Bearded Ladies Cabaret: Glitter in the Time of Crisis

Our mission is to creatively re-imagine the social function of art. We believe that democratic leadership is the most appropriate way to produce an artistic program that inclusively responds to pressing issues of local and national significance. This democratic ethos is embodied by a forty-member advisory council of neighboring high-school students of color, Temple University students and faculty, as well as civic/cultural leaders representing a range of skills (nurses, farmers, philosophers, artists, community activists, historians, etc.). To each annual meeting every adviser brings one question that they do not know the answer to.  It is out of these questions, and the debates they provoke within the council that determines Temple Contemporary’s programming.This process grounds us in a position of public service to address contemporary questions of urgency and simultaneously necessitates a fundamental philosophical shift for the organization: from a single curatorial/authorial voice to one that recognizes social engagement and debate as the determining factor of our programming. This re-ordering of conventional gallery values foregrounds curatorial accountability, reciprocity, and exchange, as the basis of Temple Contemporary’s social life, and our social values.Funding for Temple Contemporary comes from The Andy Warhol Foundation, The Fels Foundation, The Barra Foundation, The PEW Center for Arts and Heritage, The Philadelphia Foundation, The Philadelphia Cultural Fund, The Pennsylvania Humanities Council, The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, and Temple University.

Temple Contemporary

What's so critical about glitter in times of crisis?

Philadelphia&#x27;s Bearded Ladies Cabaret takes you on a musical guided tour through our ten year history of cardboard, glitter, and gender play, exploring the urgency and power of pleasure in times of pandemic and fascism. Cabaret is an art form that historically flourishes before and after wars, sprouts after failed uprisings and disappointing elections, and appears as the only option at the &quot;end&quot; of a lauded career. In other words, it is the art that emerges after you lose and have to adapt to a new reality. The Beards will share some lessons we&#x27;ve learned from cherished losers in cabaret history (and ourselves) and share the ways we are adapting our artistic practice to new spaces, audiences, and interactions at a time full of loss and losing.The Bearded Ladies Cabaret is an experimental cabaret group devoted to exploiting all the possibilities of intimate, homemade theater through beautiful songs, tricked-out costume changes, drag, and virtuosic prop construction. 

With wit and sparkle they tackle the politics of popular culture, sex, gender, and artistic invention. They have been called “wildly entertaining” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, “definitive proof that cabaret is alive and well and thriving in Philly&quot; by Talkin&#x27; Broadway, and &quot;an experimental cabaret troupe&quot; by the New York Times.
 <a href="https://www.beardedladiescabaret.com" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">www.beardedladiescabaret.com</a> Images courtesy of Christopher Ash and Plate 3 Photography.

Bearded Ladies Cabaret: Glitter in the Time of Crisis

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Bearded Ladies Cabaret: Glitter in the Time of Crisis

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