The ARTS

The Wolf Humanities Center of the University of Pennsylvania hosted a public forum on revolution - “Imag(in)ing Revolution” - in early February 2024. Philadelphia Language Services participated in this successful event interpreting for the English-speaking participants the presentation of Cuban installation and performance artist, Carlos Martiel. We were there also to interpret the question and answer session between participants and the artist following the presentation.

Philadelphia Language Services’ mission of empowering the community through language access shines through their work with Mural Arts Philadelphia. In the summer of 2022 Mural Arts was working with an artist to put up a new mural in Chinatown. We provided in-person and remote interpretation in Mandarin and Cantonese for meetings where Murals Arts collected feedback from community members about what they'd like to see in the mural. According to WHYY, John Chen, executive director of the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation, said about a resident of a North Philadelphia neighborhood three miles away, “I had someone from 20-something and Lehigh Avenue say that they can see this mural.” He added, “It’s so large, it’s so visible, it makes our job easier to tell the story of why Chinatown is here, why we’re important.”

Another way of bringing the arts of different countries and cultures to the US is through film. Philadelphia Language Services assists in bridging communication gaps between international language speakers and English speakers by providing interpretation for film screenings.

Part of The University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design’s Fall 2022 lecture series was the screening of "Women Builders and the Earthen Architectural Heritage of Central and West Africa" and a Q&A by director Amélie Esséssé. According to the school, “the film’s goal is to bring attention to the preservation of local cultural earthen construction heritage as well as the spiritual aspect of this heritage.” PLS aided in bringing this attention by providing live French interpretation for the event.

It was an honor to provide in April 2023 in-person simultaneous Spanish interpretation for Drexel Arts Administration & Museum Leadership Graduate Program’s masterclasses presented by Dr. Ibáñez Pérez, Director of Visitor Services and Impact for El Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. The Prado is Spain’s national art museum which contains famous Spanish works from the 12th century through the mid 1900s. Our interpreters also communicated in English the Prado’s upcoming projects Puerta Digital (Digital Door) and Tomar el Pulso (Taking the Pulse).