Join your friends for a roaring good time as we wish the Phillips’ Mill Community Association a Happy 95th Birthday. The evening will feature lively music from the Back Porch Jugband, Mill trivia games, a second running of the Rubber Ducky Regatta (back by popular demand) and other surprises.
This 95th event kicks off the march toward our PMCA centennial celebration in 2029. All are welcome to attend. It's an event you won’t want to miss!
This is a celebratory fundraiser for Phillips’ Mill. Tickets are $125 and must be purchased by July 20.
“The Half of It”
July 18-20, 7 pm
July 21, 3 pm
Written by Domenick Scudera, MFA | Directed by Griffin Horn | Casting and dramaturgy by Griffin Horn
Every summer, Phillips’ Mill presents an original, fully developed, never-before-performed play by an up-and-coming playwright as its “Premiere Showcase.” This year’s play, “The Half of It,” written by Domenick Scudera, MFA, and directed by Griffin Horn, was inspired by the life and work of Bert Savoy, a vaudeville drag artist who was active in the 1910s and early 1920s.
The play highlights the groundbreaking and inspirational work of the largely forgotten artist while exploring themes of gender identity, gender expression, sexuality and celebrity in today’s divisive political climate.
Meet the Writer and Director
Domenick Scudera teaches a course on the history of drag at Ursinus College, where he co-founded the Theater and Dance Department. He was inspired to write "The Half of It" after coming across information about Bert Savoy's life. It was very scant, yet Savoy's life was fascinating. Scudera wanted to learn more. His research uncovered the story of a popular drag artist who worked in vaudeville from 1917 to 1923, a fairly permissive time in our history. Savoy died tragically—and dramatically—at the height of his career after being hit by lightning on a beach.
Griffin Horn, who met Scudera in 2023 while collaborating on a reading of short plays at Phillips’ Mill, was excited about Scudera’s research uncovering queer experiences from the past. Horn looks forward to continuing the conversations they started in 2023 by bringing “The Half of It” to the Phillips’ Mill stage later this month.
SAVE THE DATE
A Pizza and Beer Read of “Future Conditional”
Thursday, August 15, 7 pm
Griffin Horn is hosting a “beer and pizza read” of his docudrama, “Future Conditional,” a work that ties into and continues the discussion of this year’s Premiere Showcase play. It’s a celebratory yet insightful work about New Hope’s gay history before Ronald Reagan.
More details and registration in the August Grist.
7th Annual Emerging Playwright Competition
Call for Submissions
June 15-August 18, 2024
Every year, six short plays by emerging playwrights are selected by a jury to be read on stage, with talkbacks with the audience following the readings. Emerging playwrights living within a 100-mile radius of the Mill are encouraged to submit original works.
95th Annual Juried Art Show
September 21–October 27, 2024
SUBMISSIONS OPEN THIS MONTH
Join us as we celebrate our 95th year of art exhibitions at Phillips’ Mill Community Association, the Birthplace of Pennsylvania Impressionism. We welcome and encourage submissions from all artists—established, emerging, underrepresented, from all ethnicities, backgrounds, and beliefs—in our annual search for extraordinary works of art from within a 25-mile radius of the Mill.
Registration: July 28–August 25
Members receive a 50% discount code
Meet Our Distinguished Jurors
This year’s panel of jurors will review all submissions in person.
FRAMED WORKS
Corrinne Chong, PhD, Former Assistant Curator, Barnes Foundation
Curlee Raven Holton, David M. and Linda Roth Professor Emeritus of Art at Lafayette College, and Retired Director of the David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland
William Perthes, Bernard C. Watson Director of Adult Education, Barnes Foundation
SCULPTURE & PORTFOLIO
Linda Brenner, Retired, former Chair of the Ceramics Department, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Jennifer Zwilling, Curator and Director of Artistic Programs, The Clay Studio
Become a Patron of the Art Show
We are deeply grateful for our longtime supporters, and we welcome all newcomers interested in honoring our past and supporting the local arts community. Together we continue the tradition begun in 1929 by William Lathrop, Daniel Garber, Fern Coppedge and their fellow Bucks County impressionists.
All contributions are used to support the Art Exhibition, including artists' awards, which benefits the Phillips’ Mill Community Association and the Mill property.
Plein Air Painting with Christopher Monteiro
Every other Thursday, 9:30 t0 11:30 am
(July 11, 25 and August 8, 22)
Plein air painting has returned to Phillips’ Mill with seasoned artist Christopher Monteiro, who leads artists of all skill levels in many media on the beautiful grounds at the Mill. Christopher provides demos as well as individual guidance throughout each session. Attend as many sessions as you like. Sign up below.
ArtTalk with Al Gury
Wednesday, July 17, 7 pm
Al Gury can paint anything: portraits and figures, floral still lifes, landscapes. Any subject in his hands shows the confidence and surety of an artist who’s been painting from a very young age. His oeuvre is vast, and yet he is still exploring. Al delights in the expressive possibilities of color and how it can be orchestrated in dynamic compositions.
Al Gury is the chairman of the Painting Department at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and is a recipient of the Cresson Traveling Fellowship and numerous grants and awards for painting and arts education. His work is regularly shown by F.A.N. Gallery in Philadelphia. His paintings have also been exhibited at the National Academy of Design in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Washington and Lee University, the University of Pennsylvania, and galleries across the country.
PMCA Set to Cultivate Its Garden!
The outdoor space at the Mill is a blank canvas, waiting for creative spirits to enhance its beauty with the addition of all sorts of wonderful native plants.
The Mill is grateful and excited that member Linda DiMario, a Master Gardener, is establishing the Phillips’ Mill Garden Committee. The Garden Committee will formulate the site plan for the gardens, secure needed resources (including plants), get the gardens installed, and ensure that they are maintained.
This newly cultivated space will be the backdrop for outdoor Phillips’ Mill programs and events, with a focus on the intersection of art and nature. Join our lively crew as together we enhance the already beautiful grounds of the Mill for the benefit of flora and fauna alike.
If you are interested in participating, please contact Linda DiMario, Master Gardener, at LLdimario@outlook.com.
Oh, What a Beautiful Party.
Oh, What a Beautiful Day!
This year’s annual appreciation party for Marshall Circle and Lathrop Circle members was held on Sunday, June 9, at Highland Farm, the home of Oscar Hammerstein and now the Oscar Hammerstein Museum and Theatre Education Center (OHMTEC). The weather was perfect, the grounds were delightful, and the docent-led house tour was a special treat.
We Remember Csilla Sadloch
Csilla Sadloch was an award-winning artist whose works on paper and paintings appeared in a multitude of solo shows—including at the Woodmere Art Museum—and group shows both regionally and nationally. Known for her large-scale graphite drawings of plant matter, Csilla’s detailed renderings of meandering vines, curled bark and gnarly roots are striking, meticulous and extraordinarily realistic.
