Stories and essays connected to Emily-Kate Niskey’s Philadelphia art history, including UArts, Vox Populi, Old City, First Friday, sculpture, artist communities, and the creative spaces that shaped her early work.
Last week, we received the heartbreaking news that our beloved alma mater, the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, was abruptly closing its doors after 150 years. Today, that sad announcement has become real. For many people, a school is just a building. A place where you take classes, pass through hallways, collect credits, and […]
There are some traditions that become so woven into a city’s identity that it is hard to imagine they ever had a beginning. Philadelphia’s First Friday is one of them. For anyone who came of age in the city’s art world, especially in and around Old City, First Friday was never just an event on […]
For more than a century, the University of the Arts in Philadelphia stood as one of the city’s most important creative institutions. Located in the heart of Center City along Philadelphia’s Avenue of the Arts, UArts helped shape generations of painters, sculptors, performers, designers, musicians, filmmakers, writers, educators, and cultural leaders. For artists like Emily-Kate […]
Long before Philadelphia’s First Friday gallery scene became a regular part of the city’s cultural rhythm, a group of artists decided to build the kind of space they needed. That decision became Vox Populi, one of Philadelphia’s most important artist-run contemporary art galleries and collectives. Founded in 1988, Vox Populi grew out of a simple […]