The Rotunda: 25 Years of Arts, Culture, and Community
January 21, 2026
5:00pm
Annenberg Center
The Rotunda is a multi-purpose venue and repurposed century-old house of worship in West Philadelphia that, in 2024, commemorated 25 years as a center for arts, culture, and community at the University of Pennsylvania. Cover design by Elaine Lopez.
Please join The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation on Wednesday, January 21, 2026, for a screening of The Rotunda, a new documentary by Philadelphia filmmaker Ellen Reynolds. This film captures the spirit of The Rotunda as an essential space for arts, culture, and community at the University of Pennsylvania.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Rachel Wenrick, Penn’s inaugural executive director for the arts, featuring Gina Renzi, director of The Rotunda, and longtime staff members, community organizer Alice Wright and artist Alex Smith.
This event is free and open to the public.
- Wednesday, January 21, 2026
5:00–7:00 PM - Arts Lounge at the Annenberg Center
3680 Walnut Street (enter from the South Plaza)
University of Pennsylvania
The Rotunda: 25 Years of Arts, Culture, and Community is organized in conjunction with We the People: Sam Maitin, an exhibition of selected works by the celebrated Philadelphia artist and activist, who was also an ardent supporter of the city’s many creative community and arts spaces. We the People: Sam Maitin is on view in the Arts Lounge at the Annenberg Center through February 21, 2026.
About The Rotunda
The Rotunda is a new documentary film directed by Philadelphia filmmaker Ellen Reynolds. Crafted from footage compiled by the filmmaker from interviews and events at the documentary’s West Philadelphia namesake, the 47-minute film highlights The Rotunda’s history and importance to the University of Pennsylvania and neighboring communities. The film celebrates and affirms The Rotunda’s mission and programming in recognition of the center’s 25th anniversary in 2024.
The Rotunda is a community-gathering place fueled by the belief that art is a catalyst for social change and that the arts can lead to the formation of meaningful partnerships between the University of Pennsylvania and surrounding neighborhoods. Over 300 varied events are offered every year, including live music, film, spoken word, theater, art, dance, education, youth programs, arts incubation, and an array of experimental genres. As an alcohol-free, smoke-free venue, The Rotunda provides a critical social alternative for audiences of all ages. At its core, The Rotunda is a shared space fostering learning, enrichment, and community support while empowering the public to present, produce, and promote their work.
About the Speakers
Gina Renzi, director of The Rotunda, has been managing off-campus cultural projects for the University of Pennsylvania since 2002. In addition to The Rotunda, she has previously overseen the West Philadelphia 40th Street Artist-in-Residence Program and facilitated the 40th Street Summer Series, a longstanding free outdoor summer program serving a broad community audience. Gina has lived in Philadelphia all her life and is firmly committed to preserving its unique character while contributing to its future by working directly with artists, activists, educators, and neighbors.
Ellen Reynolds is an independent documentary cinematographer and editor, whose work has been described as “moving portraiture” of people and places. She has served as a teacher of students from a wide range of ages and experience levels through Scribe Video Center, PhillyCam, and The University of the Arts, and as a longtime post-production facility manager and instructor at the University of Pennsylvania. She currently teaches at Thomas Jefferson University.
Alex Smith is an artist, writer, curator, musician, and noise-maker, living in the cosmically kinetic city of Philadelphia. From collage work, to zines, to bands and solo music performances, to promoting other bands and performers via curation and cultural critique and arts reporting, Smith transcends the concept of “renaissance man” and works from an Afrofuturist vision where all things, all the time, alongside each aspect of his work, inform the other. Smith received a 2020 Pew Fellowship in the Arts. His work appears in anthologies from Black Quantum Futurism vol. 2 and Black Punk Now! (Soft Skull), and The Black Fantastic (Library of America).
Rachel Wenrick is the inaugural executive director for the arts at the University of Pennsylvania. She previously served as the executive director of arts and civic innovation at Drexel University. She was the founding director of the Writers Room at Drexel, which launched in 2014 as a hub of community-engaged, intergenerational programs that aim to bring together Drexel faculty, staff, students, and alumni with West Philadelphia and Philadelphia communities.
Alice Wright has been a Philadelphia block captain of sorts since she was nine. She worked at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Center for 33 years until its closure, followed by the School District of Philadelphia until she retired. Some of Alice’s community service efforts include founding the long-running Summer Fun Program, currently hosted at The Rotunda, as well as the United Block Captains Association Hospital, which recruits, trains, and supports block captains from across Philadelphia. Alice has received community service and excellence awards from the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, Philadelphia City Council, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia mayors John Street and James Kenny, among others, including the Lucien E. Blackwell Guiding Light Award and the Muslim Christian Alliance Lifetime Achievement Award.
Acknowledgments
The Rotunda: 25 Years of Arts, Culture, and Community was produced by The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation in partnership with The Rotunda and the Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts at the University of Pennsylvania.
The Annenberg Center exhibition We the People: Sam Maitin was produced by The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation, The Penn Art Collection, and Penn Libraries, in partnership with Penn Live Arts.
