My Philadelphia story is about art blogging. In 1998, I retired from AT&T and earned my BFA from The University of the Arts in 2002, at age 49. In 2008, my art business outreach switched from e-mail blasts to WordPress blogging, a magazine format internet platform with incredible abilities to communicate. As DoN, I began documenting the Philadelphia art scene through photography, commentary, interviews, videos and how-to’s. DoNArTNeWs Philadelphia Art News Blog grew from an e-mail list of 1000 art enthusiasts to over 1.5 million unique visitors in 2015, with 7 million page views! Through expert search engine optimization, DoNArTNeWs ranks high in Google searches for Philadelphia artists, galleries and museums. Code is poetry, says WordPress, and I create blog posts that educate, promote, explain, and hopefully enlighten readers about art in Philadelphia. Art crawling is not a team sport, alone in my studio, over the years I’ve posted almost 1000 stories, press releases and interviews, and made friends with hundreds of contemporary artists throughout the Philadelphia region from Center City, Old City and West Philly to Camden, Reading and Wilmington. The arts in America are rich, enigmatic, exotic and dynamic. Finding interesting content to write about is easy, the world really loves Philadelphia art.
Through blogging, I was invited to author Her Philadelphia Tales, the Art of Lilliana S. Didovic, designing, writing and editing her incredible story and artwork. I’ve served on several art jury panels and helped award worthy local artists for their excellence. Da Vinci Art Alliance, a South Philly artist alliance, honored me with a solo jury show for their annual members exhibition in 2015. Serving as Social Media admin for two Philadelphia artist clubs, The Philadelphia Sketch Club and The Plastic Club), I volunteer my skills helping expose these historic artist operated clubs, the oldest in America, to new audiences. From the beginning my goal was to give Philly artists’ exposure and promotion in a positive, upbeat, colorful narrative. But, I am not an art critic. DoN Brewer writing posts for DoNArTNeWs Philadelphia Art News Blog is an art blogger focused on good news about contemporary arts in Philadelphia.
Artwork: Philadelphia Memories, assemblage, PMA, Visit Philly & PHS thumb drives, key to the Wild Room at Omega Institute, horse/panther bottle opener, PECO flashlight, key rings, DoN Brewer, 2016