About
The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation provides grants and other forms of strategic support to artists, faculty, cultural centers, students, and other arts advocates at the University of Pennsylvania. Our mission is to ensure that the arts at Penn are valued and embraced as a creative catalyst, driving innovation, inspiration, and action.
The Sachs Program supports a creative, culturally diverse, and pluralistic Penn community. We are committed to supporting individuals and groups from all races, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, religions, disabilities, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Mission
The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation’s mission is to support and inspire creative practice and practitioners across the University of Pennsylvania—in all twelve schools, in the university’s artistic and cultural centers, and through the many partnerships and collaborations that connect Penn to the world at large. We aim to foster a vibrant, creative community where all members are valued and supported in an environment that enables them to thrive.
We seek to support artists and practitioners in the creation of work that grapples with current issues and ideas relevant to our time, as well as in contextualizing scholarly and historical research in topical ideas and innovative approaches to practice and pedagogy. We are committed to equal opportunity and welcome individuals from a variety of backgrounds, including marginalized peoples and those whose voices have historically been silenced.
Experimentation is a core value of The Sachs Program, as is collaboration within and across disciplinary and institutional boundaries. We are committed to a holistic approach to enriching the arts at Penn, investing in schools, centers, and creative practitioners, and contributing to collective efforts for the growth and expansion of arts-driven activities and spaces.
The Sachs Program is also committed to cultivating meaningful partnerships between Penn and its surrounding communities and encouraging non-hierarchical artistic and intellectual exchange. The Sachs Program does not place greater value on one art form over another but aims to support a range of innovative and experimental practices across disciplines, departments, centers, creative groups, and peoples.
Staff and Board
The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation is directed by John McInerney, with staffed support by Chloe Reison and Elizabeth Shaw. The Sachs Program operates independently under the University of Pennsylvania Office of the Provost. It receives counsel and guidance from an advisory board of standing faculty and select arts leaders at Penn.
Sachs Program Staff
- John McInerney, Executive Director
- Chloe Reison, Associate Director
- Elizabeth Shaw, Administrative Assistant
Sachs Program Advisory Board
- Josephine Park, Co-chair
Associate Dean for Arts and Letters
President’s Distinguished Professor of English - Matt Neff, Co-chair
Director of Undergraduate Fine Arts and Design - Al Filreis
Kelly Family Professor of English
Director, Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing
Faculty Director, Kelly Writers House - Christopher A. Gruits
Executive & Artistic Director, Penn Live Arts - Deborah A. Thomas
R. Jean Brownlee Term Professor of Anthropology - Grace Sanders Johnson
Associate Professor of Africana Studies - Jasmine Elizabeth Johnson
Assistant Professor of Africana Studies - Melissa Sanchez (on leave)
Donald T. Regan Professor of English and Comparative Literature
Director, Center for Research in Feminist, Queer, and Transgender Studies
Director, Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies - Michelle Lopez
Associate Professor of Fine Arts - Sharon Hayes
Professor of Fine Arts - Sonal Khullar (on leave)
W. Norman Brown Associate Professor of South Asian Studies
Undergraduate Chair, Penn History of Art
Keith and Katherine Sachs
The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation is supported by an endowed gift from Keith L. and Katherine Sachs. Keith L. and Katherine Sachs have provided major support for the arts at Penn for more than a decade, completely transforming the landscape of arts education on campus.
This transformative gift – the largest gift ever made across the arts at Penn – will establish The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation and closely link arts education to the Penn Compact 2020’s goal of advancing innovation across the University.
Past gifts by Keith L. and Katherine Sachs have supported the Sachs Guest Curator Program at the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Sachs Professorship in Contemporary Art in the Department of History of Art in the School of Arts & Sciences, and the Fine Arts Program Fund and Visiting Professorship in the Department of Fine Arts in the School of Design