I spent a couple of days this week playing tourist in Philadelphia. A highlight was the Barnes Foundation, where one person’s awe-inspiring collection of impressionist, post-impressionist, Greek, Egyptian, African, and early American art is crowded together in a fairly random way in 23 compelling rooms.

  Notable was the number of paintings by Cezanne and Renoir. There were at least one or two, if not more, works by these artists in every room. In fact, there were so many paintings by Renoir, I found myself wondering how he ever had time to create all of these in addition to the many I’d seen at other museums in the world.

Back in my teenage and early adult years in New York City, where I spent many hours wandering the halls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art with friends, learning from several who were serious visual artists, I, along with them, was a bit disdainful of Renoir. Too romanticized, we agreed. Too much focus on what’s pretty. But looking at Renoir’s paintings in these unsettled times gave me a new layer of appreciation. He’s zeroing in on gratitude, I thought. On what’s good in the world. He’s leaning into the light.

And, indeed, it was the way light shone so brilliantly through the canvas that kept my eyes drawn to his work. Unfortunately, the pictures I took (below) don’t really show how brilliant the light was and how much it warmed the colors.

Later that evening, I was invited by an old friend to attend a different arts-oriented event celebrating the city’s community leaders. This was organized and sponsored by Philadelphia Legacies, whose mission is to uplift the work of individuals who are giving back to the city. Among them were Rev. Dr. Respie M. Warren, a woman who has dedicated her life to bridging the gap between deaf and hearing communities; Georgie Woods, an influential media figure and civil rights activist; and Wilson Goode, first African American mayor of Philadelphia, who has continued his work as a change-maker through mentoring children impacted by incarceration. Local artists were commissioned to make portraits of these and other community leaders (media and social change pioneer, Tiffany Bacon; and Tennis Hall of Fame inductee and President of Black Women in Sports, Traci Green) so that residents of the city would learn about these people in their community and be inspired by them.

Wilson Goode (seated) looks at his portrait created by artist Oranda Curry Johnson

One might think of my trip to the Barnes Foundation and time at the Philadelphia Legacies dinner as two separate events in my day, and it’s certainly true that there was a huge difference in the style and ambiance of the art itself and the general demeanor of both events. But I found it inspirational to think of these as examples of the many ways that art can lean into the light and change lives by inspiring people to be their best selves, whether it’s used to remind us to seek gratitude in the small pleasures of daily life, or to take larger, braver steps toward making the type of world we want to see. #artforchange

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