Go, Go, Go…Celebrate Chinatown!
On Saturday, October 28th, PCDC and AARP celebrated the grand finale of our “Go, Go, Go Chinatown” community building program. We invited the community to participate in plein air portrait painting led by freelance painter Sharon Ardito, paint pots for daffodils, play games like mah-jong and giant jenga, and enjoy hotdogs and fruit kabobs. On display was “Chinatown’s Little Gallery,” featuring artwork from the past two months of free Saturday art classes. This event was held simultaneously with our TreePhilly free yard tree giveaway. It was wonderful having community members of all ages gathered together to make art and enjoy the beautiful sunny afternoon. The past two months have been a whirlwind of activities.
In our free Gardening Classes, we had a lot of fun learning how to plant and take care of our community garden at 810 Arch Street. During the past month and a half, we have learned how to build our own gardening bed, how to grow herbs and what herbs are good for what ailments, plant tulips & daffodils and what you need to know to take care of them, and lot more. We also had a chance to paint and decorate our own clay pots as well as celebrate Halloween together by painting pumpkins! The vegetables will be ready to harvest in a few short weeks.
In our Art Classes, we learned how to paint a wide range of subjects, from large landscapes with the three kinds of point perspective to still life with an emphasis on composition, to animals and people based on a strong foundation on proportions and an understanding of underlying physiology. We also explored different media—acrylic painting, ink and paper comics, and scrapbooking. We had a blast and hope we can continue to bring free, intergenerational, intercultural art classes to Chinatown.
PCDC would like to thank AARP for the support from their Community Challenge grant that powered this project and 87 projects like this one around America, making communities more livable for individuals of all ages.
PCDC would also like to thank our dedicated volunteers for making this event a success: Danny Le, Schina Phan, Anna Perng, Yuli Wang, and Rosaline Yang; and the kind community members who helped us set up and break down.