We're so proud to announce that two of our Fine Arts faculty, artists Ken Lum and David Hartt, have each been awarded one of 12 fellowships funded by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage in Philadelphia. In addition, Hartt was chosen to receive a Pew project grant. Read more here.
Our MFA Lecturer, Deirdre Murphy, happened upon the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities (PPEH), which was about to awards as part of the Ecotopian Toolkit project, financially supporting projects that engage urban waters or explore ecological challenges in a creative way. This was right up her alley, as she’d been thinking about creating an art piece based on a river. And what better river than our own Schuylkill. For those uninitiated, it’s pronounced Skoo-kill. Read more about Deirdre’s project here.
Our alumni are out there doing great things! ULI Philadelphia's 5th Annual Willard G. "Bill" Rouse III Awards for Excellence will be held this Wednesday, June 13th, and many of the finalist projects were designed, developed, and/or planned by firms where our alums are employed and very likely were involved in these projects. From our count, seven of the twelve nominated projects (and possibly more!) involved PennDesign alumni. Take a few minutes to read more about these amazing projects in the Philadelphia region.
Center City Sips begins on Wednesday! We can't wait! Happy hour every Wednesday from 5 to 7 pm. Participating bars and restaurants offer $6 cocktails, $5 wine, $4 beer and half-priced appetizers. Click here for a list of participants.
Doing anything tomorrow night? We’re going down to Dilworth Plaza to catch some live music. Friday Night Live is hosting live bands every Friday until mid-July, from 5:30 to 7:30. Find out more details here.
We have heard from a number of our entering students who are concerned because they have not yet received their financial aid package from Student Financial Services (SFS). Normally, this is sent out at the end of April, but because of some delays on their end, it looks like it will be a while longer. Don’t panic, there’s nothing you can do until this happens, since they have to have their system ready to certify your loans before you can apply for them.
We’re looking forward to a sunny weekend! Philadelphia has a vibrant and unique network of community gardens and shared open spaces and tomorrow is Community Gardens Day. From 10 am to 2 pm, 60 gardens will offer an array of activities to celebrate summer’s arrival. Here are a few:
Our highly anticipated Rail Park will open tomorrow, marking the completion of the park's first quarter-mile phase, extending from the 1100 block of Callowhill Street to the intersection of North Broad and Noble Street in the Callowhill neighborhood. When complete, the park will stretch three miles on two abandoned elevated railroad lines, connecting 10 neighborhoods to Fairmount Park and Center City. Read more here.
University City District sponsors this annual shopping event, showcasing wares from Baltimore Avenue businesses like VIX Emporium, Black Hound Clay Studio, and The Nesting House. Businesses offer $1 deals from favorites, ranging from restaurants to pet supplies to theater tickets.
June is finally here, and we already have so many plans we don't know what to do with ourselves! Since we won't have as much to write about PennDesign over the summer with most of the students and faculty away, we will be sharing fun and interesting things to do in Philadelphia. While this will just be a small taste of all of the wonderful things Philly has to offer, we hope you'll grow to love the city as much as we do! Read more about what's happening this weekend.
We just got back to the office after a much needed long weekend, and we wanted to kick off the week by focusing on the reason for the long weekend - Memorial Day. Chair of the Department of Fine Arts, Ken Lum, recently sat down for an interview with Penn Today to discuss his war memorial in Toronto, Peace Through Valour, commemorating Canadian World War II soldiers. Find out why Lum initially turned down the commission and how he approached creating his first war memorial by reading the interview here.
“Time in the Garden” is the Morris Arboretum's latest exhibition, with 17 artists displaying paintings, photographs, and sculptures installed along pathways of the facility in the Chestnut Hill section of Philly. Artists were invited to interpret how they perceive the passage of time in the garden. Deirdre Murphy, one of our MFA alumni and a Lecturer in the undergraduate Fine Arts Department, is one of the artists displaying her work. Read more here.