Arts League Director named to year-


long leadership group CLEAR Circles designed to increase leadership capacity


By Haywood Brewster Staff Reporter


N


Noreen Shanfelter, Exec. Director of the University City Arts League


oreen Shanfelter, execu- tive director of the Uni- versity City Arts League has been chosen as one of six ex- ecutive directors in the Southeast- ern Pennsylvania region to par- ticipate in the “CLEAR Circles” program of the Nonprofit Center at La Salle University. CLEAR Circles, which stands for Cultivating Leadership Excel- lence and Responsibility, consists of monthly meetings for a year during which participants create


an ongoing peer group to freely discuss issues of importance to them. While there is a facilitator for the groups, agendas are set by participating members. These confidential learning


circles were created for profes- sionals who want to participate in a personal brain trust where they can jointly problem-solve among peers who are equally committed to increasing their leadership ca- pacity, according to La Salle. Discussion is driven and shaped by group members, with the goal of helping each other achieve goals through an action learn-


UNIVERSITY CITY


ing experience. Problem-solving, professional development and peer support are all by-product emerging from this confidential, supportive environment. For nearly a decade, The Non-


profit Center has been providing a unique approach to leadership growth, development and sup- port for current and potential nonprofit leaders. Other leaders in the group are Jamie Brunson of First Person Arts, Katie Newsom-Pastuszek of Outward Bound Philadelphia, Gwyn Rowlant of the Mill At


continued on page 5 Review


Remembering Sylvia Barkan W


By Nicole Contosta Staff Reporter


hen Sylvia Barkan won the Garden Court Community Associa-


tion’s first Lifetime-Achievement Award in 2007, she did not take a bow, related her son Jonathan Barkan.


“That wasn’t who she was. She did not want the recognition,” Jon said of his mother’s dedication as a community activist, artist, photographer and historic pres- ervationist. “But now, she has no choice,” Jon continued of his late mother who died in her Garden Court home on June 30th at the age of 95. Jon, his brother How- ard, as well as the extended Bar- kan family, plans to exhibit Syl- via’s graphic design, paintings, drawings and photography at the University Arts League, which Sylvia helped found in the 1960’s, this fall. Throughout that exhibit, they also plan to reproduce other people’s “thoughts, memories, reminiscences, anecdotes, and testimonials about [our] Mom,” Jon explained.


Sylvia Barkan, and husband Ben Barkan, an attorney, became staunch community activists after buying their home at 47th and


had moved to the suburbs, Jon added.


Sylvia on her back porch: photo: Jonathon Barkan. Osage in 1949. By the 1950’s, the Barkans organized neighbors to fight a fraternity that tried to turn a garage into a party house, Jon explained. “My father loved to or- ganize,” Jon emphasized, adding that Barkan Park, 50th and Spruce Streets, was built in his honor. Ben Barkan passed away in 1969. They also fought landlords who want- ed to use residential properties for commercial purposes, Jon said,


explaining that his parents loved the neighborhood and wanted it to stay viable. When the idea for building the University City Swim Club, an organization that Sylvia helped found, was first introduced, speculators did not consider it a worthwhile invest- ment. “The speculators said that the neighborhood was going down,” Jon explained. At that time, many West Philly residents


But Sylvia had a never-ending love for Philadelphia, Jon said, explaining that his mother rallied against the speculators’ opinions that the neighborhood was going down. Both she and her husband worked hard to welcome new residents—of all races—to the neighborhood. “My mother saw the value in people working to- gether. She grew up during the Great Depression and people who grew up that way have a differ- ent view of what home is. They believed that you really did have to help others, that you really did have to support one another in order to survive,” Jon said. When it comes to surviving in the art world as a woman, Jon considers his mother somewhat of a pioneer. With a degree from the Moore College of Art and Design, she was consistently employed as a freelance artist during the 1950’s and 60’s at a time when most women were not. “My mother didn’t preach women’s lib,” Jon said, but most of, “her employers were astonished that they were giving the work they did to a woman.”


continued on page 2 July 18, 2012


Local Star Passes: Tomas Hall of Davis


Pharmacy May 17, 1951 – June 28, 2012


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Thomas Hall


By Karimu Abena Hamilton Contributing Writer


T


he West Philadelphia Com- munity has lost one its dedicated members, Thomas Hall who worked for years at the historical Davis Pharmacy. Davis Pharmacy a 100-year old local fixture of Baltimore Avenue will never be the same.


“Thomas Hall was my good continued on page 5


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