Hidden River™Arts is "Dedicated to Serving the Unserved Artist". We are committed to the “Outsider Artist,” in every possible way that an artist might be an outsider. We live up to our name in the ongoing search for "hidden" creative talent which exists outside of the expected places: those creative people developing their craft and finding their voices outside of the MFA programs, those independent writers' or artists’ groups not affiliated with a university or any funding institution. Of course, there are also artists who, while affiliated in those ways, are "outsiders" to the prevailing or popular methodologies, or because of the common prejudices that isolate important segments of our creative population, and silence some of our most significant voices.
We will search for the writers who are finishing their novels while working as Emergency Room nurses, sculptors working as steam-fitters, song-writing dairy farmers or choreographer cowboys. We want the creative talent that is grown, nurtured, and matured in the kiln of real life experience. It is our belief that many, many talented people go unheard and unseen because they labor in obscurity or isolation, working with little or no support for the practice of their art. Since we believe that college campuses should not be seen as the sole training ground for creative talent and skill, Hidden River Arts will always strive to reach out and encourage those more far-flung voices, to aid and support them in their efforts to be heard. Does this mean we are excluding MFA artists, or arts faculty? Of course not! Our goal is to be inclusive, not exclusionary - so everyone is welcome! Another of Hidden River Arts' objectives is to offer support and guidance in the form of arts education through outreach and workshop programs for all ages groups. Through our education program, we hope to provide support in all disciplines of the arts. We offer a variety of workshops, tutorials, on-line teaching or manuscript review, residencies and classes which address the needs of all those aspiring creatives among us, ages 5 to adult, who want to learn more about the art of creative writing, or want guidance in script-writing, or who seek support in their visual arts work or their filmmaking. We offer private classes, workshops and programs in a variety of venues including private, public and parochial schools, homeschool populations, Veteran's hospitals, retirement homes, clubs (or communes!). We are happy to work with individuals or groups with special needs, and are always willing to work with adapted processes, needs for technical support and differentiated instruction. Through Hidden River Live, we offer readings, live music and art exhibits in spaces throughout Philadelphia (although COVID has put a halt to a good bit of our live activity). We are building international relationships so that inter-continental collaborate experiences will become possible. We hope to be building relationships with artists and arts organizations in places like Prague, Budapest, Vienna, Rome, Madrid, Porto, Lisbon, Dublin, London.....stay tuned, because this is something we are very excited about. Our independent small press, Hidden River Publishing, has several imprints. We stand proudly within the small press community, the valiant independent publishers who are keeping high quality literature alive. Please check out our imprints page above to see more information about our current and upcoming titles. We have been working to expand our publication activities, and have some amazing new books launching soon. Be sure to follow us on the blog to receive announcements, information and opportunities as our books launch. We are always interested in hearing from artists. Let us know how we can better support you and your creative process. And for those independent arts groups out there: please let us hear from you -- we would love to partner with others who support the independent artist, in every discipline and genre. |