Institutional Collaborators

The Fine Arts Department collaborates in public programming and collaborative projects with many of the art institutions in the city of Philadelphia.

Philadelphia Museum of Art
As one of the largest museums in the United States, the Philadelphia Museum of Art invites visitors from around the world to explore its renowned collections, acclaimed special exhibitions, and enriching programs, both in person and online.

Institute of Contemporary Art
Nationally and for our graduate community, the Institute of Contemporary Art provides a forum for the presentation and documentation of recent developments in the visual arts. Artists present innovative work at the ICA and often lecture and critique students. The ICA hosts a number of lectures each year by visiting artists participating in our MFA program.

The Common Press
The Common Press is the letterpress printing studio at the University of Pennsylvania. The press is a collaboration of interests at Penn, including writing (Kelly Writers House), print culture (the Rare Book & Manuscript Library) and visual arts and design (the School of Design). The facility provides a mixed media environment where students can move between digital and manual image making, collaborating with writers, printmakers and others in the book arts. The Common Press exists to assist in teaching design and to facilitate collaborative projects across the university. It was founded last year, on January 17, 2006, the 300th anniversary of Benjamin Franklin's birth.

The Fabric Workshop
The Fabric Workshop and Museum is the only museum in the United States creating and exhibiting new work in new materials and new media in collaboration with emerging and established international artists.

The Slought Foundation
Slought Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Philadelphia that engages the public in dialogue about cultural and socio-political change. We collaborate with a range of partners including artists, communities, universities, and governments to encourage cultural inclusiveness and social activism. Culture means more than preservation or presentation to us; it means the exchange of ideas, the creation of concepts.

The Barnes Foundation
The Barnes Foundation houses one of the finest collections of nineteenth and twentieth-century French painting in the world. An extraordinary number of masterpieces by Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse provide a depth of work by these artists unavailable elsewhere. Established as an educational institution the Barnes carries out its mission teaching classes in its galleries and Arboretum. The Barnes welcomes visitors and students throughout the year.

Kelly Writers House
The Kelly Writers House on Penn's campus serves as a center for writers of all kinds from Penn and the Philadelphia region at large. Each semester the Writers House hosts approximately 150 public programs and projects--poetry readings, film screenings, seminars, web magazines, lectures, dinners, radio broadcasts, workshops, art exhibits, and musical performances. 

The Print Center
The Print Center is a nonprofit gallery whose mission is to support printmaking and photography as vital contemporary arts and encourage the appreciation of the printed image in all its forms.

Nextfab Studio 
NextFab Studio is high-tech workshop and prototyping center for innovators. Located in the University City Science Center, on Philadelphia’s Avenue of Technology, our brand new 3600 square foot facility provides comfortable, clean, and safe workspaces with hand tools, 3D printers, computer controlled machine tools, software, and electronics workbenches. Expert instructors and a community of collaborators are on hand to help you problem-solve and achieve your vision.

Pew Arts 
Pew supports a broad spectrum of institutions, artists, projects and cultural marketing initiatives. We also help cultural organizations take advantage of technical assistance and professional development opportunities, which has proven to be an effective means of extending the impact of our investments.