The Welcome Project
Since 2013, InLiquid has presented Art for Action programming, exhibitions, and community outreach designed to address broad issues of social justice while serving the specific needs of our local community. The Welcome Project includes a full year of outreach and programming with the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society, the Arab American CDC in South Kensington, and the larger Arab and Muslim communities in South Kensington. Led by Fulbrite Fellow Yaqeen Yamani in the capacity of Community Organizer, this outreach serves to engage our neighbors who might not otherwise access our free arts programming.
Beginning as a conversation between neighbors, the project will engage staff and collaborating artists with the families and students of the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society and the broader Arab and Muslim communities in South Kensington as participants, collaborators, and audience members. Over time, The Welcome Project will reach outward to further engage the artists and audiences of the neighboring Crane Arts Building, and community members in our developing South Kensington neighborhood. Ideally, the project moves to unite our changing neighborhood and will continue to grow, enveloping a wider circle of Arab and non-Arab, Muslim and non-Muslim people throughout Philadelphia, engaging them in art as an initiator of dialogue and a path to understanding.
The Welcome Project will end with a culminating celebration and exhibition featuring community-focused works by Aisha Mershani.
