Pew Center awards more than $10M to Philly-area artists, arts groups

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage has announced millions of dollars in new arts and culture funding for the Philadelphia region.

Paula Marincola, executive director of the Pew Center, says the organization has awarded $10.2 million in grants to 39 Philly-area artists and cultural groups.

One-third of the funding will go to prominent institutions like the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Barnes Foundation, Opera Philadelphia and Asian Arts Initiative to help shape the future of art and culture in the region. But Marincola says smaller organizations and individual artists are also getting support.

“We fund theater productions, the Nichole Canuso Dance Company. We’re funding an amazing interactive project where the audience becomes the dancers,” she said.

In addition, 12 area artists have been named Pew Fellows of the Arts, including performance and visual artist Ralph Lemon, composer Tyshawn Sorey and sculptor Michelle Lopez. Each fellow will receive $85,000.

Marincola says the funding represents an investment in a thriving cultural ecology in the city, “Our projects are not just happening in Center City but in the suburbs as well,” she said. “We have projects that will happen in Norris Square and ... in Northeast Philly.”

The grants, Marincola says, are all about securing the future of the arts in Philadelphia, and to foster inclusion.

“It’s really important to us that we are reaching those communities that are not in the center of town and bringing the amazing art to them.”