Get your art fresh off the easel

Philadelphia's artists, including Penn's vice provost for University life, will open their doors to the public this weekend.

Philadelphia Open Studio Tours is an annual event that allows over 200 of the city's visual artists to open their studios or homes for the display and sale of their artwork.

The event will also take place next weekend, when studios will be open east of Broad Street. This weekend focuses on venues west of Broad Street.

"For two weekends, artists are celebrated in the city," said Genevieve Coutroubis, director of the Regional Community Arts Program. "Philadelphia becomes an art city."

Coutroubis said that many participating artists are Penn alumni and that Penn's Vice Provost for University Life Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum is showing her work this year.

"I participated in my first Open Studio just last year, and I was asked to join the POST planning committee just this past April. I call my studio "Magnolia Gallery" because that was the street where my parents moved when I was a child," McCoullum wrote in an e-mail.

Her work will be shown at 6228 Germantown Ave. in the Magnolia Gallery. She will be at the studio Saturday.

Coutroubis said that although some area college students take advantage of the opportunity to see artist studios, she hopes to increase student participation.

"It's a really great way for them to get to know their community," she said, adding that it is free for the public.

Though other cities across the country host similar events, Coutroubis said the Open Studio Tours program is unique because it aims "to be in every inch of the city," rather than just feature artists from an isolated art district.

Studios are open everywhere, from Old City to West Philadelphia and in neighborhoods such as Germantown and Kensington.

The program is a project of the non-profit Center for Emerging Visual Artists.

For more information, visit Philaopenstudios.com.

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