Supporting and Promoting the Arts at the University of Pennsylvania
The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation is awarding upwards of $270,000 in funding to 34 successful applicants this year. Grants are being awarded in eight categories, and the recipients represent a diverse cross-section of Penn’s community: students, staff, and faculty from seven of Penn’s twelve schools, as well as many of Penn’s arts and cultural centers.
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May 18, 2020
Sarah J. Jackson and Duncan Watts Awarded 2020 Andrew Carnegie Fellowships
Now in its sixth year, the goal of the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program is to support high-caliber scholarly research in the humanities and social sciences that addresses important and enduring issues confronting our society. The selected projects focus on a broad range of complex political, economic, technological, humanistic, and sociological matters.
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May 18, 2020
The Unique Subculture of Cuban Punk
Torre Pérez, a fourth-year graduate student in the Department of Romance Languages in the School of Arts & Sciences, explores social history of Cuban punk. She built a website as part of her dissertation process, this is the first digital archive dedicated to Cuban punk, Torre Pérez says. The website includes filmed videos and interviews, as well as a band directory and map. Each band is pinpointed on the map, with a color-coding system to note its status.
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May 18, 2020
Personal Documentaries Replace Performing at Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The Edinburgh Project course at Penn, offered only every two years for about a half-dozen students chosen by the Theatre Arts faculty. They produce a one-act play, working in conjunction with a professional director and travel to Scotland to perform in the famous Festival Fringe in August. This year the focus shifted from what would have been the start of rigorous rehearsals together. Ferguson instead asked the students to find material from the novel and play and use it to create short videos each week that reflected their own transformations in this time of crisis, from their perspectives during the global coronavirus pandemic.
The University of Pennsylvania has recently released a set of guidelines pertaining to COVID-19, which include restrictions on events and campus access, and the temporary closure of Penn’s arts centers. The Sachs Program will do its best to update our website to reflect any resultant cancellations. We also encourage you to visit the host sites for all events to confirm details. Ongoing events, such as exhibitions, will remain listed on our site for the time being.
The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation’s 2020 Grant Cycle is now closed, and we have announced the 2020 Grant recipients. 2021 grant opportunities will be announced in the fall. Please sign up for our newsletter to stay informed of important news and deadlines.
The Sachs Program’s grantmaking supports innovative arts activities throughout the Penn community, providing funding to Penn faculty, staff, students, departments, programs, and centers. Our vision is that the arts at Penn are valued and embraced as a creative catalyst, driving innovation, inspiration, and action.
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Tuesday May 26Lexi Voss of the Penn Biomedical Library Leads Introduction to Illustrator: Scientific Diagrams
Lexi Voss, Visualizationist for the Penn Biomedical Library, will walk you through the basics of Illustrator and get you on the path to professional diagrams and figures. Want to create publication quality figures? Join us to learn the basics of Illustrator for scientists and improve your papers and posters. Registration is required to receive workshop materials. Hope to see you then!
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Tuesday May 26Virtual Workshop “Intro to Adobe Premiere” with Scribe Video Center
Ryan Saunders will lead an accelerated workshop teaches participants essential skills needed to edit any video in Premiere Pro whether it’s a 3 minute trailer or an hour-long documentary. Scribe Video Center is a place where emerging and experienced media artists can gain access to the tools and knowledge of video making and work together in a supportive environment. Scribe provides training in all aspects of film, video and audio production.
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Wednesday June 3Virtual Penn Museum Lecture “How Did they Survive? the Aftermath of Chernobyl”
Adriana Petryna, Ph.D., Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor in Anthropology Director, MD-PhD Program in Anthropology, lecture on what it means to face a legacy of incomplete knowledge about Chernobyl’s public health consequences. Accounting for these is not a closed matter, but hinges on what kinds of research and investments are applied, and over what timescale. A needed reckoning with complex truths can pave the way for better responses to future disasters.
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Monday October 5Esra Akcan: Right-to-Heal: Architecture and Transitional Justice
Esra Akcan is an Associate Professor and Director of the Institute for European Studies at Cornell AAP. Akcan has authored more than 100 articles on the intertwined histories of Europe and West Asia, critical and postcolonial theory, architectural photography, migration and diasporas, translation, and contemporary architecture.
While we're all practicing social distancing, and many of us are working and learning remotely, the Sachs Program is looking for different ways to provide resources to our community members, as well as to share opportunities for engagement with the arts. The following is a list of ongoing creative opportunities, online classes, virtual exhibitions, engaging conversations and more.
The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation’s 2019 SHIP Intern, Tias Volker (C ’21), developed a map that highlights arts resources and centers across Penn’s campus. While not every resource could be included, The Sachs Program encourages you to use this map to explore the breadth of arts offerings at Penn.