By Ellen Grey, The Philadelphia Inquirer
The work of Santa Fe-based artists Don Kennell and Lisa Adler, Invincible Cat is one of six large outdoor art installations that make up “A New View — Camden,” a six-month exhibition that officially opens Thursday in conjunction with Earth Day. Funded by a $1 million Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge grant, they are designed to call attention to illegal dumping of bulk waste in the city, a problem estimated to cost taxpayers more than $4 million a year for disposal of the dumped material.
The project was originally scheduled to debut in May 2020 but was delayed by the pandemic. Another component of “A New View,” Camden-based photographer Erik James Montgomery’s photo series, “Camden Is Bright Not Blight,” launched last fall, with large-scale images of Camden residents on vacant buildings.