‘Nothing in the Way of Beauty’ demonstrates art lifting humanity
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Alchemy Art Center is hosting ‘Nothing in the Way of Beauty,’ directed by Sue Schardt, on Aug. 5 at Brickworks; doors open at 6:307 p.m., and the film begins at 7 p.m. Filmmakers will be there for a discussion. All proceeds benefit Food Access Initiatives and their program to provide locally grown food to the elderly and shut-ins.
“This work grew out of happenstance. I sat on a bench next to a stranger. I wanted to make new work. He said, ‘Come here!’ So I did. ‘Here’ was the Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia,” Schardt says in her director’s statement. “As an artist, I found the sanctuary that all artists need.”
The art memorial was founded in 1898 as a Graphic Sketch Club by Sam Fleisher, and the name was changed in 1944 after Fleisher passed away. Fleisher was the son of a prominent family who owned a textile factory in Philadelphia. According to Schardt, Fleisher was very cognizant of working people and how art and beauty impacted the lives of humanity, and would do what he could to bring beauty to the factory, like playing music during lunch breaks.
“Nothing in the Way of Beauty” not only explores some of the history and attempts to highlight Fleisher, the man behind the school, who invited the public in to create art in all its genres. The film follows Tina, Chelsea and Phoebe, and each slowly reveals their stories and what art means to them.
Tina takes a moment to describe a farmers market she once visited in Mexico, being overwhelmed by the colors, the piles of fruit, rice, avocados, even the way the women wore their hair. “It’s very moving to me, so that’s what comes out when I paint. Thats how I feel, how explosive, happy and joyful I feel about life,” she tells the viewers. Her art, Tina explains, is how she expresses those emotions physically, to get them out.
Phoebe uses her art to show parts of her own life, characters she has made up, that have been through some of the same situations she has. Some of her paintings illustrate high piers and diving boards. “It’s love/fear,” she explains. She gets scared, and also wants to overcome those fears – so she jumps.
Chelsea, a dancer, depicts the word slut. “I’m working on my relationship with this word. I thought using it over and over again would take some of the sting out…It has informed a lot of my life. I’m 37 and I’m just realizing how much,” she says in the film. “It’s a label that just never goes away.”
“When I arrived, I was at a great change in my life,” Schardt told the Journal. It was just before the pandemic. Her one-year residency there turned into four, and during that time, a film developed organically as she continued asking her questions. The story of Tina, Phoebe and Chelsea continually creating their art, day after day, unfolds.
“I didn’t choose them as much as we chose each other, Schardt says of the trio.
The documentary is sprinkled with musical interludes; Schardt herself is a DJ. Philadelphia Jazz trumpeter Johnny Coles is featured in one such break. “He brings a really important musical presence. We hear him although we never see him,” Schardt told the Journal.
“So many of us are overwhelmed, oversaturated with noise, work, life. There is so much suffering as a result. My hope is that people will become aware of the quiet voice speaking to them, to listen and follow where it might lead,” Schardt said.
