Woodmere Art Museum Expands Its Jazz Series

After great success with its Friday night jazz series in April, the Woodmere Art Museum has extended this program into May and June.

The series, entitled Experience Jazz at Woodmere, was launched last month as part of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, but the four-concert series was so well-received that the Art Museum will continue to host concerts every Friday in May and June.

“Since we had the added support of the festival marketing machine, as an experiment, we started the jazz nights to see if it’s something people are interested in,” said Woodmere Director William Valerio. “So we organized the jazz night in four nights in April focusing on Paris. It took off like wild fire: 150 the first night, 250 the second, and it’s been off and running since then."

The series is themed, with next Friday rounding out the Jazz Classics week with Jazz and Spoked Word with Po/Jazz Connection. Previous acts included Coltrane, Gershwin, Ellington and others. June’s performances include Gershwin Night with Warren Oree and the Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble, the Philadelphia Clef Club Youth Jazz Ensemble, a Tribute to Fathers with Joanna Gardner to commemorate the start of Father’s Day weekend and Jazz meets R&B with To The Max Band.

The jazz programs are held from 6-8pm every Friday, and tickets are $20 a performance and includes museum admission as well as access to all of the six new special exhibitions on display in the museum. For museum members, the price is discounted to $15. Participants can augment their musical experience as they walk through the galleries and snack on wine and cheese.

The museum’s current exhibitions include everything from Impressionist and landscape paintings of Pennsylvania with Pennsylvania Impressionism and Landscape from the Collection of Woodmere Art Museum and the Promised Gift of Dr. Dorothy J. del Bueno to Still Life, featuring works from Woodmere’s collections across an array of media to two exhibitions that focus on the energy and spirit of Paris including Violet Oakley and the Women Artists of Paris. There are several other exhibitions that showcase art from the founder and former director’s collections and more work from Violet Oakley, a Mt. Airy illustrator, muralist and stained glass artist and more.

For more information about the series or the Woodmere Art Museum or to purchase tickets, visit www.woodmereartmuseum.org or call 215-247-0476.