s history and mission as they celebrate their 120 Anniversary.  

This summer, the Barnes Foundation and Mural Arts Philadelphia present Visions, an exhibition of original work created by artists from Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Guild program and artists at State Correctional Institution Phoenix (SCI Phoenix), southeast Pennsylvania’s maximum-security prison for men.

The Guild is a paid apprenticeship program that gives justice-impacted young people the opportunity to develop marketable job skills, reconnect with their community, and explore the transformative power of art.   

The Barnes and Mural Arts launched their collaborative restorative justice initiative in 2018 with art education classes led by Barnes educators and printmaking workshops held at Philadelphia studios. Workshops have taken place at the print studio at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) and, for the past several years, Second State Press.  The program engages individuals who are incarcerated or on parole, probation, home detainment, or work release, and those with open criminal cases, by providing opportunities to reconnect with society in productive ways through community engagement, skill-building, and collaborative mural projects.

Free with general admission to the Barnes, Visions will be on view in the first-floor classroom of the Collection Gallery now through August 26, 2024.

We also discussed the current exhibit, Matisse & Renoir in a New Light.  The exhibit is supported by classes and workshops at the Barnes and online to allow an international audience.  Visit July and August classes.    

Additional classes include Impressionism and Japonisme, Art & Literature of the Harlem Renaissance and Bill’s own Close-Looking Immersion: William Glackens’s The Raft.

For more information about the Barnes Foundation, visit BarnesFoundation.org.