On April 18, artists in residence from The Village of Arts and Humanities will present the process behind creating “Home Court: The Hartranft Basketball Court Revival,” a creative placemaking project used art to unite community leaders across generations and revitalize a local basketball court with deep ties to the neighborhood.

Artists Scott Ziegler, Jordan McCree and Michael McDermott will present the soundscapes and songs created for the exhibit, and discuss the intensive process of turning interviews with community members and ambient recordings into a soundscape illustrating the past, present, and future of the neighborhood.

About Home Court: The Hartranft Basketball Court Revival

The Hartranft Community Basketball Courts, located near The Village in North Philadelphia, are a microcosm of our neighborhood’s history of arts, athletics, activism, and intergenerational guardianship — as well as severe disinvestment. In 2018, the courts were renovated by the Philadelphia Sixers and the City of Philadelphia, in partnership with Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). The Village and our neighbors used this substantial investment in infrastructure as an opportunity to re-ignite local civic engagement, with art as a vehicle to bring neighbors together and build a shared vision for the courts. Over 12 months, renowned Philadelphia artists Shawn Theodore (photographer), Ill Doots (hip-hop collective) and Michael McDermott (composer) worked in intensive collaboration with neighborhood coaches, players, parents and leaders to create a 2,500 sq. foot participatory art exhibit exploring the courts’ past, present and future.

The exhibit opened to the public on the day of the court ribbon cutting, ensuring that the renovation would not erase the courts’ past, but instead revive the spirit of community care and activism that built them.

“People couldn’t believe it when they saw themselves in the exhibit, and saw themselves as part of history. It brought a whole bunch of hope and faith to the process,” says Reggie Johnson, who grew up playing on the courts and worked as a community convener on the project.

The Home Court project helped to catalyze the creation of a new Parks and Recreation Advisory Council at the court (an advocacy board made up of community members), and community members have since restarted the local summer basketball league with the support of the Philadelphia 76ers.

“This project was not about the next month, or year. It’s about the next 100 years. It’s a testament to the power of community leadership, the intentional deployment of art-making, and strong, trusted relationships to produce meaningful shifts in civic engagement and equitable resource distribution,” says Aviva Kapust, executive director of The Village of Arts and Humanities.

The works presented at the Philadelphia Foundation are just a small fraction of the artwork and community history curated for the original Home Court exhibit. Visitors can visit the full exhibit online at homecourt.villagearts.org.

About The Artists

Jordan McCree is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, composer, and teaching artist in Philadelphia. His most recents works and collaborations include Romeo and Juliet(The Wilma Theater), Red Bike(Simpatico Theater), and Comunitas: 5 Years Later(Almanac Theater). Currently, he is a teaching artist at Ambler Music in Ambler, PA. He is also a member Philly-based hip hop and social justice collective ILL DOOTS. ILL DOOTS’ self-titled album is available now on Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Google Play, and more.

Scott Ziegler is a producer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and educator. Scott grew up in a small town north of Boston where he began as a bass player in several bands. Scott moved to Philadelphia in 2009 to pursue a degree in jazz studies at the University of the Arts, shortly after arriving in Philly started work on a mixtape that would eventually give birth to the band ILL DOOTS. After several tours and mixtapes ILL DOOTS began work in theater, under the direction of Joanna Settle, Scott served as musical director for An Octoroon at the Wilma Theatre, and Hands Up at Flashpoint Theatre Company which won the Barrymore Award for Best Original Music. In addition to work with ILL DOOTS, Scott produces music for other artists and mediums such as film, podcasts, and exhibits. Scott teaches songwriting/production at the Village of Arts and Humanities helping students to write and record original music.

Michael Reiley McDermott has created works for film, dance, stage, installation, smart phones, multi-speaker arrays, piano, wishing wells, electric gardens and dreamers. His practice explores the relationship between present moment awareness, deep time and humanity's personal connection through listening. His work integrates meditation, Deep Listening and textured sound worlds through a process called “sonic photography”. This process involves site specific recordings of physical spaces re-imagined using photographic development and collage techniques. His aim is to reframe the everyday world as a infinite statement that stretches out in both directions of time and as an ephemeral instant of precious connection. Michael was Artist in Residence at fidget, Composer in Residence for Temple University’s BEEP Ensemble and is Composer in Residence at Village of the Arts and Humanities. Upcoming and recent residencies include: Ayatana (Ottawa, Canada), Casa Na Ilha (Ilhabela Brazil), Listhus (Ólafsfjördur, Iceland), Leibig12 (Berlin, Germany), Com Peung (Chiang Mai, Thailand), PECAH (Uttarkhand, India). He recently completed a certification program in Deep Listening studying with Deep Listening pioneer Pauline Oliveros.

About The Village of Arts and Humanities

More than 40 years ago, internationally renowned dancer, choreographer and civil rights activist, Arthur Hall, built the Ile Ife Black Humanitarian Center in a storefront building near the corner of 10th and Germantown Avenue. For Arthur Hall, creating space for people in the neighborhood to dance, sing and make music was a crucial part of the community’s culture and heritage. Twenty years later, celebrated visual artist Lily Yeh continued growing spaces in the neighborhood in the same spirit of communal care and compassion.

Today The Village remains a vital community asset of 15 art parks and 10 program buildings, impacting more that 1200 community residents and 550 young people each year. We are the largest provider of free arts, culture and environmental programming in a 260-square block area of North Philadelphia.

About The Philadelphia Foundation

Founded in 1918, the Philadelphia Foundation strengthens the economic, social and civic vitality of Greater Philadelphia. It grows effective philanthropic investment, connects individuals and institutions across sectors and geography, and advances civic initiatives through partnerships and collaboration. A publicly supported foundation, the Philadelphia Foundation manages more than 900 charitable funds established by its donors and makes over 1,000 grants and scholarship awards each year. To learn more, visit www.philafound.org.