News

• November 23, 2020

  Sachs Recipient and Multimedia Artist, Alex Smith Receives 2020 Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Award

  Alex Smith is a writer, artist, activist, musician and creative who lives in the seams of existence, stitching together patchwork universes for the disenfranchised. “My work is a vessel for the spiritual, political, and psychosocial ushering of queer Black people into a future informed by our cultural needs and shaped by our dreams and imagination.” - Alex Smith. Smith’s writing, Afrofuturist collage art, and avant-garde punk music draw from influences including science fiction, comic art, and Dadaism to frame the creativity, survival, and hopefulness of queer and Black people. Alex is a also a recipient of our 2020 Black Artists Support Grant. To learn more about his Sachs-supported project, The Afterverse, please visit https://sachsarts.org/grant-awards/the-afterverse/.

• November 11, 2020

  Acclaimed Artist, Simone Leigh’s Beautiful Bronze Statue Titled “Brick House”, Now Lives on Penn Campus

  “Brick House,” is the first large-scale piece in the artist’s Anatomy of Architecture series that merges human form with diverse architectural elements. Cast in bronze, the work stands 16 feet high, 9 feet in diameter at its base, and weighs 5,900 pounds. Simone Leigh was named the American representative to the 2022 Venice Biennale—the first Black woman to represent the U.S. at this prestigious international exhibition. In addition, she has received a Creative Capital Award (2012), a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2016), and the 2018 Hugo Boss Prize, among other honors. Often her work is sparked by underlining texts from Black feminist thinkers, African and diaspora art objects, material culture and philosophies.

• November 9, 2020

  Penn Alumni Arts Fair

  For over a decade alumni artists and friends have lined Locust Walk during Homecoming to share their work! Although they cannot be on campus this November for this fall tradition, they are coming to you virtually! Grab a cup of warm apple cider and stroll (scroll) down Locus Walk (this website) and enjoy the beautiful works of these talented artists!

• November 8, 2020

  The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Awards Penn Faculty, Brooke O’Harra and Tyshawn Sorey, with a 2020 Project Grant

  The Pew Center announced 41 grants totaling $10.5 million in support of the Philadelphia region’s artists and cultural programs, events, and artistic work. The Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) and the Stuart Weitzman School of Design have been awarded project grants by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. Also a project by Girard College that involves two Penn faculty, theater director Brooke O’Harra and music composer Tyshawn Sorey, both of the School of Arts & Sciences.

• November 2, 2020

  VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

  You still have a chance to make your voice heard in this election. Make a plan today to vote. Polls are open from 7 am to 8 pm. Remember to bring your ID. The current deadline to return your voted mail-in ballot is 5:00 PM on Friday, November 6, 2020. The ballot must be received by the county election office by this time, and it must be postmarked no later than Tuesday, November 3, 2020!

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