a city steeped in a history of tolerance and culture
It’s not hard to fall hard for Philadelphia, a city steeped in a history of tolerance and cultureSteve Whysall, Vancouver SunThe Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, founded in 1805 in Philadelphia, is America’s oldest art museum and school. Housed in a landmark Gothic Victorian building designed by Frank Furness and George W. Hewitt, the museum offers one of the world’s finest collections of American painting and sculpture.
Falling in love is like eating cake, I always think. You don’t have to think about it too much. You just take a forkful and swallow. And if you like the way it tastes, you take another forkful. That’s pretty much how I fell in love with Philadelphia. [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] It was not what I was expecting. It was a love affair that came out of the blue.
I love Paris. I love London. I love Rome. All amazing cities. But now I am smitten with Philadelphia.
It is a city that has taken me by surprise and made me happier than I imagined with its innate spirit of creativity, inventiveness, progressive thinking and generosity. I love, love, love its unswerving focus on freedom and tolerance. I think it is a city that deserves more attention.
What precisely is it that I love so much? Well, let me count the ways.
First, I love the attitude of its founder, William Penn, a man way ahead of his time in terms of his ideas about democracy, city planning and personal freedoms, and I love the work and achievements of so many of the city’s progressive, innovative thinkers, such as Ben Franklin.
Penn’s wonderful spirit of acceptance and religious tolerance still permeates what we now call the "city of brotherly love."
It is significant that a giant statue of him has been placed at the top of city hall from where he watches over the city. It is a constant reminder to stand up for freedom and human rights and to always be willing to trade in a good idea for a better one.
It impresses me that the city still recognizes that it was built by immigrants from all over the world and today insists on permanently displaying the flags of 109 nations along its main boulevard Benjamin Franklin Parkway [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] as a constant reminder of the complexity of the world and the value of diversity.
I love that Philadelphia values and appreciates art and beauty, so much so that it has established three of the world’s best art institutions the Barnes Foundation, Rodin Museum and Museum of Art, all of which are jam packed with an embarrassment of priceless treasures.
It thrills me that Philadelphia loves art so much that it has passed a law requiring every new building project to devote at least one per cent of the site to public art.
Walk any way in the downtown and you will see superb examples of wall murals and exquisite sculpture, even on quiet back streets.
You’ll find the famous LOVE sculpture by Robert Indiana, Three Way Piece by Henry Moore, and, of course, the Rocky Statue by A. Thomas Schomberg.
I first visited Philly to attend its superb flower show, the world’s oldest and biggest. That’s what took me there on my first visit in 2024.
But it was only when I returned there this month to see the show for a second time that I really understood what it is that I love so much about the city.
Part of this epiphany came while visiting the Barnes Foundation and Longwood Gardens, two world class institutions created by multimillionaires, Albert C. Barnes and Pierre du Pont.
Barnes used his fortune to amass one of the world’s finest art collections, more than 2,500 objects, including dozens of works by Impressionists. It has been estimated to be worth about $25 billion.
Du Pont used his fortune to buy a 435 hectare property once owned by Quakers in the Brandywine Creek Valley and turning it into the fabulous Longwood Gardens, one of the world’s most beautiful garden estates with fabulous hothouse gardens and various outdoor gardens.
You can’t help but be touched by the generosity and vision of these men; their love for art and natural beauty but also their deep desire to protect and preserve it and share with others. It is a spirit of enthusiasm and leadership that I wish Vancouver saw more from its elite citizens.
If you visit Philly, time [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] spent at the Barnes, where every room is an eccentrically organized abundance of art treasures, and at Longwood, where the dedication to creating gorgeous landscapes is paramount, is never a waste.
Albert Barnes wanted to make people see in a way that made connections through colour and form and space, so he placed paintings next to furniture with similar patterning or colour to stretch the imagination.
Du Pont loved trees and couldn’t bear to see them cut down but he went further and created beautiful gardens, drawing inspiration from what he had seen in Europe.
Every moment at either of these spectacular facilities is guaranteed to lift your spirits and fill you with a sense of appreciation and celebration.
When I came to Philly for the first time to see the flower show, which is an amazing work in itself, I was not expecting to be dazzled also by the quirkier side of the city’s personality, such as walking into the shoe department at Macy’s and finding the world’s biggest pipe organ or the Magic Garden of Isaiah Zagar, a whimsical mosaic garden built on a back street, composed [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] out of tens of thousands of pieces of found art and ceramics.
Macy’s giant pipe organ pumps out Mozart, Bach and Handel in concerts twice a day while shoppers buy new shoes. It’s just as surreal as Zagar’s Magic Garden and no one bats an eye. It is such a wonderful eccentricity, the perfect fit for a tolerant and eclectic community.
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