JUDY GELLES
Fourth Grade Project
 
JULY 19 - SEPTEMBER 1, 2019
Opening Reception: Friday, July 19, 5 - 8 PM
 
CHERRY STREET PIER
121 N. Columbus Blvd (Just South of Race Street)
Philadelphia, PA
 
Who do you live with?  What do you wish for?  What do you worry about?  

Judy Gelles began the Fourth Grade Project from a prototype born during her volunteer work at an under-served Philadelphia school not far from where she lived. Over the past decade she has interviewed and photographed over 300 fourth grade students from the USA, China, Dubai, England, India, Israel, Italy, Nicaragua, St. Lucia, South Africa, and South Korea. By asking these students the exact same 3 questions, she allows their answers to become part of her art along with her intriguing photographs. Without seeing the face of these children, who are photographed from behind, we can hear their voices through their answers to these questions that frame their body in the image along with economies of gesture that speak as loudly as their words. Told in their own words, their stories touch on common human experiences and urgent social issues.
 
Judy Gelles received her MFA in Photography from Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI. Gelles has exhibited her work most notably at the National Portrait Gallery, London, UK; Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, Sunderland, UK; Santa Fe University of Art and Design, Santa Fe, NM; Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA; Philadelphia Foundation, Philadelphia, PA; Granary Arts Center, Ephraim, UT; Berlin Foto Biennale, Berlin, Germany; Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Miami, FL; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland; Photo Center NW, Seattle, WA; Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA; and more. She has been awarded the CENTER Award, Second Prize “Curator’s Choice” (2016); CFEVA Alumni Travel Grant (2016); First Prize, Prix de la Photographie Paris (2013); Lomax Family Foundation Grant (2012); among others. Her work is in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY; Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA; Harvard University Fine Arts Library, Cambridge, MA; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; among many others. This exhibition was originally presented at the Annenberg Space for Photography presents Photoville LA in April & May 2019. Designed & produced by United Photo Industries. Judy Gelles is represented by Pentimenti Gallery in Philadelphia, PA.

For more information regarding the purchase of Judy Gelles’ fine art photography, please contact Pentimenti Gallery at mail@pentimenti.com or 215.625.9990.

CHERRY STREET PIER HOURS:
Sunday - Thursday: 11 AM - 10 PM  |  Friday & Saturday: 11 AM - 11 PM

 
The Fourth Grade Project
 
Fourth grade is a turning point in children’s lives. They are able to think critically and consider relationships to be very important. They are socially conscious, interested in helping others, and openly curious about the world. It is a moment in children’s development when worldviews start to become entrenched and paths for the future start to become more set. The stories from The Fourth Grade Project have the power to transform students’ worldviews. Understanding others’ hopes and fears will foster a greater commitment to global understanding, empathy and acceptance.
 
The Fourth Grade Project began as a fine art project and has since evolved into a social justice initiative with the goal of providing a digital, interactive curriculum for educators to use in classrooms around the world. The project is currently being piloted in Philadelphia schools.
 
By supporting this project you will help create among many things:
- an interactive resource for teachers
- an expansion of the project documenting additional schools around the world
- an increase in empathy and understanding in the classroom
 
For more information and to donate to The Fourth Grade Project, please visit www.fourthgradeproject.com.
 
The Fourth Grade Project is a project of CultureTrust Greater Philadelphia, a charitable 501(c)(3) trust supporting diverse cultural practices in the Philadelphia region. Your individual and corporate donations are tax deductible.
 
 
CHERRY STREET PIER
Formerly known as Municipal Pier 9, Cherry Street Pier is a 55,000 square-foot warehouse and former shipping pier which was once a vibrant part of Philadelphia’s shipping industry. After decades of vacancy, the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation (DRWC) has carefully repurposed the Pier to preserve its history and celebrate its present as a reflection of Philadelphia today—creative, diverse, historic, adaptable, and inspired. Located just south of the Race Street Pier and along North Columbus Boulevard, Cherry Street Pier is a mixed-use attraction that hosts festivals, performance, exhibitions, special events and Philadelphia-centric food and beverage vendors and incubates creative connectors as the newest public asset connecting Philadelphia residents and visitors to the central Delaware River waterfront. For more information, visit cherrystreetpier.com.