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Interpretation of the Chew Family's History

Cliveden of the National Trust
Photo courtesy of Cliveden of the National Trust.
Photo courtesy of Cliveden of the National Trust.

Cliveden, an 18th-century historic site once owned by the Chew family, envisioned new interpretive strategies, testing of new interactive exhibitions, revised guide training, and an extended series of programs and events. These projects, which were all based on the history of enslavement at the site, were designed to engage with Cliveden's surrounding communities, especially African-Americans, in Germantown and North Philadelphia. The project team included historians, a psychologist, filmmakers, a storyteller, community members, and representatives from reparations groups.

uestions of ractice
Audiences take in Liberty To Go To See, 2015, at Cliveden’s Main House, an interactive dramatic event based on the Chew Family Papers, produced by the New Freedom Theatre and featuring a script created through a year-long partnership between Cliveden and the Philadelphia Young Playwrights.
Interview

Inside Cliveden of the National Trust: Q&A with Executive Director David Young

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Recipient
Cliveden of the National Trust

Cliveden of the National Trust

Cliveden of the National Trust is an eighteenth-century historic house and the site of the 1777 Battle of Germantown. A National Historic Landmark, the site includes two historic properties on over five acres of green space in Philadelphia's Historic Germantown. Cliveden preserves and interprets over 200 years of American history through the lives of the Chew Family and their staff, both enslaved and in service, and it offers programming for children and adults to connect the past and the present.

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Explore Connections
Larry W. Cook, Untitled.
National Media Spotlight on Philadelphia’s Cultural Scene
Nels Cline in performance at Royce Hall, Los Angeles. Photo by Phinn Sriployrung.

Guitarist Nels Cline on Musical Lineage
Video Tradition & Translation
Walking with Trane, Urban Bush Women. Photo by Gennia Cui.
Questions of Practice: Choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar on Art and Social Justice
Video Social & Community-Based Practices
Sonia Sanchez. Photo by Erika Vonie.
Celebrating Poet Sonia Sanchez, plus Pew Fellows Earn Guggenheim Fellowships, Peabody Award, and More
Pew Fellows Candice Iloh and Armando Veve. Photos by Neal Santos.

Fellow to Fellow: Candice Iloh and Armando Veve Find Inspiration in Each Other’s Mediums
Interview Cross-Disciplinary Practices
Enrique Bostelmann, Portrait of Cora Flores, 1980, part of Mirages series.

Projects in Process: Discoveries in the Archives with Berman Museum and Japan America Society
Essay Legacy & Archives
Sinta Penyami Storms, 2022 Philadelphia's Cultural Treasures fellow.
Four Philadelphia’s Cultural Treasures Fellows on Care and Community Impact
EgoPo Classic Theater, rehearsal for Ramayana with Papermoon Puppet Theatre and Kalanari Theatre Movement, 2023, Java, Indonesia. Photo courtesy of EgoPo. 

Projects in Process: Wilma Theater and EgoPo on Creative Collaborations
Essay Co-Authorship & Collaboration