Author: Ari Kessler

Our usual Service Sunday has been rescheduled for July 9th. Enjoy the holiday weekend and join us then to help keep our park clean and green.

Parks on Tap will return to Clark Park for a Memorial Day celebration from Wednesday, May 24th to Monday, May 29th. Come enjoy a drink, some great food, and a chance to hang outside with the rest of the West Philly community! Be sure not to miss our happy hour on Wednesday, from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm where 25% of proceeds will be donated directly to the Clark Park.

For the uninitiated Parks on Tap was created to be a traveling beer garden throughout the city’s various, beautiful parks all summer long. Proceeds from Parks on Tap benefit the Fairmount Park Conservancy. Each park and location is collectively selected as a way to highlight and enhance the offerings that Philadelphia city parks provide. It aims for a simple aesthetic: well-kept outdoor spaces where friends and families can meet up to enjoy food, drinks and fun in a natural green space. A portion of all proceeds benefits each park.

Love Your Park is a citywide initiative focused on cleaning, greening, and celebrating Philadelphia’s parks. From regular volunteer workdays to citywide celebrations and year-round community organizing, Love Your Park brings Philadelphians together to clean, green, and celebrate our public green spaces. One of their keystone events is the annual spring and fall Love Your Park Week which is a week-long celebration of parks across Philadelphia. Park Friends groups across Philadelphia will be tending gardens and flower beds, caring for trees, and cleaning up our parks after a cold winter.

Clark Park always embraces Love Your Park Week as a mainstay of our sprint push the ready the park for its peak season. This year we will be celebrating the morning of May 21st from 12 – 2 with a volunteer day to help keep our neighborhood’s favorite park clean and green for the season. Please sign up to join us for a fun day with your community in the park!

For any questions you can always reach out to Volunteer@friendsofclarkpark.org for more information.

You are invited to celebrate CHARLES DICKENS’ BIRTHDAY!

Sunday, Feb. 5 at 2 PM, meet at the Charles Dickens & Little Nell Statue in Clark Park near 43rd & Chester Ave. There will be dramatic readings (weather permitting) followed by festivities & refreshments at Clarkville, 43rd & Baltimore Ave.

This longstanding tradition is hosted by the Friends of Clark Park.

Sorry to share the January 25th Clark Park Master Plan Open House is Postponed.  A new date will be announced soon. 

Once every eight years, between New Years and the middle of May, the campaign for mayor resets the political and policy priorities for the City of Philadelphia. More rare than a leap year is this chance to win a campaign promise to reshape our parks, rec centers and open space.

The Parks & Rec Heroes Fund is working to ask the next mayor to transform Parks & Rec by doubling the operating budget. Philadelphia’s parks and rec spending per capita is less than Detroit, Newark, or Atlanta. This historic increase in funding is essential to ensure safe and clean parks, recreation centers and playgrounds in every neighborhood. Our growing coalition includes over 50 neighborhood groups, plus citywide organizations like the Fairmount Park Conservancy, PA Horticultural Society and the Philadelphia Youth Sports Collaborative.

Think about make a gift today to support our work to show the mayoral candidates how their issues can be addressed by investment in one of Philadelphia’s greatest assets – our parks and rec system.

Friends of Clark Park is deep in the midst of our 2024 Master Plan update. This process will help renew the vision for Clark Park investment which was last updated in 2006. This revision will bring it up to date to the latest needs of the community. To learn more about it, follow this link to Studio Bryan Hanes, the architect for the project:

Studio Bryan Hanes Background

We want your feedback! Two public meetings have already been held to collect and share ideas with the public. A third meeting is planned for Jan. 25. You can help grow this plan now by taking the survey below:

Share Your Feedback

Over the next few months we will also be engaging in community discussion working on a new Master Plan which will help renew the vision for Clark Park. This plan was last updated in 2006 and has been the guiding light for park investment. Our latest revision will bring it up to date to meet the key needs of the community. The first round of Open House forums to develop Master Plan took place at the Farmers’ Market on Nov. 19. Representatives of Friends of Clark Park and Studio Bryan Hanes, the architect, for 4 hours welcomed passersby to contemplate the ways they use the park & share improvements they envision for it.

Results from their feedback will shape the second Open House on Dec. 14, 5-8 p.m., to be held most likely in Rosenberger Hall which is the Saint Joe’s University building at the south end of the Clark Park campus. Make time to come!

From the weekly farmers market to local drum circles to city-wide events Clark Park is a central hub of the West Philly community. The Friends of Clark Park is a group of local community members charged with working with Philadelphia Parks and Recreation to help maintain, advocate, and enhance the physical aspects and cultural opportunities throughout the park.

To continue our good work in 2023 we are looking to raise $10,000 and are asking for your help. Your donations will go directly towards making the park better including hiring trash cleanup support, maintaining the gardens, and providing chairs, benches, and picnic tables.  

Please Donate Here

Over the next few months we will also be engaging in community discussion working on a new Master Plan which will help renew the vision for Clark Park. This plan was last updated in 2006 and has been the guiding light for park investment and our latest revision will bring it up to date with the latest needs of the community.

Thank you for being a part of something bigger!

On Saturday, October 29, Clark “B” Park was the site about 25 canine contests, sponsored by the Friends of Clark Park.  Competition was very spirited, among both dogs and owners. About 60 people came.  Many thanks go to judges Dr. David Littlejohn of O’Neal Animal Hospital, Jonathan Marcus, Barrett, Bridenhagen and to D.L. Wormley Casson who prepared the prize bags of doggie kibble.  Each contest winner also won a canine toy.   A fine time was had by all!