The visual arts for this region just got a shot in the arm–money, the vitamin that the local art scene needs more of. The increases are part of $9.5 million Pew announced would go to the Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage and its programs, including Dance Advance, the Heritage Philadelphia Program, Pew Fellowships in the Arts, Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative, Philadelphia Music Project and the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative.
The two programs of these programs that affect the visual arts most are the Pew Fellowships in the Arts and the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative.
The annual Pew Fellowships in the Arts awards (max of 12 awards annually) will increase from $50,000 to $60,000, to address the issue of inflation. Last year’s Pew Fellows included visual artists Fritz Dietel, Ed Bing Lee, and Julie York.
Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative (PEI), will support up to 13 programs with grants of up to $250,000 for exhibition implementation, up from $200,000, and will support up to $25,000 for planning, up from $20,000.
Among the programs PEI most recently gave funding to are South African artist William Kentridge’s upcoming exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the women in Pop Art exhibit that will be at the University of the Arts.
PEI will continue to offer a number of professional development activities, as well, and has expanded its guidelines to encourage increased collaboration with independent curators and visual arts organizations from outside the region and bring major touring exhibitions to Philadelphia.
