Manayunk-Based Arts Organization Honored at City Hall

COSA COSA Art at Large, a Manayunk-based arts organization, received the prestigious Cohen Award this afternoon in a 1 p.m. ceremony at City Hall.

The Cohen Award, established in memory of late-city councilman and staunch arts advocate David Cohen, is given annually to the two Philadelphia art or cultural institutions that best promote economic and social justice through the arts. The award is voted on by a panel of peers and delivered by the Philadelphia Cultural Fund.

COSA COSA, according to Cultural Fund manager June O'Neill, has long been highly rated and admired by her organization for the community arts projects and literacy programs they've spearheaded.

"Unfortunately we don't have a monetary prize that goes with the award," said O'Neill, "but it's wonderful to recognize the really outstanding work that they do."

"It's actually especially wonderful because it comes on our 20th anniversary," added COSA COSA director Kim Niemela. "For 20 years we've been working really directly for Philadelphians--bringing people together from all across the city and working for positive social change through the arts."

COSA COSA is partnered with well over 100 programs throughout the city that promote diversity and inclusion through involvement in the arts. Some of the organizations more recognizable projects include mosaics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, their "Safe Harbor" sculpture program, and Nicetown's "Healing Garden."

COSA COSA also does extensive work in Philadelphia schools.

"What they do is really vital in Philadelphia schools," said O'Neill. "Especially as arts education and the arts in general are getting chopped whenever there's any semblance of a financial crisis. Arts organizations like COSA COSA are filling in those gaps. And they're doing a great job of it."

Niemala emphasizes that her organization doesn't just encourage conventional arts education. Their approach is more holistic: they view the arts not just as an object of education, but as a method.

"Art is essential to the learning process. It can actually provide another way into the heads of kids who don't pick things up as well in a traditional classroom," explained Niemela. "We have a five-year project we've been working on with the U.S. Department of Education and the Philadelphia Arts and Education Partnership where we're proving that using the arts to reinforce basic literacy skills can really improve those skills."

So far, so good.

"Schools that have been using the program, you can already see that test scores have been rising," she said.

This years Cohen Award was an original print by Philadelphia artist Ron Rumford.

Also honored on Thursday was the Wagner Free Institute of Science.