It’s the 25th anniversary of the Philadelphia Open Studio Tours (POST) and to celebrate, its creative community is planning an artistic journey you won’t want to miss.
POST is a program of The Center for Emerging Visual Artists (CFEVA), and it’s Philly’s largest self-guided tour. This year, participants can choose their own adventure on this self-fulfilled journey, which features over 180 artist studios and creative workspaces in over 26 neighborhoods.
It’s been a tradition every fall season since 1999, and 2024 is similar to its predecessors with a behind-the-scenes look into the creative processes of local artists spanning visual media in painting, drawing, ceramics, mixed media, photography, metalworking, and much more.
This first weekend (Oct. 19-20) will focus on studios west of Broad Street, while the following weekend (Oct. 26-27), will tackle the studios east of the cutoff.
The West edition will find stops in Center City West, Chestnut Hill, Mount Airy, East Falls, Roxborough, Manayunk, Fairmount, Francisville, Germantown and West Philadelphia. The East iteration, on the other hand, will focus on Center City East, South Kensington, Fishtown, North Philly, Northern Liberties, Old City, Port Richmond, The Northeast, Queen Village, Bella Vista and South Philly.
Each studio will be open from noon to 6 p.m. on their designated days, and participants can use the online and print maps provided by CFEVA to guide their tours. Each stop on POST will feature red balloons and branded posters outside of their locales to help with distinction. While there, Philadelphians can check out hands-on workshops, gallery exhibitions, live demonstrations, artist talks, special receptions, and much more.
POST 2024 also hosts some stand-alone events over the course of the two weekends that are worth checking out. There will be a Philly History Pop-up Tour with the Masonic Stitch Art Collective on Oct. 26 (2 p.m.) at The Masonic Library and Museum of Pennsylvania. Plus, a Closing Party at Box Spring Gallery on Oct. 27 (5 to 7 p.m.) will close out the activation.
The studio tours will also feature a few different running exhibitions that are on display for an extended period of time. One, a CFEVA Exhibition at The Sonesta Philadelphia Rittenhouse Square (featuring Keith Sharp and Kate the Earthling) will be highlighted in the hotel’s lobby until the end of the month. Another, a CFEVA Visual Artist Fellowship, will call Cherry Street Pier home and feature artists Yikui (Coy) Gu, Nari Kim, Chau Nguyen, Heather Raquel Phillips, Alana Walters and Natasha Zeta.
CFEVA created the Studio Tours to provide promotional opportunities for Philly artists while increasing awareness of the quality and quantity of visual art in our city. The goal is to strengthen bonds among artists, local businesses, arts organizations, and the public, a release notes. Formerly Creative Artists Network, CFEVA was founded in 1983 to encourage the professional development and community involvement of emerging visual artists. Today, CFEVA’s programming serves more than 400,000 artists and audience members annually.
POST, one of the longest-running open studio events in the country, is one of the many programs that happen every year due to the organization. To find out more on this year’s Studio Tours and other information regarding CFEVA, visit cfeva.org
