- On this episode of the Infinite Art Hunt.

- We've got a mission.

- To help your cousin, Cal, with his flamingo fiasco.

- And we've got a ride.

- That's Moi.

That's French for "me."

- Whoa.

- So public art can be made in a few different kinds of ways.

Sometimes it's paint, directly onto walls, like you see here.

Sometimes it's wheat paste, which is paper pasted to a wall.

But this is an example of yarn.

- Would you guys be able to help me out?

- Yes, I'd love to.

- No problem.

- Yeah.

Okay, so it's so easy.

Shh, don't tell anybody.

So what I'm doing is, it's almost kind of like a big sticker, but it's made to be safe for the street so people can walk on it.

And... (quirky music) - [Child] Lead support for this program has been provided by the William Penn Foundation, with additional support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Sidewater Family Foundation, the Thomas-Locke Charitable Fund, and viewers like you.

(children cheering) - Hey everyone, I'm Freddie.

Welcome to the Infinite Art Hunt.

This is my never ending quest to discover new, amazing art.

Let me start at the beginning and I'll fill you in.

I've decided to make the most of my summer vacation by tackling this awesome list of new art things I should see.

I've decided to document it all on my video series, 'The Infinite Art Hunt.'

Sounds pretty cool, huh?

My grandma, Tilly, is letting me use her art studio as headquarters while she's off traveling.

Grandma Tilly is an artist, an art teacher; She knows everyone and has been everywhere.

And she's letting me make my videos here, as long as I feed her plants, and take care of her pet hermit crab, Schuylkill.

Oh, of course I'll tell them.

Schuylkill wanted me to tell you that he's a very good listener.

Oh, there's a few other people I think you should meet.

Come on.

It's the Infinite Art Hunt!

♪ It's the Infinite Art Hunt ♪ ♪ Hey guys, over here.

♪ ♪ We're on another adventure with Fred ♪ ♪ looking for art and making friends ♪ ♪ Checking in with Grandma Tilly ♪ ♪ The adventure never ends ♪ ♪ We're going to go to real places ♪ ♪ find magic and wonder ♪ ♪ and try new things and see what we can discover ♪ ♪ There's art everywhere ♪ ♪ and I really wanna explore ♪ ♪ It's in the food that we eat ♪ ♪ in the trees in the forest ♪ ♪ It's the Infinite Art Hunt ♪ ♪ This is amazing ♪ ♪ It's the Infinite Art Hunt ♪ - And 20.

- This is my cousin, Ty.

He is an artist.

It runs in the family, but he's also Grandma Tilly's studio assistant, which just means that he keeps all the art supplies in order.

- Uh, Freddie, who are you talking to?

- This is the video series I told you about.

"The Infinite Art Hunt".

- Okay, well, while you're infinitely art hunting, I'll be indefinitely counting markers.

Wish me luck.

- Ty acts like he's too busy or too cool for my Infinite Art Hunts, but he's always around to lend a hand.

Ooh.

I should probably also introduce you to my Uncle Mars.

- Freddie, Be honest.

What do you think these pipe cleaners would taste like if I took a bite out of 'em?

- You probably shouldn't take a bite out of pipe cleaners, Uncle Mars.

- I think they would be like blueberry, cotton candy noodles, but chewier.

- This is my Uncle Mars.

He helps out at the youth groups at the community center.

- Ooh, nice to meet you, video people.

- He agreed to take me to a few of the spots on my list on my Infinite Art Hunt.

- Is that the official name?

What about 'Freddie's Art Venture' or, or 'Fantastical Freddy's Ready for Spaghetti...' Wait, I-I lost that one.

Noodles on the brain.

Ah, I gotta get these back to the kids at the community center.

- I've decided to start my Infinite Art Hunt by helping my cousin, Cal, who's also kind of in an art crisis.

He made this crazy cool flamingo sculpture for his school summer art show, but the judges didn't like it.

So what better way to start my Infinite Art Hunt than help out?

I think it's genius.

Now I just need to find out where to go, who to talk to, what to even do.

(device beeps and whirs) Oh, perfect.

This is the studio phone that Grandma Tilly uses to call us on.

She'll know exactly who to talk to.

(device hums musically ) - Hi, baby.

I hope your art hunt is off to a tremendous start.

I had an idea for your first mission.

I think you should find out everything you can about public art.

That's art you can find right in your own neighborhood.

My friend, Conrad, is the perfect person to talk to.

Conrad will point you in the right direction.

Oh, he and I go way back.

Used to be in the same bowling league.

Have fun.

And I hope you learn as much as you can about this big, beautiful art world.

Love you, Baby.

- This is perfect.

Now we know exactly where to start.

You can always count on Grandma Tilly.

So I gotta meet up with Cal, find Conrad, but I need a ride.

- (clears throat) Did someone say they need a wise, stylish chaperone for an art adventure?

- Well, I just said I needed a ride.

- Well, that too.

- This is Hildegard Hubbleback.

She is my grandma Tilly's teaching assistant.

Hildegard is.. - Oh, are we doing introductions?

Well, I'll take it from here.

Roll the clip.

(quirky music) Who is Hildegard Hubbleback?

An assistant art teacher, a lover of art history, a collector of fabulous patterned scarves.

She is all of that and so much more.

She is a lover of beauty, cats, and facts.

She is a discerning art critic and wears a size 10 shoe.

She drives a reliable sedan, which has a strong no snack policy.

And she's thinking about starting her own podcast, called 'Best Regards, Hildegard'.

She is... - You made an intro video just to explain who you were to us?

- Well, I wanted to be sure you're aware that I am hip to the technology.

- Honestly, not bad.

We've got a mission.

- To help your cousin Cal with his flamingo fiasco.

- We have a destination.

- To find a gentleman named Conrad.

Oh, is this address here at art gallery?

- And we've got a ride.

- That's moi, that's French for "me."

Did you know that?

Frederique.

- Uh, Let's stick to Freddie.

Looks like we have all the necessary ingredients for an Infinite Art Hunt.

- Beef bolognese.

- Oh, sorry.

I must be hungry.

- To Hildegard's car.

- Huzzah!

(mysterious music) - Hey, Cal and Freddie, right?

- Conrad?

- Yeah.

- And Hildegard.

- I've heard about you.

How are y'all doing?

- Good.

So you know our grandma Tilly?

- Yeah.

We used to bowl years ago.

She was so good.

(bowling pins crash) But you're not here to talk about bowling.

- Yeah, my cousin Cal made this art sculpture that didn't get into the school art show.

And... - Freddie, not here.

- He's a friend.

Anyway, we're hoping you can help him get some inspiration and take the whole thing to the next level, and maybe get the art show judges to change their minds.

- Yeah.

Well, did you like the sculpture, Cal?

- Yeah, I liked it, but I feel like I'm not as good of an artist as I thought I was.

- You know, art is subjective.

Not everyone's gonna like the same things.

Just because the judges didn't like your stuff, doesn't mean it wasn't good.

- Freddie, you ready?

- You know it.

- It's time for - [Freddie And Cal] too many questions with Cal and Freddie.

(quirky music) - Hello and welcome to too many questions with Cal and Freddie, where we meet someone new and ask them too many questions.

- Who are you?

- My name's Conrad Benner.

- What's your job?

- My job, I'm an art curator and blogger.

- Where do you live?

- I live in South Philly.

- What do you do all day?

- Sometimes it's emails and sometimes it's being out with artists to install public art.

- Who's your favorite artist?

- Ooh.

You know, I can't name favorites.

- Did you like art as a kid?

- I didn't really.

Art is something I found, really, in my twenties.

- Do you like the small of gasoline?

- (laughs) Who doesn't?

- The best art you've ever seen in your life?

- There was a mural district in Detroit I saw a few years ago called 'Murals in the Market' that I really love.

- What's your favorite color?

- My favorite color?

Green.

- What's the best kind of hat?

- The best kind of hat is the one I look good in.

- What's public art?

- Public art is art that exists in the public space that's free and accessible for all to see.

- What's the difference between public art and street art?

- Public art is commissioned, and street art is non-commissioned.

So public art has permission and street art has less permission.

- Uh, uh, uh, um, Do you like sewage pipes?

- No.

- All right.

- Can you make a face like this?

- And if there's one thing we could ask you today, what do you think it should be?

- How important art is and access to art.

- And one more thing.

How many hot dogs do you think you could eat?

- Veggie dogs, and let me think.

- Pardon the interruption.

I couldn't help but over hear you mention public art.

I mean, could you explain that a little bit more?

- Public art is art that exists in the public space that's free and accessible for all.

And public space is like the street we're on here.

It's different than, maybe, a museum, where you have to pay a ticket to go see it.

- Is there any public art around here.

- Oh my gosh, there's so much.

Do you wanna go see some?

- Sure thing.

- Yes!

- Let's go.

(calm happy music) As you can see, there's stuff everywhere.

so, Philadelphia has a long tradition of sticker art, but I've never seen this before.

Look at this goofy sticker of a dog in a hot dog bun.

- [Freddie] Weeny Pup!

- Also, another house plant.

- Hey, let's go look at this.

- Okay.

(upbeat music) - What if, before we get lunch, we draw some of our favorite foods?

- Oh, sure.

- This is clearly a situation where the owner has painted this door as a chalkboard material.

So you know you have permission.

(happy music continues) - Is that a cake?

(Conrad laughs) - Yeah.

- So this is Percy Street and I wanted to bring you here because there's so many examples of different kinds of public art.

There's one up here actually I wanna show you.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

You kids go on without me.

Hildegard's just gonna take a quick break.

- Whoa.

- So public art can be made in a few different kinds of ways.

Sometimes it's paint directly onto walls like you see here.

Sometimes it's wheat paste, which is paper pasted to a wall.

But this is an example of yarn.

This is yarn bombing, is what they call it.

And this is by an artist named Nicole, who we'll see in a bit, but there's actually a piece of work that's being done right now over here.

- Cool.

- Hey Lindsay.

- Oh, hey Conrad.

- This is Freddie and Cal.

They're Aunt Tilly's grandkids.

- Oh, hey, grandma Tilly's my favorite.

She's a good friend.

I love her donuts with the jalapenos and bananas.

- Wow.

- So what are you guys doing here?

- Um, we're just looking at this flower petal.

- Do you want me to tell you a bit about it?

- Sure.

- Yes, please.

- So I'm a local artist with mural arts, and this is my first mural that I'm actually doing in the city of Philadelphia, which is really exciting.

- That's so cool.

- Yeah.

And I'm installing these big, vinyl petals that I had made for the mural.

- So why do you think you like to do flowers?

- So, I've always loved flowers, and I think nature is the biggest and best artist there is.

So I take a lot of cues from nature, and I thought that flowers would be a good way to represent love, because that's what my mural's about.

Being able to share love with my friends, my family, and with the city of Philadelphia.

That's why I'm here today.

- That's amazing.

- I actually, I wanted to have a little help.

Would you guys be able to help me out?

- No problem.

- Yes, I'd love to.

- Yeah.

Okay.

So it's so easy.

Shh, don't tell anybody.

So what I'm doing is it's almost kind of like a big sticker, but it's made to be safe for the street so people can walk on it and experience the space.

Okay.

So how about you stand here?

- And then you guys can both pull it up together, but not too fast, 'cause I have to be really careful.

- You want me to hold that top, Lindsay?

- Hm?

- You want to hold the top?

- Yeah, that would be great, Conrad.

All right, guys.

Almost there.

- Nice.

Awesome.

- So why would you put your art here on Princess Street instead of an art gallery or a museum?

- You know, I really like the idea of this being public art, And I like public art because public art is just that.

It's for everybody.

It doesn't matter, You know, where you're coming from, if you're able to pay to get to a place.

Public art is for all of us, and I think it's really important, also, to be able to make our community more beautiful.

Do you guys wanna help me with the best part?

- Yeah.

- Will you guys both stomp on it for me?

- Stomp.

- Keep going, keep going.

- Stomp, stomp, stomp - yeah, yes.

Over there too.

Yes, big stomp.

Here, I'm gonna get this side.

Yes.

Woo, yay.

Best part of the job.

- That's amazing.

Thank you for doing all this.

- Thank you for helping.

Kind of like it's all of our project now, right?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

I love it.

- Thanks so much for meeting with us today, Lindsay.

- Yeah, of course.

- This was great.

- Thanks for helping.

- Oh, you're welcome.

- Good luck with your flower petals.

- All right, have fun.

Bye.

- Bye.

- That was really cool, huh?

You get to jump on art all the time.

Let's go this way.

- Weeny Pup, oh Weeny Pup, of what do you dream?

Please wake up and tell us the theme.

Do you relish slumbering thoughts of cheesy sauce, or do you think about words uttered about mustard?

Do you ponder about mayo with the intensity of Plato?

Or do you just really desire to roll in chili?

- Mm-mm-mm.

- meditate and await for you to awake for an eternity it seems.

Oh, weenie pup.

- Oh, weenie pup.

- Of what do you dream?

Please wake up and tell us the theme.

- Cal, Freddie, this is my friend, Nicole.

- Hi.

- Hi guys, how are you?

- Whoa, this is a lot of yarn.

- Yeah, this is the material I work with for my art.

- Like the yarn we saw on Percy Street?

- Yeah.

I actually made that.

- That's so cool.

- Really?

Tell us more about yourself.

- So I am a crochet artist and I do street art, murals, and installations all out of yarn.

- Awesome.

So why do you like working with yarn?

- I love working with yarn because of the bold color and the texture of it, and it's also very meditative to kind of do the same repetitive pattern over and over again.

It's very calming.

- We saw this art in Percy Street called 'Lace in the Moon,' but your name is Nicole, so did you really make that?

- I actually did.

So while my name is Nicole, I used the name 'Lace in the Moon' for my art.

It originated when I first started becoming an artist, and I used a lot of lace, but since then I have switched to yarn and I have just kept the name ever since.

- This place is a cat's paradise.

Imagine all the blankets I could knit, or better yet, tiny mittens for kittens.

- Sorry, Nicole.

That's our... - Our Hildegard.

- There's so many colors.

- Um, I think we should go.

Nice meeting you, Nicole.

- Nice meeting you.

- I promise I won't take any, I just wanted to feel the fibers.

The Bok building here in South Philadelphia was finished in 1938 and is named after Edward Bok, an award-winning author who also happened to like dogs.

This massive building is 340,000 square feet, which means you can line up about 340,000 medium cheese and mushroom pizzas across the floor.

That's a lot of pizza.

Originally, the building was a school where high school kids learned specific skills like bricklaying, plumbing, machine building, and even hairdressing.

Eventually this school shut down, and the building was put up for auction.

Today the classrooms are used by all types of local businesses and professionals.

Over 200, in fact, just to name a few, there are artist studios, restaurants, a coffee shop, tattoo parlor, fashion designers, film makers, glass blowers, architects, woodworkers, a daycare, and sometimes, if I want a view of the city from the roof, a Hildegard.

It may not be a school anymore, but there's still plenty to learn at Bok.

- Well, welcome to my studio, y'all.

We're here at the Bok building.

Just a few floors below Nicole, who we were just at.

- Oh.

- Oh yeah.

- So I thought we could maybe look at exploring, making some of our own public art, some of our own stickers, even.

You start with two things you gotta have here, right?

These sticker pads, which you can get pretty much anywhere.

And then these markers, I think, are the best ways to make stickers.

The great thing is you don't have to know where you're going, you just gotta get started.

So put your pen to the paper and get drawing.

Art-making, there's figurative, which depicts a person.

There's landscape, which would depict sort of a landscape, you know, a hillside or a sunset or a beach.

And then abstract is sort of something that just comes out of the mind's creation.

It's not supposed to look like anything, but isn't it easy?

Look, We're two seconds in and you've already got something going on.

Your hot dog looks great, and you're drawing a building.

I love architecture.

Architecture is its own form of art.

Hildegard, do you like any buildings?

- I love Shakespearean buildings.

I love art deco buildings.

- Oh, I love an art deco building.

- Very nice.

- There's one, if you live in Philly, right on Chestnut Street, right?

- Yes, of course.

- 15th and Chestnut, yeah.

- Oh.

I should put the sticker on my mom's car.

- Well, you know, one really important thing about making art in the public space is you wanna have permission from the places you put the work up in.

So you might wanna ask your mom first.

She probably won't say your car, but I'm sure there's a place you can find it.

- Maybe we can use these stickers to decorate the trash can and recycling bin at home.

- Yeah.

We should probably decorate something that's just kind of meh.

- You know what's cool about that too, is the trash can's outside half the time, So it's kind of public art, right?

It won't be in your home, it'll be on the street.

Yeah, because art in the public space can do a lot of those things.

It can beautify, it can make people happy.

It can represent our history.

It can challenge us.

If it's abstract, it can make us go, what's that?

It can and should be all of it.

You know, in Philadelphia there's 5,000 murals, so.

- Wow.

- There's a lot of different variety out there.

- That's amazing.

- Yeah.

- That's cool.

- Well, it looks like I made an abstract swirly mess and a happy ghost.

You know, I started with no intentions and that's what came out of me.

What did y'all create?

- So I made this squiggly line abstract art, and I also made the world trade center with the American flag on it.

- I love that.

- I was working on a hot dog, but instead of a dog, it's a cat, because cats are great, and so are dogs, so they need to be equal.

- There you go.

I like that.

- And I also really like summer and the beach, So I drew waves over a sunset.

- Oh wow.

That's so cool.

- I attempted at drawing my cat, Bartholomeow.

But he's not purple.

I was just having a bit of fun.

- But does he meow?

- He does meow.

- There you go.

- And it's very loud.

So that's why there's two exclamation points.

Meow!

- [Freddie] And they're underlined.

- And underlined.

- Thanks for everything, Conrad.

- Yeah.

Making stickers, meeting Nicole, the tour, it was all great.

- Well, anything for Grandma Tilly, and I hope it helps you figure out your art show project, Cal.

- [Instructor] Hey Freddie, I know that you stopped by Nicole's studio today and she talked to you a little bit about her work, which has to do with crocheting.

So I wanted to show you some crochet that you can do right now at home without any tools.

There is a super easy way to do it just with your fingers.

So here's what you do.

You're gonna take some yarn.

I like to use just a little bit of, like, a medium, normal weight yarn.

You can find it at a craft store, or I bet, maybe someone in your life, your uncle, or, you know, your aunt has some in their stash.

And what you're gonna do is you're gonna take your pointer finger like this and you're gonna make a little loop around it.

So I like to go front to back like this, and then I do a twist along the bottom.

That's kinda looped here.

Don't do it too tight.

Leave a little bit of space right there.

And then you're gonna take your yarn, and from front to back you're gonna wrap it so there's a second loop.

So see you got your first guy, your second guy.

Then you're gonna take this first loop, and you're gonna pull it up and over the second loop, and slide it off your finger.

Then take the yarn again, this big long string, not the, what we call the tail.

This is gonna hang down here.

You take this loop and you'll thread it over like this, and slip this first loop over the second.

And then you just keep repeating.

So you put a new little loop over your finger, and you slide the old loop over top of that one.

(calm music) And pull it over like this.

And this is how you finger crochet.

Oh, and when you're done, you can just take it, take a little pair of scissors, you can kind of loop it through.

So you have this last loop and you have a little tail here.

You can pull it through.

That'll create a knot and you have a nice little chain.

And so just to try it out, this is a big yarn.

Let's see what this one looks like when we do it.

So we twist it, one over here.

Oh my.

(laughs) This one feels really crazy to use 'cause it's so thick.

It's almost making, like, a giant chunky sweater.

Look at this.

It could be a scarf for a stuffed animal.

Oh yeah.

So this is just using just a thicker yarn.

Same finger, thicker yarn right here.

We can try it with the speckled one, see what that looks like..

So start it.

Remember we twist at the bottom.

Loop it over and then just keep passing that back loop over the new front loop.

There are so many ways to do finger crocheting.

It's maybe not as fancy or complicated as the really cool installations that Nicole does, but I think it's really fun and just a fast, easy project for you to try at home.

Have fun, Freddie.

- Did inspiration strike?

- I think so.

- Are you gonna make an even bigger and better flamingo?

- You know, I'm not even gonna worry about the art show.

I should just display in front of my house so the whole neighborhood can see it.

- I love it.

It's very public art.

- Oh, and did you remember to put today's adventure in the notebook from Grandma Tilly?

- Of course.

Oh, and one more thing I couldn't forget.

- Were you carrying that around all day?

- Freddie, would you care?

- Hey, if more adventures means more hot dogs, then count me in.

(funky music) (birds chirping) - So how was the Art Hunt?

Officially over?

- Ty, It's an Infinite Art Hunt.

That means it's never over.

But this particular mission is.

- So Cal was able to tweak his art project, and get it into the art show?

- Even better.

Cal decided to put his sculpture on a stoop, and make it a sort of one-kid art show for the whole neighborhood to see.

- All right, Cal.

- You should come with us next time.

- Next time?

- Ty, like I said, it's infinite.

- Endless, limitless in space, stent, and size.

Impossible to measure or calculate.

- Hildegard?

- That's the definition of infinite.

It goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on forever.

- What were you doing down there?

- Oh.

I find it very comfortable to- to read under the table.

I mean, it's very cozy to curl up with a book or two or 20.

(laughs) You should try it.

- We made it, Art-venturers.

the first mission on the Infinite Art Hunt is complete.

And I think it was a major success.

We got to see art that's accessible to everyone, Made our own stickers, And I think Cal found a solution to his art crisis.

from Flamingo Fail to Win With Wings.

And even though it's not in the art show, I think the way Cal chose to display it is even better.

Now, everyone can see it.

- Oh, I'll tell them, Schuylkill.

He wanted me to tell you that he wants Cal to make a hermit crab statue next.

Great thinking.

Well, that's all for today.

Thanks for joining the first mission of The Infinite Art Hunt.

♪ It's the Infinite Art Hunt!

♪ ♪ Hey guys, over here.

♪ ♪ Oh yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ We're on another adventure with Fred ♪ ♪ Looking for art and making friends ♪ ♪ checking in with Grandma Tilly ♪ ♪ the adventure never ends ♪ ♪ We're going to go to real places ♪ ♪ find magic and wonder ♪ ♪ and try new things ♪ ♪ and see what we can discover ♪ ♪ There's art everywhere and I really want to explore ♪ ♪ It's in the food that we eat ♪ ♪ in the trees in the forest ♪ ♪ It's The Infinite Art Hunt ♪ ♪ This is amazing ♪ ♪ I see art everywhere ♪ ♪ It's The Infinite Art Hunt ♪ (upbeat music) - (Child) Lead support for this program has been provided by the William Penn Foundation with additional support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Sidewater Family Foundation, the Thomas-Locke Charitable Fund, and viewers like you.

- [Announcer] Continue the fun at home with art projects, activities, and printables paired with the episode you just watched.

Available at whyy.org/theinfinitearthunt.

(quirky music) (Ethereal music)