Taller Puertorriqueño needs a final burst of fundraising to make cultural center a reality

Dec. 2 was Giving Tuesday, a day focused on funding non-profit and charitable organizations whose missions are vital to communities. It is a day fundamentally unlike the Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday which preceded it and which are focused on commerce and luring consumers who are looking for the best deal on their Christmas purchases. We don’t know how Taller fared during Giving Tuesday — they were trying for 10 year-round scholarships to their arts and cultural education programs for at-risk Latino children — but we hope it was a banner day.

Additionally, the organization has a mere $100,000 to go to meet a multimillion dollar fundraising goal. In the offing: a center that will serve as the artistic heart of the barrio.

Art matters everywhere, but especially in the barrio, and Taller Puertorriqueño has been at the forefront of arts and culture programming and education in the Latino community of Philadelphia for the past 40 years. 

The small but dynamic organization offers visual arts exhibitions, classes for children, readings by local and national authors, initiatives that point at the intersection between art and location, a bookshop filled with Latino books and authors — you name it — all within tiny spaces that can barely contain those in attendance. 

The thing is, there is no other arts space quite like Taller.

A number of years ago, during an exhibition of photographs by Tony Rocco and his Photography Without Borders students, the place got so packed it was almost impossible to move from one upstairs space to the next to look at the art on display. And that was before the band came in to play a few songs.... 

In terms of arts institutions in the city, Taller operates on a shoestring. That’s because, as a recent AL DÍA article pointed out, 96 percent of foundation art investment in the city goes to wealthy neighborhoods. Taller has had to scratch and scramble to get to this point in its fundraising, but it is there: poised on the very edge of making history in Philly. 

And it will make history, because Taller’s success will acknowledge two very crucial things Philadelphia doesn’t seem to know yet. First, the Latino community needs and supports and loves the arts. There are Latino artists working across mediums in our city, and if you haven’t seen their work, you haven’t been attending the right openings and performances and readings.

Second,  the arts organization doesn’t have to be located in Center City to be a tremendous incubator for the arts. One of our favorite things about Taller is the way the popular art coexists with the edgy, folk traditions merge with ambitious and forward thinking.

There is such beauty and power in the community, and Taller’s almost fully realized dream of a new cultural center will make that absolutely undeniable. 

It doesn’t matter if it is no longer Giving Tuesday. Let’s make it Giving Thursday, Friday and every other day of the week when it comes to Taller. Be part of the dream. Fund the heart of the arts in our community.

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Current exhibit: Images of Identity, celebrating Taller’s 40-year history, is on view through Jan. 10, 2015. Stop by 2721 N. 5th St. Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturdays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Event: A Birthday House Party: Taller turns 40! Dec. 6, 2014, from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Art, food, cocktails, live music, dancing, parrandas and friends from the community.