Dear AIGA Philadelphia Members and Friends,

Over the last few months our new board has been reaching out to you to make new connections, to better demonstrate the value of AIGA membership, and to invite you to get involved in the chapter in more meaningful ways. It has been our sincere pleasure to have met so many of you, build those relationships, and also listen to your feedback on our programs and initiatives. Your input has been invaluable—starting with the survey so many of you responded to in late August. We learned that you are looking for more hands-on workshops, training opportunities, bigger lectures, regional conferences, programs related to business and design thinking, exhibitions, studio tours, and above all else—opportunities to make true connections and feel part of a community of designers.

Since 2012, we have found a welcome home in Old City at our gallery, SPACE. In addition to it being our local chapter headquarters, we are very proud to have hosted several notable exhibitions over the years there, including Halftoned: Art Chantry, 10 Years of Rectangles: Heads of State Anniversary, MAPnificent: Artists Use Maps, Gritty Semiotics: History Project, ANIMATE, #phillytype, and And I Said No Lord: Joel Katz. However, our chapter has been facing challenges to make the gallery financially sustainable since its opening. Based on the current capacity of our board and volunteers and the considerable associated expenses, at this time we cannot sustain keeping the gallery open; therefore, we will be closing the doors to SPACE in December. We will host one last First Friday on December 4th at 6:00pm to commemorate our wonderful four years there and we invite the entire AIGA Philadelphia community to help us celebrate.

So what does the future hold? AIGA Philadelphia will continue to host design-focused exhibitions, like those featured at SPACE, at a new gallery location to be announced soon. We are also searching for a new place to call home—one where we can host larger workshops, round table discussions and member meetups. We are still passionate about bringing this chapter the finest and most valuable design-related programming and building an enhanced sense of community among our members.

We welcome ideas from you as well on what our next steps should be. Please feel free to reach out to me and other board members with questions, concerns, and recommendations. We hope through continued dialogue we may enter our next phase with renewed enthusiasm and focus.

Thank you for being part of the AIGA Philadelphia community, and a very sincere and special thank you to everyone that played a role in SPACE these past few years. We look forward to our next adventure and to each and everyone of you being part of it.

Sincerest Regards,

Lauren Dougherty
AIGA Philadelphia, President