Corner Store (Takeout Stories) a Collaboration Between Artists and Asian Art Initiative’s Youth Program

Artists Keir Johnston and Ernel Martinez via Canary Promo

Corner stores are a fact of life for much of Philadelphia — especially in the city’s food deserts found in North Philadelphia. This is where the art collective Amber Art and Design will focus on for its latest project, “Corner Store (Takeout Stories).”

Amber Art and Design artists Keir Johnston and Ernel Martinez are collaborating with Asian Arts Initiative to use the ubiquitous city corner store as a focal point to explore cross-cultural interactions among Philadelphia’s pan-ethnic black and Asian communities.

“We started thinking about the difference of cultural perspectives that these two different groups had — the patrons who patronize the store and the shop owners,” Martinez said.

The exhibit will feature artwork ranging from photographs, video and mixed-media portraits to pop-up performances that explore the corner store as an important social space. Asian Arts Initiative’s middle-school Youth Arts Workshop (YAW) will participate in the project.

The project will use art as a way to foster empathy and mutual understanding between neighborhood groups, but understanding is the first step to doing this.

“One of the ways that we plan on having community interaction is first and foremost by observation and documentation,” Johnston said. “We’re also going to have a survey system set up that we’re going to use to collect data.”

Teaching artists Michelle Nugent and Anula Shetty are working with YAW to circulate a  survey (available here) to corner store owners and neighborhood residents about their experiences and interactions in the stores. The survey asks questions such as what happens in the corner store, how they feel about the corner store, and what it might be like to be on the other side of the glass. They will distribute the survey in  North Philly, beginning at Vine Street, where Asian Arts is located, and northward. The process will be documented on film by Shetty.

“We’re just so lucky to be working with Keir and Ernel because of the depth of their community engagement. They tend to work with youth. They’ve done a lot of work with youth of all backgrounds and experiences, including adjudicated youth,” said Katherine Shozawa, exhibition curator.

The exhibit will run at Asian Arts Initiative’s gallery space from June 6 – August 22.

“I think with our organization’s push towards social practices in our second year of the Social Practice Lab program, this exhibition and project and collaboration with Youth Arts Workshop really reflects that intersection where visual art and community engagement meet,” Shozawa said.

The Social Practice Lab is an artist-residency series which supports the work of creative individuals and organizations in the diverse Chinatown neighborhood. The program is designed to allow for experimentation that combines artistic elements with building relationships and effecting positive change within the community.

Learn more about Corner Store (Takeout Stories) here.