News

• May 8, 2021

  Curator Meg Onli Wins Inaugural Prize Aimed at Advancing Racial Equity in the Arts

  The inaugural Figure Skating Prize, aimed at Black artists, curators and contemporary art scholars who are advancing equity and racial justice within the arts, has been awarded to Meg Onli, the Andrea B. Laporte Associate Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania.

• May 7, 2021

  Penn Libraries Receives Gift of Works by Renowned Photographer Arthur Tress

  The University of Pennsylvania Libraries recently announced the gift of works by the renowned American contemporary photographer Arthur Tress (b. 1940, Brooklyn). Generously given by an anonymous donor, this outstanding collection – part of which has already been appraised at $4.2M – joins another recent gift of Tress photography given to the Penn Libraries by J. Patrick Kennedy, PAR’97, and Patricia Kennedy, PAR’97, for a combined 2,500 photographic prints.

• May 5, 2021

  City Council Announces $1 Million in Arts and Culture Grants

  Philadelphia, PA. – Councilmembers Isaiah Thomas (At Large) and Katherine Gilmore Richardson (At Large) have created the “Illuminate the Arts” grant as part of City Council’s New Normal Budget Act. The Illuminate the Arts Grants is a total of $1M to be distributed to individual artists, mid-size nonprofits and small businesses, administered through the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy. You can apply here for grants for individuals and small creative orgs (nonprofit and forprofits are eligible). The deadline is May 28!

• May 5, 2021

  Request for Public Art For the New $25M Penn Data Science Building

  PHDC has announced a public art RFP here for the new $25M Penn Data Science Building (34th & Chestnut). Proposals can request up to $713K. The deadline for proposals is June 10!

• April 22, 2021

  Claire Nguyen and Erin O’Malley Provide Important Insight on Penn’s Efforts to Support Asian American Studies

  Claire Nguyen & Erin O’Malley discuss the type of support that is needed on campus and its impact on students. On March 30, the College announced that there will be a cluster hire of faculty to teach in Penn’s Asian American Studies Program. In this article they outline how the Asian American Studies Undergraduate Advisory Board is grateful for this news, but disappointed that the petition demanding Penn's retention of Dr. David Eng and support ASAM, were left out. They are excited about this cluster hire as current co-chairs of the UAB, they remain wary of this ostensible victory and Penn’s responses to anti-Asian violence.