Kensington Storefront

Working together toward community resilience

Photo by Steve Weinik.

The Kensington Storefront, a Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Porch Light program, is excited to share that we are evolving our work and moving our space! 

The Kensington Storefront, located at 3208 Kensington Avenue, is a hub of artistic healing in Kensington. Through programming run at other venues and projects led by community curators out of the home base, this Porch Light storefront provides services and opportunities for creative expression to people across the community. Additionally, the storefront has office space at the Community Center at Visitation, at 2646 Kensington Ave., and a mobile storefront that helps run pop-up events around Kensington.

 

In 2021, the Kensington Storefront launched a community curator program, distributing grants to neighborhood residents chosen by the Storefront’s community advisory panel. These curators do work directly out of the storefront space with members of the Kensington community. The current 2023 curators are: 

  • Daisie Cardona 
  • Margarita Gonzalez
  • Tyler Kline
  • Jessica Shoffner
  • Kate Stoler 

Curator programs will occur in Fall 2023 at the Kensington Storefront and throughout the neighborhood. To be added to the Kensington Storefront newsletter list to be updated on activities in the community, email Shatoya.Howard@muralarts.org. 

Porch Light, a partnership of Mural Arts Philadelphia and the City of Philadelphia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services, aims to pair art programming with access to services. The Kensington Storefront is continually adding to our offerings. For updated information, please visit muralarts.org/program/porch-light/kensington-storefront/ or email pamela.draper@muralarts.org to be added to the quarterly Kensington Storefront newsletter.

The Kensington Storefront is working with several partners to offer site-specific programming, including McPherson Library, the Community Center at Visitation, and Impact Veterans. Any organizations or individuals interested in partnering with the Kensington Storefront on community programming are welcome to reach out to Shatoya Howard at shatoya.howard@muralarts.org.

About the Hub 

The Kensington Storefront builds on the work done in other parts of Porch Light, an ongoing partnership between Mural Arts, and the City’s Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services (DBHIdS). Over the past five years, Mural Arts has expanded its impact in neighborhoods with the development and maintenance of storefront hubs, such as Southeast by Southeast in South Philadelphia, and Northeast Passage in Northeast Philadelphia. These physical spaces have paved the way for better connections with local communities and organizations, thanks to a dedicated footprint and extended time for interactions with staff and artists.

There are many organizations engaged in Kensington, all working toward uplifting the resilience of a community fractured by substance use, crime, and housing insecurity. The storefront serves as a workshop for visiting artists, a safe space for neighbors, and a learning hub for anyone interested in art-making, personal and public safety, or self-care—but it also serves as a hub for area organizations, with the intention of working more effectively together. Public programming at the storefront and in various locations throughout Kensington creates opportunities for community members to speak for themselves in a profoundly public way, and connects individuals to organizations that provide services and referrals that they might not otherwise encounter.

Hub Calendar 

 

Recent Press 

Mural Arts Philadelphia taking art to the streets with “Kensington Storefront Van” — 6abc, October 11, 2022

At Kensington Storefront, those struggling with addiction get to tell their stories — WHYY, July 1, 2018

A Porch Light In Kensington — Philadelphia Citizen, March 29, 2017

Combatting opioids with paint: Mural Arts sets up shop in heart of epidemic — WHYY, March 27, 2017

Porch Light for artists trying to make Kensington brighter in every way — Fox29, April 4, 2017

Partners 

Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services (DBHIDS)

Independence Blue Cross

New Kensington Community Development Corporation (NKCDC)

Prevention Point

Esperanza Health Center

Impact Services

McPherson Library

Elkin Elementary School

Community Center at Visitation

Kensington Corridor Trust

Funders 

Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services
Department of Licenses & Inspections
Drug Enforcement Administration Philadelphia Field Division
Hummingbird Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts
Stavros Niarchos Foundation
TD Charitable Foundation

Artwork from Kensington Storefront