Seventy-nine years ago, in June of 1932, some Philadelphia art students were trying to figure out a solution to a problem that artists still struggle with today: A place to exhibit the work. The solution then was to hang the art work between trees, pinned to a clothesline, in Rittenhouse Square . They called themselves the Art Student’s League, and had met at the Graphic Sketch Club, which is now better known as the Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial, with a teacher named Earl Horter, a Philadelphia artist known internationally. Today, if you’ve checked into one of the luxury hotels Philadelphia provides its visitors, especially in June, you may want to check out what’s happened to this little exhibit, which has now transformed into one of the best respected and best attended outdoor art show in the United States.
The transformation occurred slowly, gradually gaining in popularity. It became known as the Clothesline Show, and expanded to include professional artists as well as students. Giving art students a chance to exhibit their work, though, has been the main focus of the exhibit from the start. The secondary goal is to give Philadelphia an excellent art show with equality work. If you attend, you will always have the opportunity to see fresh and new artists exhibiting the latest work. In 1976, the show changes its name to the Rittenhouse Square Fine Arts Annual, in order to emphasize the fine art as opposed to the clothesline. It’s now achieved the status of the oldest, continuously run outdoor art show in the country.
In 2004, 73 years from the start of the Clothesline Show, the exhibit expanded past its borders of the park. For years, the art was contained inside the park, with tents and canopies, even clotheslines of fine art, but now it moves to the sidewalk that surrounds the Square. The event changed its name again, this time to “Circle the Square.” For any traveler in the Philadelphia area in the months of June and September, it’s a proof positive how much a few people can do when they decide to create a place for themselves in the world of art.
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