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Facing Bench Foundation

Facing Bench Foundation empowers individuals facing mental health challenges through advocacy, support, and community engagement, aiming to reduce stigma and promote understanding for a healthier society.

A generous donor has committed a $50,000 matching gift to Facing Bench Foundation. If our community raises $50,000, the donor will match it, dollar for dollar, bringing the campaign&rsquo;s total impact to $100,000 &mdash; ensuring a year&rsquo;s worth of programing at Facing Bench. Facing Bench is an interdisciplinary cultural foundation in Old City, Philadelphia dedicated to the arts, learning, and independent creative exchange. We connect artists, practitioners, thinkers, and the public through exhibitions, performances, seminars, culinary arts, workshops, and other forms of cultural programming. Facing Bench creates opportunities for experimentation, critical discourse, slow looking, and close listening beyond the structure of traditional academic and commercial settings. Our collaborations are local, national, and international while remaining closely attuned to Philadelphia&rsquo;s unique creative landscape. For more information on Facing Bench&rsquo;s mission, ongoing programming, and details about the space, please visit our <a fr-original-style="" href="http://facingbench.com" style="text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">website</a>, <a fr-original-style="" href="https://www.instagram.com/facingbench" style="text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">instagram</a>, or contact us at info@facingbench.com.&nbsp; Your matched contribution will help support artist and practitioner fees, materials, production costs, and thoughtful programming throughout the year. Every gift brings us closer to unlocking the full $50,000 match. Help us turn $50,000 in community support into $100,000 for art, ideas, and independent learning in Philadelphia! Thank you for your support!

A generous donor has committed a $50,000 matching gift to Facing Bench Foundation. If our community raises $50,000, the donor will match it, dollar for dollar, bringing the campaign’s total impact to $100,000 — ensuring a year’s worth of programing at Facing Bench.Facing Bench is an interdisciplinary cultural foundation in Old City, Philadelphia dedicated to the arts, learning, and independent creative exchange. We connect artists, practitioners, thinkers, and the public through exhibitions, performances, seminars, culinary arts, workshops, and other forms of cultural programming.Facing Bench creates opportunities for experimentation, critical discourse, slow looking, and close listening beyond the structure of traditional academic and commercial settings. Our collaborations are local, national, and international while remaining closely attuned to Philadelphia’s unique creative landscape.For more information on Facing Bench’s mission, ongoing programming, and details about the space, please visit our website, instagram, or contact us at info@facingbench.com. Your matched contribution will help support artist and practitioner fees, materials, production costs, and thoughtful programming throughout the year.Every gift brings us closer to unlocking the full $50,000 match. Help us turn $50,000 in community support into $100,000 for art, ideas, and independent learning in Philadelphia!Thank you for your support!

Help Facing Bench unlock $100k

Three-week Visual Phenomenology Seminar: The Intertwining&nbsp;taught by David Dempewolf. Wednesdays SEP 30, OCT 7 + 14, 6&ndash;9 PM This seminar and workshop explores how vision is experienced, constructed, and transformed through the interaction of perception, imagination, and memory. Bringing phenomenology into dialogue with contemporary neuroscience, cognitive science, and artistic practice, the course examines seeing as an embodied and predictive process rather than passive observation. Through readings, discussions, and studio workshops, participants investigate vision itself as both the subject and method of artistic inquiry. What you can expect:<ul fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Understand major concepts in phenomenology and visual perception</li><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Relate contemporary neuroscience to theories of visual experience</li><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Investigate imagination, memory, and predictive processing through artistic practice</li><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Develop drawing and observational practices as forms of phenomenological inquiry.&nbsp;</li></ul> David Dempewolf is a Philadelphia-based video artist, animator, and gallerist whose work explores the complexities of perception through experimental animation and video. With formal training in sculpture from PAFA, a BFA from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MFA from Columbia University, Dempewolf has participated in the Whitney Independent Studio Program and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. As a co-founder of Marginal Utility and a former member of the collaborative space Basekamp, Dempewolf is deeply engaged in collective and curatorial practices. David&#39;s singular work investigates vision&#39;s nuanced mechanics, mimicking stereopsis, peripheral sight, global optic shifts, and mental imagery, while collaborations with Jazz musicians such as Jason Moran, Miguel Zenon, and Immanuel Wilkins demonstrate an expansive, interdisciplinary approach. Projects have been exhibited at venues including Greene Naftali, CAC Cincinnati, Locks Gallery, and international film festivals in Oberhausen and London.&nbsp;

Visual Phenomenology Seminar, three sessions: SEP 30, OCT 7 + 14

Enjoy dek kreung, a 5-Course Thai-Taiwanese tasting menu prepared by Athena Intanate. This intimate evening will include individual and shared plates related to Intanate&#39;s upbringing, along with special reading materials, prompts, and conversation. Based upon her Fivers Supper Club, every pop-up iteration of dek kreung&nbsp; is centered on the idea of food as care and community, providing space to make new connections. Due to the nature of this evening, no modifications to the dishes are available.This dinner is BYOB and for ages 21+. Athena Intanate is a Philadelphia-based chef who has worked in restaurants around the city including: Kalaya; Illata; and currently Her Place Supper Club. &quot;Born in Bangkok, Thailand to a Thai father and a Taiwanese-American mother, I&#39;ve always felt the most comfortable in liminal spaces. I moved to America in 2019 to go to Haverford College; it was here that I started my&nbsp;Fivers Supper Club, a weekly communal dining experience where the guest list and menu was a surprise. Creating family-style dinners for four other students and myself, I decided to enter the hospitality industry largely based on the love that I had for hosting people, and I&#39;ve been here ever since.&quot;

Dinner Series: Athena Intanate dek kreung

Celebrate the 1 Year Anniversary of SENSUS publication and the launch of their next issue with an evening of live animation, performance art, poetry readings, and friends. Featuring performances by:<ul fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Sweet Onions [Gwyneth Zeleny Anderson and Charles Manion]</li><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Lena Schwartz</li><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Gregory Parker</li><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Aradhna Johnson</li><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Victoria Stitt</li></ul>Copies of SENSUS Issue 5.0 will be available for purchase, as well as Gianna Santucci&#39;s new listening response in CD format. SENSUS is an independent arts quarterly publication dedicated to celebrating contemporary arts and supporting the Philadelphia community of makers. As an artists for artists project, SENSUS seeks to showcase emerging artists, generate critical dialogue, and connect artists with each other and to their audiences. The project curates social and political commentary centered around contemporary visual arts including interviews, critical essays, and show reviews. Existing primarily in print, SENSUS prioritizes the tactile over the ubiquitous and consumable stream of digital media. It chooses engagement with the physical world and material experience, connecting back to the function of the art object as something of aesthetic value existing in discrete units. Available at Ulises Books, American Grammar, Wooden Shoe Books, Tomorrow Today, Lot 49, and Etc Etc Books.

SENSUS : 1 Year Anniversary + Issue V launch

Please join us on Wednesday, October 21 from 6&ndash;8 PM for a Death Caf&eacute; facilitated by Ana&iuml;s Cooper-Hackman. Death Caf&eacute;s offer space for open, agenda-free conversations about death, grief, and dying. All are welcome. Doors will be at 6 and the event will commence at 6:30. Refreshments will be provided. Established by Jon Underwood and Sue Barsky Reid, based on the ideas of Bernard Crettaz, the purpose of a Death Caf&eacute; gathering is &ldquo;to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives.&rdquo; The Death Caf&eacute; concept is a volunteer-run initiative that has been hosted at caf&eacute;s, private homes, community spaces, cemeteries, and other locations in 98 countries across the globe since its inception in 2011. This event is for anyone who is interested in dialogue around the practical, emotional, spiritual, and cultural aspects of death, dying, and grief. No agenda, no experts, no advice to be given, no entry fee; nothing required to participate but your commitment to listening and sharing with an open heart and mind. Refreshments will be served. Please visit https://deathcafe.com/what/ for more information.&nbsp; Ana&iuml;s Cooper Hackman is the Community and Partnerships Director at&nbsp;<a fr-original-style="text-align: left;" href="https://www.mettlehealth.com/" rel="noopener" style="text-align: left; text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Mettle Health</a>. Currently based in Brooklyn, New York, she is studying to become a death doula through the death midwifery program offered by Sacred Crossings Institute in Los Angeles, California and is a hospice volunteer with VNS Health. After accompanying a family member through her early onset cancer diagnosis, treatment, and untimely death in 2021, Cooper-Hackman was awakened to the lack of death acceptance and preparation that pervades our culture in the United States. She believes in the power embracing death can have on allowing us to live more fulfilling lives, and is passionate about increasing her personal capacity to hold the big unknowable questions.

Death Café facilitated by Anaïs Cooper-Hackman

Teils Studio presents Plain Language, a film series boldfacing local stories and everyday life in the Philadelphia area. The film blends video, photography, poetry &amp; interviews to create an episodic series and video-based collage of underground creatives, workers, and communities.&nbsp; &quot;Enter a world that belongs to the sweethearts, worn soles and earnest thinkers- the &lsquo;nobodies&rsquo; avoiding being &lsquo;somebody&rsquo;. Come party party. We&rsquo;re archiving our lil lives. We share our world- our corners, our fears and wishes- things that feel simple. Come see your friends, neighbours, strangers. Come see that one intersection. Come celebrate the life and world we&rsquo;re creating together. Come witness what is being built, boarded up, and reimagined. Leave spilling back into it all.&quot; This event is part of the&nbsp;<a fr-original-style="" href="https://www.collectivefutures.info/plain-language/" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Collective Futures festival</a>,&nbsp; a six-week, citywide project activating Philadelphia&rsquo;s network of artist-run spaces, DIY venues, and community-based initiatives. This collaboratively organized project bringing together more than 30 independent spaces and organizations will unfold across the city through exhibitions, performances, workshops, and public programs from Kensington and North Chinatown to West Philadelphia, Fishtown, and Old City, between October 2 and November 15, 2026. For more information about Collective Futures please visit <a fr-original-style="" href="https://www.collectivefutures.info/" id="isPasted" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">www.collectivefutures.info</a>

Film Screening: Plain Language by Teils Studio

A gathering to celebrate the end of Eco-Social Realism&nbsp;and discuss next steps for the Eco-Social Salon, Site-Seeing, &amp; Screening Series. This is co-sponsored by Green Sun, Making Worlds, and RAIR. <a fr-original-style="" href="https://exhibits.haverford.edu/ecosocialrealism/" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Eco-Social Realism</a> is a regional-scale, multi-site exhibition taking place from September 10&mdash; December 19, 2026 at the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery at Haverford College, Rowan University Museum of Contemporary Art, Street Road Artists Space, TILT Institute, and Big Ramp with public programs taking place at all of the exhibition venues and The WaterShed, Ulises, and Facing Bench. Curated by: Daniel TuckerFeaturing Artists: &nbsp;Paper Buck, Carolina Caycedo, Federico Cuatlacuatl, Keg de Souza, Sebastien Derenoncourt, Aislinn Pentecost Farren, Biomaterials Working Group, Alicia Grullon, Brian Holmes &amp; Jeremy Bolen, Cynthia Hooper, Samuel Sarosh Horowitz, Sarah Kanouse, Sarah Kavage, David Scott Kessler, Lize Mogel, Karyn Olivier, Laurie Palmer, Jose Ortiz Pagan, Kaitlin Pomerantz, Li Sumpter, Sean Starowitz, Kristen Neville Taylor, Lori Waselchuk, Rosten Woo, and Ricky Yanas &amp; Grimaldi Baez.&nbsp; Graphic from &ldquo;Bananas: A Wild Story&rdquo; by Keg de Souza (all thumbs press, 2026) Eco-Social Realism grows out of the ongoing <a fr-original-style="" href="https://ecosocialseries.wordpress.com/" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Eco-Social Series</a> which has been co-sponsored by <a fr-original-style="" href="https://www.rairphilly.org/" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">RAIR</a>, <a fr-original-style="" href="https://asianartsinitiative.org/archive/artists/the-green-sun" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Green Sun</a>, and <a fr-original-style="" href="https://www.makingworldsbooks.org/" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Making Worlds</a> since 2023.&nbsp; Eco-Social (aka Eco-Social Salon, Site-Seeing &amp; Screening Series or ESSSSSS) is an event series and learning community that has convened irregularly in Philadelphia since 2023 where ecologically-themed artwork is presented and excursions are taken.&nbsp; ESSSSSS is a response to an increased interest in infrastructural and bioregional practices that can visualize and embody the territorial scale of both problems and solutions related to the climate crisis.

Eco-Social Realism: Closing Discussion & Toast

Join us for an evening highlighting the diverse reading series taking place in Philadelphia. A panel discussion will feature the founders and hosts of ongoing literary &nbsp;events throughout the city, followed by open dialogue. A perfect space to meet other writers, readers, and listeners.&nbsp; A full list of participants is forthcoming.

Facing Bench Foundation

Events

Events

Visual Phenomenology Seminar, three sessions: SEP 30, OCT 7 + 14

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Dinner Series: Athena Intanate dek kreung

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SENSUS : 1 Year Anniversary + Issue V launch

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Death Café facilitated by Anaïs Cooper-Hackman

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Film Screening: Plain Language by Teils Studio

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Eco-Social Realism: Closing Discussion & Toast

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Literary Social

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