how a true renaissance man spreads his love and light in philly
- satab0mb
- Apr 14, 2017
- 4 min read
despite it being a lazy sunday afternoon, somehow crowds of loquacious customers occupied the countless seats in la colombe coffee shop. the overall decor of the shop screamed steampunk and out of the hundreds of people in this fishtown location, there goes lukas weidner.
weidner, 32, is from a small town in pennsylvania called green lane; it is west of philadelphia, more specifically north of pottstown and south of quakertown.
coming from a mother who is “more creative than she thinks,” an art teacher father, and a graphic designer of an aunt, artistry runs through weidner’s blood.
“I remember being a kid and I had a poster in my room,” began weidner. “it had these musicians on, you know, a music staff, that has five lines. it was a poster that showed musicians playing and dancing on the music staff. I went to sleep every night looking at that. but then it wasn’t until I was much older that I learned that my aunt designed… she designed that poster.”
weidner feels that regardless of how limited he and his aunt’s daily conversations were, the art that she produced subconsciously influenced him throughout his life. there were even more graphic design pieces that he did not know his aunt created besides the one about musicians on the staff.
“that just goes to show that when you make art, it’s a kind of version of you,” said weidner with a giggle and soft glint in his eye.
he began to date himself for a little and elaborated on the time when he was younger, researching different artists in the encyclopedia.
in weidner’s words, “growing up, the encyclopedia was my best friend.”
lukas weidner shared that moving to philly from an extremely small town was major for him. he got the opportunity to finally get exposed to the arts in every form.
weidner attended west chester university ironically studying graphic design with a minor in art history, concentrating in fine art and music.
with the combination of a longstanding passion for the arts as well as making random connections as an artist, lots of philanthropist/positive volunteer work has been done in the name of lukas weidner.
at one of weidner’s previous jobs, the barnes foundation, a fellow coworker introduced weidner to the emerging arts leaders of philadelphia (eal:p).
kat buckley, the coworker weidner spoke of, was in the process of moving to chicago when she shared the open spot on the eal:p executive board. even though weidner had no idea what eal:p even was, she had faith that he had the drive and experience to hop right in without a problem.
the emerging arts leaders of philadelphia (stylized as eal:p and/or members referred to as ealpers) is a nonprofit organization founded by both kelly paul and maria fumai dietrich in october 2012. it is 100% volunteer-based and helps artists from every point of the spectrum land networking opportunities as well as extra help on producing content for the generators of the art.
to be involved, the sole criteria is as long as you “self-identify as emerging (regarding the arts), are an artist, and/or a leader” then you are an ealper. there is no age range or other specific requirements to be a part of the organization.
eal:p collaborates with other local nonprofits such as the philly cultural alliance and americans for the arts (afta). they also have networking events where ealpers can make connections and get find ways to get their work out there.
“I think the perception that most people have initially with the arts is that you paint, or you sing, or you just play an instrument,” weidner said. “so there’s an enormous cast of people who are the generators of art… so they’re producing new work that people consume all over the place whether they’re artists or not by going to museums or going to plays. the more time you spend within the art community, the more you realize that life in the arts is not as clear-cut as you might think when you’re just getting into the field. and the fact is that it takes an entire cast of people to make the arts work.”
that is essentially what eal:p does; they serve the community as bringing “awareness to what individuals can do to support the arts apart from producing it” and “enabling people to be professionally supportive in the arts sector.”
and whether one is an artist or not, having the skills to be able to be a business model is something eal:p will help one work on.
in addition to volunteering as the vice president for eal:p’s 2017 executive board, weidner is currently also a part of the spruce foundation for philanthropy work, is a visual artist (and just had a show this past january in fishtown), briefly ran an art magazine, is a musician (playing percussion), and just recently taught himself calligraphy (and is in the process of creating a watercolor wedding certificate for a couple in philly).
with everything he does, weidner says he “always seems to make the arts apart of [my] life.” anything non-artistic does not seem natural for him.
as of lately, weidner is a fishtown resident with his longtime girlfriend, amy (who also works in the arts), and has a full-time job as the administrative coordinator for nelson, an architecture firm.
on top of everything, he is also thinking about attending graduate school at temple university for a mba.
to stay inspired, weidner and his dad -- to this day -- sit together and draw, as his father teaches him about art history.
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