Morris family’s gallery brings art to West Philadelphia

Just over six years ago, Milan Morris ’19 and her family brought the arts to West Philadelphia when they established Urban Art Gallery, located on 52nd Street, just four miles from St. Joe’s.

The gallery that recently celebrated its anniversary on April 6 hosts art shows once per month, along with an annual community day and a variety of free youth programs.

According to Milan, her father, Kalphonse Morris, was questioned when he first wanted to open the art gallery on 52nd Street, because the surrounding area is mostly characterized by delis, barber shops and other storefronts.

“To hear that an art gallery was going to open up on 52nd Street, being from Philly, people would look at him and be like, ‘Are you kidding me?’” Milan said. “It was bringing something different to the community and his love for art.”

Kalphonse said he had the property for a while before deciding to turn it into an art gallery.

The first person to have her work exhibited in the space was a local artist, Shawn Rae Feimster, whose art had never been featured in a gallery before.

Kalphonse said he continues to exhibit the work of local artists, which was his reason for making the space a gallery in the first place.

“After talking to [artists] and listening to the different ideas, because I was just going to rent the space out as a commercial space, it triggered something in my mind like that would be pretty cool to do,” Kalphonse said.

According to Kalphonse, there are no art galleries in the immediate area. The closest is located near Drexel University. As a supporter of the arts, Kalphonse wanted to give the community access to it that they did not previously have.

“We want to give the people out here a chance to visualize the arts, because no one ventured down to the art museum,” Kalphonse said. “Once we opened up, we wanted to open that stigma up and stop having people feel a fear of going into the art galleries. We want them to be comfortable and to enjoy and appreciate the arts.”

Both Milan and Kalphonse said their favorite memories from their time owning Urban Art Gallery come from the community days that are held in June and August. In June, the Morris family celebrates their Caribbean heritage with Caribbean artists, musicians and food.

“It shows that we’re giving back,” Milan said. “You see so many people walking down the street, happy to come to get a bite to eat if maybe they weren’t able to get something to eat, being in that urban area. Also just seeing everyone come together as one for a great event rather than for a memorial service or something like that.”

Milan and her family live in Wynnefield now, but she said she grew up five blocks from where the gallery is located, and her grandfather had a photography studio a few doors down as well, which is how her mother and father met.

The gallery hosts a new artist the first Saturday of each month where people are free to look at the art and purchase it.

Many of their initiatives to give back involve the young people in the community, according to Milan.

“You see a lot of times nowadays, our youth is out of control,” Milan said. “If the schools aren’t providing programs for them, they’re stuck and they have nothing to turn to but violence.”

Currently, Urban Art Gallery has weekly art programs for children, a mentoring program for young women to teach them etiquette and a mentoring program based around chess. Milan said in the past, they have had music programs, drawing, language classes and more.

Each Sunday for the past four years at Urban Art Gallery, West Philadelphia resident Stephen Gardner and his brother, Kalieck, have taught children how to play chess while mentoring them.

“We teach chess as a life skill, more or less teaching them to navigate life through the art of chess, because chess is an art discipline too,” Gardner said. “A lot of people think it’s just a game, but it’s more than a game. It can be applied to so many different things.”

Gardner described Urban Art Gallery   as a “beacon of light” in the community.

“So many people come to this gallery, they appreciate the things that are going on here, and they get to experience different arts and different programs,” Gardner said. “It’s a really good place to have, especially in a community that’s been dilapidated for so long. They don’t always get these types of opportunities.”

Kalphonse said his ambition for the future of Urban Art Gallery is to expand their youth programming, and to make the gallery a household name. 

“To do that is to create more and bring exciting things to the gallery, to figure out how we can make it more creative,” Kalphonse said. Once we become more creative, we can actually get our name out there a little further.”

Urban Art Gallery will be hosting an art show on May 4 at 6 p.m. featuring Orande Kairi, followed by a Taste of the Caribbean art show on June 1 at 6 p.m.; featuring Caribbean live music, artists and food.