{"id":220389,"date":"2026-06-16T13:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T13:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/220389\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T13:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T13:00:08","slug":"these-goats-spent-a-night-on-the-town-with-philadelphias-art-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/220389\/","title":{"rendered":"These goats spent a night on the town with Philadelphia\u2019s art world"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Wednesday, InLiquid<\/a> and artist Claire Rosen teamed up with the Philly Goat Project<\/a> to celebrate an unlikely pairing \u2014 art and goats.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While InLiquid\u2019s exhibitions typically carry a range of forward-thinking<\/a>, contemporary art from creatives across the city \u2014 this event went one step further highlighting creativity across species. The special one night show called \u201cA Gathering of Goats\u201d featured goats as the subjects of striking portraits, active participants in interactive installations and even creators of their own original artworks.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an arts organization, it\u2019s about pushing the limits, right?\u201d said Rachel Zimmerman<\/a>, founder and executive director of InLiquid. \u201cAnd how do you engage people in a meaningful way?\u2026 We have the space, so why not challenge people\u2019s expectations?\u201d<\/p>\n

Walking into the Icebox Project Space last week felt a bit like stepping into Wonderland. Cultured Philadelphians dressed in chic gallery-core mingled with goats. Tickets to this show were not cheap, with general admission starting at $180 and VIP deals at $625 per person.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition to cocktails and hors d\u2019oeuvres for humans, the goats had a specialty table filled with crudit\u00e9s just for them. Another table was decorated with a large goat-shaped vegetable sculpture.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt feels like a modern day Baroque bacchanal, and really, our goats are loving it,\u201d said Karen Krivit, \u201cgoat mom\u201d and director of the Philly Goat Project. \u201cWe have 18 volunteers who are well trained and committed to our mission, who are helping make this possible\u2026 What brings Philly together is community, and animals, and art, and nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Philly Goat Project goats took pictures with guests on a vintage velvet couch and walked through paint and on canvases to create abstract paintings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are very influenced, I think, by Jackson Pollock and the abstract art movement,\u201d said artist Claire Rosen.<\/p>\n

The gallery\u2019s walls were filled with images from Rosen, who worked with the Philly Goat Project to photograph the herd. Her artwork highlights the animals as individuals \u2014 creating intimate portraits that call back to classical European paintings. Throughout the night we met different goats like Ivy, a small white pygmy with light brown spots, and Ray, a three-legged hero with chestnut hair.<\/p>\n

A large wall in the room was filled with a projected photograph from Rosen. The image features the goats at an outdoor Last Supper-style banquet \u2014 a signature of Rosen\u2019s interspecies work and part of her \u201cFantastical Feasts<\/a>\u201d series.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spent two days with the Philadelphia Goat Project at the Awbury Arboretum, working with their 13 goats there,\u201d Rosen said. \u201cSo we did a feast table, and then everybody got their portrait made in front of a painted backdrop and wallpaper backdrops.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosen said she collaborates with the animals and their handlers throughout the shoot making sure that the goats feel comfortable and encouraged whether that\u2019s through food or head scratches.<\/p>\n

\"\"Philly Goat Project volunteer Angel Hogan gave love to Clementine during art making at A Gathering of Goats, at Inliquid gallery in Philadelphia on June 10, 2026. (Kimberly Paynter\/WHYY)<\/p>\n

\u201cGoats certainly bring humor to the shoot, and I just feel like it\u2019s very hard to be in a bad mood in front of goats,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re all obviously a little bit different, and some are more food driven, some are more inquisitive and curious, some are more shy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leslie Jackson, \u201cfolx herder\u201d and director of operations with the Philly Goat Project, said she was very impressed with Rosen\u2019s artwork. She and Krivit milled about around the gallery, checking in on the goats.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOh my god!\u201d they exclaimed in unison when asked how they felt that the portraits turned out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re just gorgeous,\u201d Jackson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey make you feel beautiful,\u201d Krivit responded.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey really do,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cThe chaos of the day, when we were taking those pictures, it\u2019s so interesting that she\u2019s able to capture a moment of stillness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were so poorly behaved,\u201d Krivit said, \u201cWhich is why we love them!\u201d<\/p>\n

Certainly, throughout the night the goats brought a sense of humor and unpredictability to the show. An art opening is already a bit of a playful anthropological ritual \u2014 humans coming together to appreciate creativity, oohing and aahing, judging ideas and compositions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The goats, for better or worse, disrupted that ritual, changing the tone of a typical gallery atmosphere. Guests chatting about Rosen\u2019s work would get distracted by a little pygmy passing behind them. Goats rubbed their heads against unexpecting patrons hoping for some lettuce at the crudit\u00e9s table. We witnessed multiple bathroom accidents in the middle of the show.<\/p>\n

Rosen has a lavender farm which is currently in bloom. She hopes the show will serve as a reminder to Philadelphians to interact with the nature and animals around them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really important for people to have meaningful experiences and interactions with animals to understand why they\u2019re so important to protect,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t care or love something, why would you advocate for it? Why would you change your behavior if it\u2019s inconvenient to you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese ambassador animals serve a really important role in reaching people in a place that really makes them want to do more for the natural world,\u201d she added. \u201cWorking towards experiences and events that are not exploitative or harmful for animals is really important, because I think we can work in partnership together to expand people\u2019s understanding of the natural world and how we can do more and do better for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Proceeds from the show went to help fund InLiquid and the Philly Goat Project. Rosen\u2019s photographs are going to be on greeting cards and postcards that you can get through the Philly Goat Project website. What\u2019s more, Rosen\u2019s pieces, as well as artwork from the goats, are available for purchase.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last Wednesday, InLiquid and artist Claire Rosen teamed up with the Philly Goat Project to celebrate an unlikely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4877,96012,564,37749,59199,5091,69,71,70,40936],"class_list":["post-220389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-arts","tag-clare-rosen","tag-featured","tag-goats","tag-inliquid","tag-nature","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philly-goat-project"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}