Close to 1 million Bucks County kids walked through a converted tractor-trailer called the Artmobile over its 45-year run. Now the mobile gallery's origin story is part of a Philadelphia City Hall exhibition.
"A Federal Job in the Arts: CETA and Philadelphia in the 1970s" spotlights how the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA), a 1973 federal jobs law, shaped the region's arts landscape. The exhibit is on view through Friday, Sept. 25, on the second floor of City Hall, near the Offices of the Mayor, according to Creative Philadelphia. A panel discussion with curators and subjects is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 18.
The Bucks County connection runs through Bruce Katsiff, who headed the arts department at Bucks County Community College in the 1970s. Katsiff used CETA funding to help launch the Artmobile in 1976, WHYY reported. The Grundy Foundation funded most of the trailer's construction, while CETA money paid for its staff.
The Artmobile was a tractor-trailer outfitted as a gallery and education space. It traveled to schools across Bucks County, parking for a week or two at a time.
"Close to 1 million kids went through that thing," Katsiff told WHYY. "We would go to schools and stay at the school for a week or two."
Katsiff said the idea came from the National Endowment for the Arts' Artrain project, which converted train cars into art experiences and dropped them in communities across the West and Midwest. He adapted the concept for Bucks County roads.
The Artmobile ran for 45 years before ceasing operations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It has not been revived.
Katsiff went on to serve as founding director of the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown from 1989 to 2012, according to the Michener Art Museum.
CETA was a Nixon-era law that distributed about $200 million per year for nine years to states and local governments for job programs targeting low-income, chronically unemployed people. Of the 5 million people who received training or employment, about 30,000 were artists, WHYY reported.
The exhibition was created by Philadelphia artists Blaise Tobia and Virginia Maksymowicz, coordinators of the CETA Arts Legacy Project. The married couple spent 15 years tracking where CETA money went and who benefited.
Several regional arts organizations got their start through CETA. People's Light and Theatre in Malvern paid its first artistic director and 15 other positions with CETA funds over a five-year period. The Philadelphia Museum of Art hired 38 people through the program, and when CETA ended, the museum's director complained to the Institute of Museum and Library Services that the loss would force curtailed hours.
Upcoming
- Friday, Sept. 18 — Panel discussion on the CETA exhibition, Philadelphia City Hall, second floor
- Friday, Sept. 25 — Final day to see "A Federal Job in the Arts," Philadelphia City Hall, second floor near the Offices of the Mayor
