Helix Gallery – Now open in Center City, Philadelphia

Written By Vinson Valega

In October 2023, I opened Helix Gallery, a 300 square-foot storefront space on Locust Street in downtown Philadelphia at Thomas Jefferson University. The gallery showcases creative projects that explore connections between the arts, humanities, medicine and health, as well as an annual Jefferson student art exhibition.

For our first installation, artist Rami George presented the The Crisis Isn’t Over, bringing together materials—from protest signs to archival photographs—related to local Philadelphia queer history and the ongoing AIDS crisis. Highlighting legacies of activism from ACT UP and local figures lost early to AIDS, Rami’s installation grew out of their research as the inaugural Artist-in-Residence at the John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives at the William Way LGBT Community Center.

In early 2024, we hosted the award-winning installation File/Life: We Remember Stories of Pennhurst, initiated by the Institute on Disabilities, Temple University, College of Education and Human Development. For Helix, the Temple IoD team reimagined a smaller-scale presentation of the project, which was first presented publicly at the Arch Street Meeting House in April 2023. Learn more about the project here.

Vinson Valega

Vinson Valega is a Media Producer, Jazz Musician & Activist.

He is a full-time freelancer attracted to compelling ideas told through creative storytelling.

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Economics in 1987, he moved to New York and immediately fell in love with the city. In the 1990s, Vinson studied jazz performance at the Mannes College of Music (now part of the New School) and began his freelance music career. Around that time, he began booking live jazz ensembles for corporate and private events through his newly minted music agency, Just Jazz.

In 2003, his activism took off when he began blogging and making original jazz recordings accompanied by his liner notes focused on social change. Then in 2009, he turned his music label, Consilience Productions, into a 501(C)(3) Non-Profit Organization that uses music to increase civic engagement.

As his music career was proceeding, he simultaneously began working as a Project Manager on large-scale public art commissions by his wife, artist Sharon Louden. Then in 2014 after graduating from a video journalism program at the Columbia University School of Journalism, he founded Mill City Profiles, a video production company dedicated to telling important personal stories using moving images. In 2016 he added to his portfolio of creative skills by becoming a Squarespace specialist, designing beautiful mobile-friendly websites for creatives, non-profits, and small businesses.

Vinson now lives in Jackson Heights, Queens with Sharon.

http://www.vinsonvalega.com
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