In Conversation with Christopher A. Gruits

Christopher A. Gruits is the Executive & Artistic Director of Penn Live Arts at the University of Pennsylvania. Since 2016, he has worked to return Penn Live Arts to its roots as Philadelphia’s premier curator of innovative and groundbreaking programs, presenter of debut artists, and champion of collaborations. He has cultivated partnerships across the community to reflect Penn Live Arts’ commitment to serving the University of Pennsylvania, the neighborhoods of West Philadelphia, and the Greater Philadelphia region.

So, who are you—what are you about?

I guess I would classify myself as a curator and an arts manager. I’m somebody who’s really interested in exploring all types of performing arts, whether it is music, dance, theater, or things that are not easily classifiable. I get the most enjoyment from bringing performances to audiences. I love the act of discovery in the performing arts—pointing people to artists or experiences that they might not know about. I also consider myself a manager, somebody who manages teams and organizations in the service of the arts.

Could you talk about your arts pathway to where you are now?

I started in music as a kid, as a vocalist. When I was at Michigan State University in the late 90s, it was one of the earliest programs in arts management in the Big Ten. It was a program I was really excited about—a mix of fine art or performance art and business, within an interdisciplinary humanities undergrad experience. It was wonderful, and it put me in real-world situations through internships for big institutions and organizations, but it also gave me a solid foundation across different liberal arts and art forms with an emphasis on music. I found it to be an inspiring undergrad experience that prepared me for a variety of roles in this industry. But I think, ultimately, managing culture is what I became interested in, and I’ve followed a career path along those lines.

I believe you’re an early music fan, is that right?

I am. Admittedly, I’m a huge fan of early music from so many different cultures. My wife, Meg Bragle, is a mezzo-soprano and an early music specialist, who teaches at Penn and conducts the Collegium Musicum. I love ancient music because I think it’s one of the few ways that we can really experience, in a physical way, different periods of time, even though we can’t say for certain that that’s exactly how it would have sounded. But reading a manuscript from the ancient world is a very real, a physical and visceral way to experience history. I think that’s what I love about it.

You’ve been at Penn for a bit—what do the place and the people mean to you?

You know, I can’t believe it. It’ll be a decade in September. It’s one of the most interesting places I’ve ever worked or been. The plurality of arts practice and performance here is really exciting: it’s such a dynamic and diverse place for the arts. You can go so deep in one particular direction or another. I’ll give you an example…

We’re researching a program at an arts festival in the fall next season around Indian and Indo-American artists, and we’re able to connect with South Asian Studies here to explore more deeply certain artists and programs. And those are the types of opportunities you just can’t get at a standalone arts institution. We can partner and collaborate in a way here that deepens the public programs that we put together and shapes how a student experiences a particular art form or discipline. Penn provides a dynamic platform because it is a world-class research university. Also, on a basic level, it’s very collegial and full of wonderful people. So it’s an easy place in some ways to collaborate because people are both fascinating and willing to partner. The resources of a global research university combined with very robust platforms and programs for public engagement in the arts creates a unique setting that is hard to replicate.

Is there a current project that is exciting you?

This season at PennLive Arts is called America Unfinished, and it’s a response to the 250th anniversary of the United States, and the Declaration of Independence. So we’re thinking about this framing, and we are looking to John Dewey—the American philosopher from the early 20th century—and his idea around democracy as an ever-evolving, perpetually deconstructed, reconstructed process, and how the arts and culture more broadly are central to that process. Participation in the arts and culture is a core way that citizens can get involved with democracy. So over the whole season, we are asking several artists to respond to the theme of the 250th: What does the declaration mean to them today? How do they interpret that through their programs?

I’m excited about our overall season. And then, within that season, there have been several artists. Recently, we had the violinist Johnny Gandelsman, a very fine violinist who also is a founding member of the Quartet Brooklyn Rider and who performed in the Silkroad Project for a long time. He commissioned a variety of American composers for solo violin and then came and presented two programs, one at Christ Church in Old City and one here at the Annenberg Center. It was a great example of seeing an artist respond to the America 250 theme, hearing different American compositional voices, hearing new work in real time. He also presented a world premiere of a piece by Tyshawn Sorey, who’s on the music faculty here at Penn. That was a really exciting commission for us, and it was wonderful to do it in an historic, colonial-era place in Philadelphia just down the street from where the Declaration was written. It was performed in Christ Church proper—which actually is perfect for solo violin. It is great acoustically and a very intimate setting.

What else would you like to tell us?

I’d like to note that Penn Live Arts is one of the largest presenters of music, dance, and theater in the region. And it’s not just a Penn thing—there’s a big range of programs for the public, but also we’ve grown to manage different venues and a network of spaces on campus. We support student performing arts. We support faculty programs through facilities and infrastructure. In partnership, we have artists in the classroom frequently, depending on who is coming to campus. We do major residencies for artists like Rennie Harris that see artists on campus working with students, but also in the community. So right now, Rennie is in schools like West Philadelphia High School and Carver High School, working with students around dance. PLA is a great example of the impact Penn can have in the arts, on and off campus. It’s a primary community window for the university: we serve about 100,000 people a year, many of whom come into our campus. This may be the only way they encounter Penn. They’re seeing a range of artists, international artists, national artists that you can’t otherwise see in the region. Crucially, because we’re at Penn, we’re able to leverage partners and faculty and programs to deepen their experience with the artists. It’s not always just see a performance and leave—you can come to a pre-show talk, stay for a post-show discussion. There is a lot of material that’s available related to that performance, so it’s for a curious audience, which I love. Our students are incredibly impressive in terms of how driven and how intelligent they are, but then our larger audience is also curious, smart, very engaged. We are an interesting crossroads for the performing arts—bringing both Philadelphia and Penn into dialogue. And I think that’s really an exciting place to be.

Absolutely. Thank you for talking with me today.