Fleisher is honored to announce a call for entries to the newly created biennial Dina Wind Art as Catalyst Fellowship, which celebrates the life and ideals of artist, board member, and longtime Fleisher supporter Dina Wind while furthering Fleisher’s commitment to arts-based community engagement. This six-month live/work residency is an ideal opportunity for an artist seeking to build relationships and create work within the diverse South Philadelphia community while focusing their creative practice on issues of social justice, cultural equity, and cultural preservation. Applications will be accepted through March 31. Learn more about the fellowship and apply.

Fleisher believes that art is transformative when individuals actively participate in its creation and development. We see artists as weavers of social fabric – connecting disparate ideas, experiences, and perspectives to strengthen a diverse and resilient community, more powerful than the sum of individual parts.

“Dina’s faith in the power of art remains unmatched. She believed deeply in an artist’s ability to promote peace, kindle compassion, and initiate serious dialogue around issues that affect us all,” says Executive Director Elizabeth Grimaldi. “Fleisher will remain forever grateful to the Wind family for enabling us to honor Dina’s legacy through the Catalyst Fellowship. We wait excitedly to experience the work that will be created through this unique opportunity.”

In that spirit, the biennial Dina Wind Art as Catalyst Fellowship provides visual artists at a critical juncture in their artistic careers the opportunity to enrich their practice, in developing and sharing a socially-engaged, socially-relevant, and participatory public art project within Southeast Philadelphia and Fleisher’s community. The Fellowship is intended to move artists from a conventional public art model of placing static art objects in public spaces to one that emphasizes the ways art and artists can serve as catalysts for social action, problem-solving, and relationship building. The fellowship will provide the fellow with a stipend, living, and work space.

Pictured: Dina Wind, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, 2003, top; Dina working on one of her sculptures.