Story Engagement Team after a performance. (Photo: Vita Litvek)

Mt. Airy and Germantown both share a love of the arts, reflected in the many murals, galleries, and festivals that call Northwest Philadelphia home. Through a new project from Allens Lane Art Center, the two communities can now share their perspectives on the area’s cultural landscape.

Art Forward: Engaging Northwest Neighbors is a community-led planning process using storytelling as a vehicle for data collection, in an effort to understand which types of arts programs best serve residents. 

A series of “Story Circles” open to the community will help Allens Lane Art Center learn how residents feel about their current arts offerings, what resonates most, and what is missing from the arts scene.

Vita Litvek, Executive Director at Allens Lane, describes the Story Circles as powerful events that bring people together.

“For two minutes, you’re given the floor, and you feel very heard and listened to because the structure is such that it’s really very much leaning into deep listening, and what can come out of that, the kind of connection that can build out of that,” she says.

Not everyone present at the Story Circles is there simply to share. The conversations are facilitated by members of the project’s Story Engagement Team (SET), who are also trained actors. After everyone shares, each group chooses one story to be performed. SET members then collaborate on the spot to deliver an improv performance of the story selected from each circle.

“It’s a beautiful and moving process, to see your own story performed live in front of all these people,” Litvek says.

That process is the brainchild of Lisa Jo Epstein, founder of Just Act, a theater-based nonprofit. Just Act uses arts-based practices to engage community members in nontraditional ways. She believes that employing unique approaches to discussions, like the Story Circles, helps people express themselves on a deeper level.

“When you change the structure of the conversation, the conversation changes,” Epstein says.

Change is one of Art Forward’s main goals as a community-responsive initiative. Whether participants show an appetite for more arts education or live performances they can’t currently find, Allens Lane Art Center is committed to building off that feedback. 

“We’re kind of shooting in the dark, where we’re creating programs based on our own biases, as any organization that doesn’t ask of its community what it wants,” Litvek notes. “So the goal is really to receive this data, to deeply study it, and to create a cultural programs plan.”

Epstein echoes similar hopes for Art Forward’s outcomes, laying out the types of questions that should be addressed.

“‘What would you like to see more of?’ Maybe there are elements of art, culture, and creativity that you feel could be amplified and elevated with the help of a people’s blueprint.”

The two remaining Story Circles take place on June 17th at Braid Mill and on June 24th at Center in the Park. 

Both events are free and open to the public, with food and childcare provided. Guests can also take advantage of free portrait sessions by artist and photographer Naomieh Jovin. You can register for the Story Circles on Eventbrite.