The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage announced its 2025 grants, with $8.6 million being awarded to 44 Philadelphia-area cultural organizations and artists. Among them are two local grantees \u2014 Jos\u00e9 Ortiz-Pag\u00e1n, a Mt. Airy-based multidisciplinary artist, and Yolanda Wisher, a Germantown-based curator of the nonprofit Monument Lab.<\/p>\n
The Local spoke to these Northwest-based artists about their work and how it felt to receive a Pew Center grant.<\/p>\n
Jos\u00e9 Ortiz-Pag\u00e1n<\/strong><\/p>\n Ortiz-Pag\u00e1n is originally from Puerto Rico, but moved to Philadelphia at the age of 25 to pursue his master\u2019s degree at Temple University. He faced a difficult decision to stay in the U.S. after graduating, despite most of his family remaining in Puerto Rico. Ortiz-Pag\u00e1n said this experience was formative for his art.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of my work still deals with that departure, deals with displacement, deals with that limbo,\u201d Ortiz-Pag\u00e1n said. \u201cYou have to manage and learn how to be the master of two very different worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n Ortiz-Pag\u00e1n works in many different forms, including sculpture, painting, and drawing, but said printmaking was the medium that first caught his eye. He started making street art in Puerto Rico, dealing with topics such as the Iraq War, gentrification, and urban decay. He moved to Philadelphia with plans to continue this type of work.<\/p>\n \u201cI came with this preconceived idea of what I wanted to do, being from a colonial territory. There\u2019s a very chaotic relationship with the United States and politically it\u2019s always very intense and very volatile, so I came to Philadelphia thinking that I was going to export all of these conversations and issues,\u201d Ortiz-Pag\u00e1n said. \u201cBut I think when I came to Philadelphia, especially North Philadelphia, I realized that Philadelphia has in itself a very different set of challenges through which I had to learn how to see them and adapt them to my work.\u201d<\/p>\n Ortiz-Pag\u00e1n focuses a lot of his work on being community-centered, engaging with topics such as healing and spiritual traditions. One project he is especially proud of took place during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Along with other artists, Ortiz-Pag\u00e1n helped organize a livestreamed D\u00eda de los Muertos procession with four ofrendas, or altars, located around the city. Ortiz-Pag\u00e1n wore a ceremonial suit he designed to honor the dead with dignity.<\/p>\n Ortiz-Pag\u00e1n said he had been anonymously nominated for a Pew Center grant twice before, so his expectations were low this third time. However, randomly checking his email one day led to \u201can explosion of joy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt happened in the most beautiful way possible,\u201d Ortiz-Pag\u00e1n said. \u201cMy parents were here to visit from Puerto Rico because my daughter\u2019s birthday was happening that week. We were in a big box store getting supplies. Things were challenging, so we were being careful with our budget. Suddenly, something told me, \u2018Check your email,\u2019 and I did. My wife, my parents, and I just started jumping and hugging.\u201d<\/p>\n The Pew Center grant of $85,000 is unrestricted, not only enabling Ortiz-Pag\u00e1n to explore more avenues of creativity in his art, but also leading to more exposure and allowing him to work at a more \u201csustainable\u201d yet \u201crobust\u201d pace. According to Ortiz-Pag\u00e1n, the award was very affirming.<\/p>\n \u201cI became an individual artist when my wife was pregnant with our daughter\u2026 It was a huge risk that most people said was a little bit insane, but it has played out in a beautiful way,\u201d Ortiz-Pag\u00e1n said. \u201cYour confidence is definitely strengthened. Not because you doubt your work, but because sometimes things in your work get lost in translation\u2026Understanding that other people saw through that complexity doesn\u2019t feel bad.\u201d<\/p>\n Yolanda Wisher<\/strong><\/p>\n Wisher, a Germantown resident, is the senior curator for Monument Lab, a nonprofit public art, history, and design studio. The organization is receiving a Pew Center grant of $360,000 to work on [birdsong], a \u201cliving monument to Philadelphia\u2019s birds.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c[birdsong] invites deep listening and reflection on interspecies relationships through three new environmental soundworks that are going to be installed across the city,\u201d Wisher explained. \u201cWe\u2019re going to commission three artists to develop these sound monuments in partnership with local environmental organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n The vocalists and sound artists involved in [birdsong] include Mendi and Keith Obadike, a husband and wife duo from Ithaca, NY; Ra\u00fal Romero, a Philadelphia-based sound artist; and Hanna Tuulikki, a British-Finnish composer. Ornithologists and wildlife biologists will also work alongside the artists to explore the intersections of environmental stewardship and ecology through sound.<\/p>\n Wisher said [birdsong] embodies Monument Lab\u2019s goals in expanding the definition and understanding of monuments.<\/p>\n \u201cWorking in the environmental ecology space is a new foray for us, so we\u2019re eager to learn as much about that space as possible,\u201d Wisher said. \u201cThere\u2019s not anything else like bird songs to give you a sense of place and time wherever you are, and to make you feel human\u2026You have to think about what it would be like to wake up one day and not hear it and how much we do take it for granted, the presence of this environment that we get to live in. We want everybody to be able to have a moment to reflect, enjoy, and celebrate these connections, this human-animal species connection that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n [birdsong] is set to run from May to August 2027, coinciding with the migration season of birds in the area.<\/p>\n This grant is Wisher\u2019s third time receiving a Pew Center award \u2014 in 2015 she got one as an artist and in 2024 she received a grant as a curator of a project. However, the feeling of finding out she won remains \u201cincredible.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s great when a really esteemed panel of folks from outside the city recognizes the caliber of your idea and the artists that you\u2019re working with,\u201d Wisher said.<\/p>\n