Create / Discover: Advancing the Arts at Penn

Vision

We see Penn as a leader in the arts-a place where creativity drives discovery, collaboration sparks innovation, and the arts shape a more inclusive, connected, and imaginative world. We envision a campus where students engage deeply with artistic practice and inquiry, where disciplines intersect to generate bold ideas, and where partnerships across Philadelphia and the wider region amplify cultural impact and civic engagement.

Mission

At Penn, we believe the arts are essential to advancing knowledge, imagining new futures, and exploring our shared humanity. Through creative, interpretive, and integrative practices and methods, we challenge ourselves to discover new insights, develop innovations, and foster inclusive places of belonging.

What do we mean by the Arts at Penn?

The Arts at Penn encompass the full range of creative practices and the academic disciplines that interpret their histories, meanings, and methods. This includes visual, performing, literary, architectural, and media-based forms, as well as the scholarly fields that study their aesthetic, cultural, and social significance. The arts, essential to interpreting past and present, are woven into the cultural institutions, collections, landscapes, and knowledge systems that preserve, activate, and critically examine human and environmental histories. Across this spectrum, the arts center creativity, imagination, and self-expression—through making, performance, and research—while advancing experimental, interdisciplinary, collaborative, and community-building approaches. In this way, the Arts at Penn represent both personal inquiry and collective responsibility: they cultivate individual voices while acting as a powerful vehicle for collaboration, civic engagement, and world-making.

We imagine

the University of Pennsylvania as a place where the arts are not simply present but foundational—a university shaped by creativity, collaboration, and curiosity at every level. A campus where thoughtfully designed spaces invite everyone—students beginning their Penn journey, visiting scholars, and lifelong Philadelphians—into an ecosystem humming with artistic inquiry and exchange. A place where individual voices are recognized and cultivated; where interdisciplinary pathways open naturally across schools; where time, space, and mentorship enable ideas to take root and flourish.

A Penn where public art along Locust Walk sparks conversation and conviviality; where classrooms, studios, exhibition and performance spaces encourage experimentation; where creativity’s role in discovery, problem-solving, and engagement across differences is celebrated. Where students feel empowered to move fluidly among design, dance, writing, performance, visual culture, and emerging media—because the institution affirms that these intersections are critical to the generation of bold ideas.

We envision

a campus where faculty are supported as they build partnerships across disciplines and with Philadelphia’s cultural institutions; where the infrastructure for the arts is robust, interconnected, and sustainable; where communication about arts resources is clear and visible; and where participation in the arts is understood as essential to intellectual and communal life.

With undergraduate and graduate students leaving an ICA opening, a Penn Live Arts performance, a Kelly Writers House reading, a lecture at the Penn Museum, or an Arthur Ross Gallery talk and continuing their conversations along the Schuylkill River, in College Houses, or in a new Arts House café—art becoming a catalyst for connection and civic imagination. Imagine rich, fostered interactions with Artists-in-Residence, Penn’s collections, and Philadelphia’s creative communities not as luxuries, but as integral experiences that shape alumni long after they leave campus.

We commit

to developing and strengthening the infrastructure for arts on campus, to expanding and articulating the pathways for arts involvement and careers, and to deepening engagement in the Arts at Penn through increasing visibility of the work on campus and in the community. This work will advance the core goals of Penn Forward, the University-wide initiative to shape Penn’s future: building trust with those we serve, enabling bold discovery, and extending Penn’s reach and impact across a lifetime.

1. Infrastructure

A strong, integrated infrastructure supports Penn’s commitment to the principle of the interwoven university—removing barriers, fostering collaboration and promoting equity in access to resources. Arts programming and resources at Penn are dispersed across multiple domains. The new Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts provides an opportunity to bring related units together.

Goals

Build a connected, coordinated arts ecosystem by creating seamless connections across schools, libraries, laboratories, and centers to foster discovery, collaboration, and creativity.

Modernize and expand arts infrastructure, delivering facilities and systems that support sustainable, high-impact teaching, creating, and research.

Advance equity in resource allocation through the promotion of transparent, criteria-based processes for space, staffing, and funding across art forms.

2. Pathways

Integrative, experiential learning is central to Penn’s commitment to innovation and preparing students for leadership in a rapidly evolving creative economy.

Goals

Provide immersive experiences with arts professionals by offering consistent, meaningful engagement with practitioners through residencies, mentorships, and experiential learning.

Create an end-to-end student arts pathway -recruiting, advising, and supporting arts-interested students from admission through post-graduation.

Position integrative arts as a Penn signature by embedding cross-disciplinary arts practice and research across curricula and schools, showcasing Penn’s collaborative strengths.

Devin Allen in conversation, A Beautiful Ghetto, January 29, 2016.

3. Engagement

Local and national visibility and partnership strengthen Penn’s role as a cultural leader, deepen community trust, and attract talent and resources. They also support Penn’s commitment to the principles of the Anchored University and the Engaged University.

Goals

Increase visibility and participation in the arts, elevating the profile of the Arts at Penn through coordinated communications and signature programming.

Lead in community engaged arts through the co-creation of programs with Philadelphia partners to advance shared goals and engagement.

Activate alumni as mentors and philanthropic partners by building a robust alumni network to support students and advance strategic priorities.