Member Spotlight on The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage

For the month of April, GIA’s photo banner features artists and projects supported by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage (The Center). The Center is a multidisciplinary grantmaker dedicated to fostering a vibrant cultural community in the greater Philadelphia region. Established in 2005 to house the cultural funding programs of The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Center recently marked its tenth year of grantmaking in support of a broad spectrum of cultural organizations and artists— from major civic institutions, to independent artists and curators, to artist-driven and community-based organizations.

“We are privileged to work in a culturally diverse and artistically dynamic region,” notes Paula Marincola, The Center’s executive director. “We support that vitality through project grants and through fellowships to individual artists, and we’ve also created new approaches to organizational support that recognize the complex set of challenges and opportunities facing arts and culture organizations today.”

In 2013, The Center introduced Advancement grants, which are substantial, multiyear investments designed to support high-performing institutions undertaking bold initiatives. One such grant was made to Opera Philadelphia to conduct in-depth and highly refined market research that has since informed that organization’s new business model, which includes an annual festival set to debut in September 2017. Another Advancement grant to the Philadelphia Museum of Art will result in an extensive, collaborative program featuring historic and contemporary African art, Creative Africa, to open later this month. The Advancement award will support the museum’s efforts to bring African artists to Philadelphia to create, exhibit, and perform new works, as well as to engage directly with Philadelphia communities.

The Center is pleased to have recently increased its twelve annual Pew Fellowships in the Arts awards to $75,000. These unrestricted grants support regional artists working in all disciplines, from folk and traditional to experimental forms. Between 1992, when it was founded, and 2016, the program will have provided grants to 323 artists. Additionally, The Center extends its experience as a cultural grantmaker by acting as a hub for the exchange of ideas on issues critical to practice through symposia and lectures, in-depth publications, and an online publishing platform known as Questions of Practice.

The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage has been a GIA member since it was established in 2005.

Learn more about The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage’s grantmaking programs.

You can also visit the photo gallery on the Photo Credits page.