The Eagles are stepping into the art world in their latest fundraising effort for the Eagles’ Autism Foundation.
The Birds commissioned 35 local artists to create works that inspired by the Eagles and their role in the Philadelphia community, and now they’re auctioning off the pieces to benefit the their biggest charity.
“I came up with the title ‘Green is the Heart Inspired,’” Eagles senior graphic designer Matthew Schwenk, who curated the exhibit, said. “The idea that there’s a little bit of this energy from the Eagles in every single person that lives here. A lot of people are born with it. There’s people that it’s everything to, but even if you’re not a super fan, it affects you because of how it affects the city as a whole. I gave a pitch of that, like, how does it touch you? How does it affect you? What is the connection between the city and the Eagles and the city and its artists and how are those things similar? It’s really cool, we got a lot of different stuff.”
Six years ago, the Birds started their poster series, which commissioned artists to create custom game posters. Positive fan response led Schwenk to pitch the idea for the Eagles’ art gallery.
Schwenk enlisted several of the past poster series artists to create new pieces for the auction and found other established and emerging artists to round out the collection, including four with neurodiverse backgrounds.
The art ranges from traditional paintings (featuring players like Jalen Hurts) to sculpture, drawings, and even a custom Eagles rug.
“A big part of curating a group show like this is trying to keep it really diverse,” Schwenk said. “Part of the reason that worked so well is we weren’t looking for somebody that does sports themed stuff necessarily. We got some that do a lot of sports, but we have some that have never done sports-related stuff, because the idea behind it was really the connection of the team to Philadelphia. It touches everybody in different ways.”
Here’s a few of the coolest pieces from the collection:
“Strength” by Darla Jackson
“The Prometheus Fumble” by Paul Romano
“Aquila” by Kristen Egan
“Eagles Fever Dream” by Alex Garant
“About Time” by Rosa Leff
If those pieces look cool to you, you can bid on them or see the full collection here. All proceeds go to the Eagles Autism Foundation. The gallery is open to the public through Sunday at Arch Enemy Arts in Old City, in case you want to see the full collection in person.