The University of Pennsylvania is home to art galleries and museums, and there’s a plethora of art on display in campus buildings, but did you know that Wharton, Penn’s world-class business school, has a notable art collection, too?

As part of her job as senior director of Wharton operations, Maria O'Callaghan-Cassidy manages the art installations in all of the buildings that comprise the Wharton School.

“We started the art collection with the hope that our community would find inspiration in the energetic and diverse works,” she says.

Over the years, faculty, students and staff provided input to expand the School’s collection to include the works of both Philadelphia and international artists.

A number of the original works of art are by artists with a Penn connection.

Tom Appelquist took drawing and color theory courses at Penn as an undergraduate. For his oil on canvas piece called “Colorado,” he drew inspiration from a 2006 raft trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. His watercolors from the trip are painted with river water, which left a gritty surface on the works. “Colorado” hangs in Jon M. Huntsman Hall.

Penn alum and artist Max Mason, a life-long baseball fan, has oil paintings displayed at Wharton that pay homage to the Philadelphia Phillies. Mason’s “Called Third Strike” hangs in the Lower Level Lounge of Steinberg-Dietrich Hall.

Art at Wharton celebrates Philadelphia with local cityscapes depicted in oil, mixed media art, print and photography.

Among the numerous works by local street photographer Michael Penn is “City Hall 2,” a black-and-white archival inkjet limited edition print hanging in the corridor of the Forum in Huntsman. 

Penn says “Being a ‘Penn’ was reason enough for me to photograph the city of Philadelphia, but it has also been a race against time, trying to capture the Philadelphia that I know before it changes too much.”

The School honors the school’s founder, American industrialist and entrepreneur Joseph Wharton with a portrait done in oil by artist Julian Story in 1906 and prominently placed on the ground floor of the Locust Walk entrance to Huntsman.

A tour of the collection complete with titles, media, artist biographies and locations of art works is available on the Wharton operations web page by clicking Art @ Wharton.