9/27
Louisa Shepard
Senior News Officer
lshepard@upenn.edu
Visual Arts
‘Paths to Freedom’: A new exhibit by John E. Dowell
‘Paths to Freedom’: A new exhibit by John E. Dowell
In a new Arthur Ross Gallery exhibition, Philadelphia artist John E. Dowell imagines attempted escapes by enslaved ancestors through his photographs of North Carolina cotton fields at night. “Paths to Freedom” includes 26 artworks, an installation of fabric panels, and a soundscape.
ICA, WXPN awarded Pew Center for Arts & Heritage project grants
ICA, WXPN awarded Pew Center for Arts & Heritage project grants
The Institute of Contemporary Art and WXPN have been awarded 2022 project grants from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. Stuart Weitzman School of Design alumni James Maurelle, now on the faculty, and James Allister Sprang are among 12 Pew Fellows in the Arts named this year.
Exploring the depth of smell through art
Exploring the depth of smell through art
With “RE_______,” a fall exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Sissel Tolaas, a Norwegian artist, chemist, and linguist, the galleries put smell front and center.
Do art museums prioritize visitor well-being enough?
Do art museums prioritize visitor well-being enough?
Research from the Humanities and Human Flourishing Project in Penn’s Positive Psychology Center reveals that the people working in these institutions want to see greater emphasis on human flourishing, but they feel ill-equipped to make it happen.
Creating an artist’s book at the Common Press
Creating an artist’s book at the Common Press
Artist-in-residence Katie Baldwin is printing a book she wrote and illustrated, inspired by a 400-plus-year-old volume in the Penn Libraries collection, sponsored by a residency with the Philadelphia Center for the Book.
Cultural representations in films
Cultural representations in films
In partnership with BlackStar Projects, Maori Karmael Holmes of Penn Live Arts curates films to uplift the work of Black, brown, and Indigenous artists.
Grappling with a watershed’s uncertain environmental future
Grappling with a watershed’s uncertain environmental future
Artists supported by the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities created tools for navigating unpredictable ecological challenges, then brought them to life in a series of public workshops at the Independence Seaport Museum.
New Arthur Ross Gallery exhibit ‘From Studio to Doorstep’
New Arthur Ross Gallery exhibit ‘From Studio to Doorstep’
Prints from 1934 to 2000 are featured in the current Arthur Ross Gallery exhibition, “From Studio to Doorstep,” through Aug. 21. The 37 Associated American Artists prints are part of the Penn Art Collection.
More intricate riddles of life on ‘In These Times’
More intricate riddles of life on ‘In These Times’
Episodes 4 and 5 of the OMNIA podcast’s fourth season cover how to confront trauma, using words as a coping mechanism, and music and meaning.
Art museums plant seeds of human flourishing
Art museums plant seeds of human flourishing
Researchers from the Humanities and Human Flourishing Project in the Positive Psychology Center at Penn have found that art museums are associated with wide-ranging benefits to human health.
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In the News
PhillyVoice
At Penn museum’s art of smells exhibit, beauty is in the nose of the beholder
Norwegian-born smell researcher and artist Sissel Tolaas will have her first major U.S. exhibition, where interactable installations elicit sensations through smell, on display in the Institute of Contemporary Art through Dec. 30.
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WHYY (Philadelphia)
Dollars and scents: Follow your nose through this exhibition at ICA
Norwegian artist Sissel Tolaas discusses her first major U.S. exhibition, which uses smell as an artistic medium and is hosted at the Institute of Contemporary Art.
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Philadelphia Inquirer
Hey Mural Arts, graffiti is art, too. It always was
In an op-ed, doctoral candidate Razan Idris of the School of Arts & Sciences writes that Mural Arts Philadelphia’s legacy is mired by a legacy of urban racism, including discrimination against local graffiti artists.
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WHYY (Philadelphia)
Claes Oldenburg, 93, created giant sculptures that became icons of Philly
University Curator Lynn Marsden-Atlass comments on the Split Button sculpture that dominates the entrance to the Van Pelt Library.
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PhillyVoice
Penn to host Sakura Collection fashion show featuring Japanese textiles
The 2022 Sakura Collection Fashion Design Award Show is being hosted in conjunction with the Consulate General of Japan in New York, the University of Pennsylvania Center for East Asian Studies, and the City of Philadelphia.
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Christian Science Monitor
Not just seascapes: Winslow Homer’s rendering of Black humanity
Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw of the School of Arts & Sciences comments on the art of Winslow Homer.
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