West Philadelphia: City’s Best Kept Art Secret
https://vimeo.com/18392452]
When you walk up to the Ellen Powell Tiberino Memorial Museum, it looks like any ordinary twin home on Hamilton Street in West Philadelphia. However, walk into the backyard, and it is as if you fell down the rabbit hole. Suddenly you are surrounded by a yard full of three-dimensional walls that have been molded into a collage of faces, a multitude of differently styled murals and the interconnecting pathways to several properties filled with art galleries. More interesting than the art is the tangled web of various artists and family members who made the place more of an art environment than an art gallery.
In the 1960s, Joe Tiberino was a college student working nights in a post office. He made friends with an eccentric man, who told him to swing by his house to meet his wife’s best friend, also an artist who was going away to New York. When Joe knocked on the door, Ellen greeted him and he claimed that he knew that this was the woman he was meant to marry. With this revelation he asked Ellen if he could come see her in New York some time.
“We had a courtship that lasted for six years,” said Joe with a small smile. “Ellen was conflicted about getting married. She didn’t know if she could be an artist, a wife and a mother.”
Eventually, their courtship evolved into a marriage and the couple settled in Philadelphia. They began working on creating their environment, slowly buying surrounding properties as their art collection grew as well as their family. Joe and Ellen had three children, Raphael, Gabriel and Ellen, and a growing network of friends and artists surrounding their home. In the summer, the Tiberino family constantly had artists over to their yards, painting nudes and sharing creative energies. For some time, Joe owned a little club on South Street called the Bacchanal, where poetry readers, vocalists and performers could play and thrive in the artistic atmosphere. Their home was always a revolving door of art, artists and performers who even after 35 years, most of them are still around.
Sadly, Ellen died in 1994 of breast cancer, leaving her bereaved husband and children to carry on the Tiberino art dynasty. In 1999, they officially named their five interconnecting properties after her, commemorating a life’s work of art and love.
On April 17, Joe Tiberino and family opened up the galleries for their 11th season. The yard was flowing with people the Tiberino family had surrounded themselves with for over 35 years. Longtime friend Johnny Ocean quietly strummed his guitar in the background while a group of women chatted about how big the children have grown and showed their families inside. What seems like hundreds of art works clutter the insides of the home. Styles and themes range from social commentary pieces like the infamous “MOVE” piece about the 1985 Philadelphia bombing of African-American radicals to religious paintings stemming from the families’ Catholic faith.
“Every time I come here, every single time I find something new,” marvels Clark DeLeon, a journalist as well as a board member at the museum. “Being here is simple, you look around and you either get it or you don’t.”
Clark first met Joe at the Bacchanal and immersed himself in the world they created. He developed his own artistic flair and fell in love with photography, which he credits to being around so many creative people. Clark and the other board members wear a multitude of different hats by booking events, giving tours or doing audio work.
“We all contribute in any way we can, whatever are that person’s strengths. For instance, I am a writer, I can help with a lot with that,” explains Clark of the “official” dynamics.
Growing up in such a creative space has had several different effects on the Tiberino children. For Gabriel, better known as Gabe, it dictated his success as an artist. Gabe had his first show when he was seven years old in a gallery. At the age of 16, Gabe became a member of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia and has several murals strewn across the city as well as one in New Orleans. At the museum, Gabe gives tours and works on projects with his father, not to mention starring in one of the three films Joe Tiberino created, called “The Mural.”
“I’ve never known anything else,” Gabe simply says of growing up around a constant stream of people. “I mean there was this one time my friends all came over, and you know they freaked out because they saw a nude model around. They weren’t used to it and were pretty immature about it,” Gabe recalls with a laugh.
For Ellen, art was at first something to rebel against. Having been fed a steady diet of art classes and being forced to pose, Ellen attempted to make a go of acting to escape the family business.
“When I was in drama class I was constantly doodling and my teacher, who came to my recent opening, said, ‘Did you ever consider the visual arts?’ So even then he saw something I didn’t,” Ellen observes.
After living in Los Angeles and New York, Ellen found her way back to Philadelphia and a home in her art. Currently, Ellen is hosting a gallery at the Vintage Bar, where several of her unique mosaics are available for purchase. Though Ellen does love doing family shows, it was important to her to make a name for herself in the art world.
“I set everything for this art show up,” Ellen claims proudly. “It is important to promote yourself and do your own work. A closed mouth doesn’t get fed.”
Though Raphael Tiberino does not remember his youth spent at the museum as one where it was the anything like the revolving door for artists it is today, he cannot remember a time when art wasn’t his passion. Raphael’s influence came mostly from comic books, which led him to work on several graphic novels and work on his own ideas for upcoming novels. He even moved to New York to work the art circuit there and helped establish a gallery. Upon his return home, Raphael is hanging back and doing his own art rather than being heavily active with the museum.
“For me, art has always been akin to breathing,” Raphael says.
With three diversely talented children and a generous support system of family and friends, Joe Tiberino makes sure that the energy around the museum is always alive and buzzing. The museum hosts a “freak show event,” Carnivolution, which features live fire breathers and trapeze artists. Usually close to 300 people arrive to the show every second Friday of the month.
“When the weather’s nice we have people come and paint in the yard, sell drinks and even have live entertainment,” boasts Joe. “We wanted this to be a creative space, an artistic free environment for all to enjoy.”
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Vintage Bar: From Paris to Philly
https://vimeo.com/18392460]
Ron Powers introduced his friend Nick Chaban to the Vintage Bar, located on 13th near Sansom Street, four years ago. Powers discovered this wine bar because he worked right around the corner. They have been regulars ever since the year it opened. Chaban says Vintage is his “favorite bar in the city.” Chaban adds: “It’s close and it’s got the best happy hour. The people that work here are the greatest, the food’s good, and it’s convenient.” Ron Powers adds, “It’s incredible wait staff.”
Chaban emphasizes, “It’s the best happy hour in the city!” He notes that Vintage Bar just raised the price of happy hour by a dollar. Powers did not know of the price raise and jokingly adds, “I’m not coming here anymore.” Chaban looks around at the place to emphasize how beautiful the ambience is. He says, “There is no television, so you have to talk, which is a good thing, a plus, especially for the bar.”
Jason Evenchik, 37, and his wife, Delphine opened Vintage Bar in April 2006. The location was selected based on the familiarity with the area. Evenchik says, “It was an up-and-coming neighborhood and it wasn’t overpriced. Demographic is diverse. Their niche was under-served in the neighborhood.” The couple saw great potential for their business and the location.
Jason and his wife designed the place based on various restaurants and bars throughout the world. They moved from Paris to Philadelphia in 2002 and brought some of their experiences with them.
The chandelier was inspired by a place they frequented in Paris. The corks on the back wall of the bar were his wife’s idea. The couple started collecting corks and cutting them in half to make a wall that was lit by a dim light. The cork wall became an important asset to the overall décor of the bar and bistro. The wine cases were Jason’s idea. He says, “It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while.” They took apart wine cases and placed them on the wall near the front entrance. The top bar was inspired by old tradition wrapped in zinc. Evenchik says: “We lucked out with the brick, we had it scraped down, there were already holes for the candles. The contractor asked if we wanted it filled with concrete and we said no.” The brick wall is an essential piece to the whole bar and bistro. It gives it that natural look the couple was looking for to add on to the earth tone mustard wall. They went organic with the furniture and color pallet. Evenchick says, “The atmosphere is very comfortable. It’s somewhere you can sit and relax for an extended period of time.”
Evenchik says that artists who want to have an exhibition at Vintage typically find them. They get mixed reactions. He says: “Sometimes the galleries bring in more people and sometimes it doesn’t. Depends on the artists, sometimes they love it, sometimes they think it’s weird.”
Veasna Kong has been working at Vintage Bar for just under a year now. She says: “It’s very casual, it’s a French Bistro were not very uppity. People come in and think like, ‘oh it’s a wine bar; people are snotty.’ We’re not.”
Kong adds: “All of us our wine enthusiasts, all of us are food enthusiasts. We like to share our food and wine knowledge with the general public. And all of our guest come in with openness about wine, about food, and they love the fact that our staff is very enthusiastic about what we do for a living. We all love what we do.”
Kong admits: “I honestly came here with very little wine knowledge, but what I’ve acquired being here is amazing. I’m trying wine that I’ve never tried before and I love that I get to share that with my guest.”
According to Kong, the art exhibitions have brought more people into Vintage in a positive way. She says it exposes a variety of people to the atmosphere and opens them up to a world of wine. People come to discover that Vintage has more than wine. They have a selection of 60 different types of wine, 30 beers, popular spirits and great food as well–all at an affordable price of course.
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