BEN Around Philly airs every Saturday morning at 7am on 95.7 BEN-FM and is sponsored by The Fillmore Philadelphia.

On this episode, Kristen speaks with Sam Perry and Sarah Damiano from the Portside Arts Center in Port Richmond about their Portside ArtsMobile.  Then, Philadelphia Magazine’s Victor Fiorillo drops by the BEN-FM Morning Show with Matt & Kristen.

The Portside Arts Center is a wonderful 501c3 non profit community arts center, located in Philadelphia’s Port Richmond neighborhood. The center hosts art classes, birthday and holiday parties, summer camps, contests, after school programs and more all throughout the year. Recently, the Portside Arts Center has been lending their resources and talents to local schools. Their Portside ArtsMobile initiative integrates school subjects like math, literacy, science and social learning concepts with visual arts. After successfully implementing the program at two nearby Riverwards schools, the center is fundraising to help ensure the sustained success of the program and to hopefully expand and impact hundreds more students. Their fundraising campaign – 4K Hearts for the Arts – aims to connect with 4,000 people across the city and beyond who can donate $20. This goal of $80,000 would raise enough funds to cover an entire year of programming for 3 schools, 6 teachers and over 250 children. Hear Sam Perry, the Marketing Coordinator for Portside Arts Center, and Portside ArtsMobile Director – Sarah Damiano talk with Kristen about the success of the program and their plans for the future. Please consider donating to the Portside ArtsMobile project HERE.

Then, Philadelphia Magazine‘s Victor Fiorillo stops by the BEN-FM Morning Show with Matt & Kristen to talk about his experience writing for Philadelphia Magazine, the kinds of stories he’s drawn to, the way that writing for a magazine has changed over time (especially with the internet and social media), his well known Martha Graham Cracker Band, family life and how he juggles it all. Find his articles in Philadelphia Magazine (on newsstands all over Philly), on their website HERE, and probably on your own Facebook page. His stories are shared quite a bit!