Philly entrepreneurs combine art and food spaces

THE WAY Wendy Smith Born sees it, the restaurant business couldn't survive without artists.

Born, who spent eight years at the White Dog Cafe before launching Metropolitan Bakery with James Barrett in 1993, grew up in an art-filled home with an artist for a mother. And once she started working in restaurants, Born found herself surrounded by artists, writers, dancers and sculptors.

"I think all of our initial employees were dancers with the Hess dance company," she recalled. "Artists typically don't make enough to live off their art, so they supplement by waiting tables or doing something else with food."

For years, Born has offered wall space to support local talent at her various bakeries (currently in University City, Chestnut Hill, Reading Terminal Market and Rittenhouse Square). But with this month's opening of Metropolitan Gallery, at 250 S. 18th St., a building she owns across from the Philadelphia Art Alliance, she's taken it to the next level.

Born carved out 800 square feet from her existing office space to showcase emerging artists and connect local businesses to art, a project she's really jazzed about. "I've always been a person who believes that art is the soul of our culture," she said. "And public access is so important."

Printmaker and ceramic artist Bailey M. Chick, also a bakery shift manager, curated the first show, "Gotta' Catch 'Em," featuring pottery as cultural icons, by Adam Ledford.

"There are a lot of restaurants and cafes that hang local artists' work," said Chick. "We are looking beyond that to provide support and dedicated space specifically for artists who are also restaurant workers." Chick graduated from Tyler School of Art in 2010, has worked for Metropolitan for about two years and recently got her own studio at the Crane Arts Old School, in south Kensington.

"Philadelphia is alive with art," said Born. "Artists that used to go to New York just can't afford the living expenses there any more, so they're staying here and fueling our own art renaissance." Born doesn't take any commission on sales and hopes that, in time, the gallery will be self-sufficient. Chick is donating her time to the project, with plans for an all-restaurant-workers show in the spring.

A bit farther west, in University City, Saba Tedla is reinventing the art gallery in her own way. In July 2011, Tedla, whose day job is in corporate finance at a software company, opened Aksum, a cheery Mediterranean restaurant at 4630 Baltimore Ave., in Cedar Park.

Tedla, a native of Eritrea who was raised in Ann Arbor, Mich., grew up around a large Lebanese population and fell in love with that cuisine. When she opened Aksum, Tedla hung pieces from her personal art and artifact collection on the restaurant's walls. Soon, she was featuring local artists as well.

Last month, she also opened Seeds Gallery, a nonprofit designed to offer support for artists at every step of their career, near the restaurant at 50th and Baltimore. When Tedla moved to Philadelphia five years ago, she noticed a dearth of galleries in her Cedar Park neighborhood. "I wanted a place where artists could also learn the business elements of the industry," she said. She wants Seeds to foster the arts on a community level, provide grant money to artists who can't afford supplies and offer scholarships to high-school students interested in art.

"There's such a large population of artists here that needs to be served," she said. Exhibits are showcased at the gallery and staged at other locations throughout the city with partners like local restaurants, coffee shops, yoga studios, law firms and bookstores. A 30-percent commission is charged on sales to further the gallery's community mission.

"The model for what an art gallery is is changing," said Born. "Art can't exist in a bubble; it has to be not just where artists are but also where people are. A restaurant is one place you have both."