After the market went in for a long winter’s nap in 2008, a number of retailers along South Street went out of business. Unfortunately, a few years later, many vacancies remain on this once-bohemian strip.

Worried by the number of empty storefronts, in 2009 Julia Zagar, owner of Eyes Gallery, located at 400 South St. (and wife of Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens artist Isaiah Zagar) and Bill Curry, owner of Copabanana (344 South St.) conceived Arts on South (AoS) to recapture the spirit of South Street and reinvigorate its neighbors through innovative community engagement.

AoS provides a revolving cast of unused storefronts (through Triad Realty) to local groups and artists to exhibit their work free of the cost of rent (they do however pay utilities) for four month periods that include a Fourth Friday reception once a month. This month, those receptions take place tonight, from 5pm-8pm.

“It’s about getting people invested in the space where they live and work and eat,” said coordinator Amanda Cameron of Magic Gardens, the group that runs AoS, in a collaboration that includes South Street Headhouse District, the group that insures the spaces. Cameron started as an intern in the beginning of last summer and was hired in August.

By placing art alongside everyday retail shops and restaurants, bars and cafes, the initiative begins to thread art into everyday life. When creative energy mixes with economic energy, the character of a community begins to evolve and shape, thus creating the blueprint of culture.

A vacant space previously used for Arts on South

AoS started with four out of five available storefronts occupied out through the program. At present, only two are filled. The Roots Mural Project (which we told you about a few months back) occupies 327 South St. and Neighborhood Bike Works is utilizing a space at 508 S. 5th St.

Site of future Roots mural

And if someone wants the rent the space while it’s occupied by the artists? The artists will need a new home. But AoS might be able to find them a new one, albeit temporarily.

–Lou Mancinelli