This summer, there is a creative escape for sports and art fans alike. The opening of a new exhibit, the Founders of Philadelphia Sports, welcomes a free gallery at City Hall.
The exhibition is a collection of seven mosaic portraits by local artist Jonathan Mandell. Each piece features a groundbreaking figure in Philly sports, as a way to pay tribute to their achievements and keep their name alive, while celebrating America’s 250th anniversary.
The collection is a joint effort between the City of Philadelphia’s Creative Philadelphia team and the upcoming Philadelphia Museum of Sports.
An unveiling of the first two mosaics took place Thursday evening, showcasing local baseball legends Effa Louise Manley and Ed Bolden. Manley, a pioneer for women in baseball, co-owned the Newark Eagles, a franchise in the Negro leagues. In 2006, she became the first woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Bolden’s portrait is set in front of the Philadelphia Stars stadium, honoring the team he founded.
The other portraits include Bert Bell, Ed Snider, Billie Jean King, Connie Mack, and Eddie Gottlieb, which are set to arrive in the gallery throughout the summer before eventually finding a permanent home at the Philadelphia Museum of Sports.
“This project has been envisioned for years,” said Brett Mandel, executive director of the Philadelphia Museum of Sports. “It’s really exciting to bring something from conception to something three-dimensional and beautiful, and what’s more important is the story of seeing these beautiful pieces of art and asking, ‘Who was Effa Manley? And why is she important?’”
Mandell, the artist behind each creation, considers that question carefully when precisely cutting and placing each tile and piece of glass.
“At heart, I’m a storyteller,” Mandell said. “I want to tell stories visually, so that’s what I’m hoping to do with the narrative pieces. It’s not just the portrait, but the narrative tells the story.”
Each 36-by-36-inch portrait is accompanied by a 12-by-12-inch mini mosaic that encapsulates a story of each founder’s work. The exhibit was specifically selected as the first to be a part of the Philadelphia Museum of Sports because “the Founders is where you begin any story,” Mandell said.
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This exhibit is a step toward the long-awaited and much-speculated museum. Having been in discussion for more than a decade, the museum is closer than ever to achieving an in-person experience, Mandel says.
Located at 7th and Market, it will serve as a place for local fans and tourists to learn about the people and moments that have built Philadelphia’s rich sports culture over the past century.
“We hope the Museum of Sports is going to connect generations and inspire people to fulfill their dreams on and off the field,” Mandel said. “We want to educate and inspire people through the stories of sports, the champions we’ve cheered for, the hometown heroes that we’ve celebrated, and all the ways sports are about more than just sports.”
However, Mandel noted it may be some time before visitors can interact with the full collection in person.
“Philadelphia waited almost 100 years for the first World Series championship,” Mandel said. “We waited more than a half century for a Super Bowl championship. It is not uncommon in Philadelphia to keep thinking, ‘This is the year, this is the year, this is the year.’ But eventually, if you work hard enough and you keep focused, you’re going to win that championship. So we are telling the world that we are real, and we are here, and we got next.”
In the meantime, Creative Philadelphia, with the aid of the William Penn Foundation and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, was able to showcase Mandell’s mosaics in new display cases on the first floor of City Hall. The Founders is just one of many free galleries in the building.
“This is City Hall. It’s the People’s Building,” said Tu Huynh, curator of exhibitions and programs at Creative Philadelphia. “We want to represent all the communities that create the culture here, and this is just one of the exhibits of Philadelphia Stories 250 [a citywide initiative]. They are all local and community driven.”
Whether you’re celebrating the semiquincentennial or waiting until the Philadelphia Museum of Sports finds its permanent home, the mosaics gives folks a chance to encounter the stories that built the city’s iconic sports legacy, one portrait at a time.
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