Philadelphia Museum of Art

Exhibitions, Curatorial, and Collections (see schedule O for additional information)Since our founding at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition, PMA has accumulated one of the world's leading art collections with 250,000 works spanning 4,000 years. Highlights of the collection include: - The world's largest and most important collection of works by Marcel Duchamp. - The greatest collection of sculpture by Constantin Brancusi outside Europe. - The finest public collection of Auguste Rodin's sculpture in the United States. - Superb Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, including Paul Cezanne's The Large Bathers, Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers, and important paintings by Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, and Edgar Degas.- Exceptional American painting, sculpture, furniture, silver, and ceramics-including the remarkable creations of the Shakers and Pennsylvania Germans that reflect Philadelphia's central role in American history.- Extraordinary period rooms and architectural ensembles from around the world.The museum's landmark main building opened in 1928 at the western end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Other buildings that make up the campus include the Perelman Building, the Rodin Museum, and the two great eighteenth century houses in Fairmount Park, Mount Pleasant, and Cedar Grove. In May 2021, the museum completed the Core Project after years of planning and preparation. The Core Project construction encompassed 140,000 square feet on three levels of the ninety-year-old building, including 90,000 square feet of new public space and more than 20,000 square feet of new gallery space, all without closing to the public or expanding the building footprint. The entire design, conceived by renowned architect Frank Gehry, reflects the utmost care and respect for the original architecture, in the choice of materials, the layout of new spaces, and all the new elements. The Core Project unveiled a new suite of galleries devoted to American art from the early seventeenth century to around 1850. The 10,000-square-foot space has been installed to tell the story of how Philadelphia became the young nation's cultural capital, and how Black, Indigenous, and Latin American artists contributed to the development of American art. The Core Project also created 10,000 square feet of gallery space for our growing modern and contemporary art collection.The fiscal year 2022 was the first full year since the museum opened these new and transformed spaces to the public. Many of PMA's accomplishments this past year are due to the activation of these expanded galleries and public spaces by staff across the museum, including the creative display of works of art and the return of in-person offerings for families, K-12 students and teachers, and community partners. In the galleries, the museum mounted over a dozen exhibitions and collection installations, with the return to the presentation of loan shows and larger-scale projects as had been done pre-pandemic. In the spring, the museum opened Elegy: Lament in the 20th Century (February 12-July 24, 2022) and Sean Scully: The Shape of Ideas (April 11-July 31, 2022), which had 62,258 and 68,498 visitors, respectively. Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror (September 29, 2021-February 13, 2022), organized in partnership with the Whitney Museum of American Art, attracted 94,222 visitors during its 20-week run in Philadelphia. Emma Amos: Color Odyssey (October 11, 2021-January 17, 2022) drew 40,444 visitors, and both of these shows were named among the Best Art Exhibitions of 2021 by The New York Times. Richard Benson: The World is Smarter Than You Are (October 3, 2021-January 23, 2022) drew 44,345 visitors, and we also inaugurated the new Collab Gallery, now in the main building, with Circus: Bouroullec Designs (November 21, 2021-May 30, 2022).In the fiscal year 2022, PMA also published a book featuring an iconic architectural setting in our permanent collection with Storied Stone: The South Indian Temple Hall. The museum launched the PMA Stories blog in the digital publishing realm and built the Rodin Museum website to coincide with the new ongoing Rodin's Hands installation. PMA has also pursued forward-looking uses of digital technology to share our collections more broadly, such as through our collaboration with the Centre Pompidou and Association Marcel Duchamp in Paris to build the Duchamp Research Portal, released in January 2022 at www.duchamparchives.org. The museum continued to progress on the comprehensive Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access (DEIA) initiative that launched in 2020. In June 2021, Alphonso Atkins Jr. joined PMA as the inaugural Miller Worley Deputy Director for DEIA. Since then, he has met with each museum department and trustees, and volunteers to conduct the first museum-wide DEIA equity audit. The equity audit will be an ongoing process and will promote regular habits of forecasting DEIA actions and documenting progress. It allows each department to analyze its workflows and pinpoint specific improvements. Having completed the first annual museum-wide equity audit in 2022, PMA stands at the outset of a long-term journey that will be the defining priority for our museum.

Auxiliary activities and public relations (see schedule O for additional information)In June 2022, the museum's Board of Trustees unanimously named Sasha Suda the 14th George D. Widener Director and Chief Executive Officer in the museum's nearly 150-year history. Suda joins PMA from the National Gallery of Canada, where, as Director and CEO, she broadened and deepened the gallery's relevance to diverse audiences. She brings intellect, vision, and commitment to civic engagement and community building and represents a new generation of leadership.During the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022, the museum welcomed 521,437 visitors. We engage visitors through creativity in the presentation and interpretation of our collection and special exhibitions. We recognize that surprise, delight, and inspiration are essential to the experience of great works of art.

Education, library, and community programs for children, the disabled, and the general public provide a better understanding of the Museum's collection and art in general. (see schedule O for additional information)Education is at the heart of our mission and a primary means of serving our visitors and engaging new audiences. Working collaboratively with partners like the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) and other community stakeholders allows PMA to create programs for our visitors that respond directly to their needs. The museum's longstanding relationship with the SDP has resulted in making virtual field trips modeled on our most popular school offering: single-visit tours. These virtual field trips are free of charge for Philadelphia public and charter schools. We were also excited to welcome students back to our galleries for in-person tours in late spring 2022. During the 2021-22 school year, the museum served 5,310 students through these virtual and in-person engagements. Over 80% of those participants represent Philadelphia public and charter schools. We also continued offering virtual and in-person educator professional development and provided digital curriculum resources for educators and children at home.In December 2021, PMA introduced a new "Welcome Days" opportunity for SDP students, staff, and families. Welcome Days offers free admission and activities like collaborative art-making and musical performances. The first SDP day attracted 706 people, representing a quarter of the total attendance. The Department of Family Programs has developed a robust schedule of in-person and virtual offerings designed to nurture creativity in kids of all ages. In particular, in the fiscal year 2022, the museum was excited to see the return of in-person family programming under the Art Kids umbrella. Art Kids is an initiative to build and expand our family audience through year-long programming primarily for children ages 3-10 and their caretakers. The program successfully engaged with 20,500 children and families this past year through activities like Art Kids Studio, gallery tours, family festivals, and virtual programs. Building lasting relationships with local families is key to the initiative, which seeks to connect children with the arts at a young age, provide caregivers with the support they need to engage their children with the visual arts, and develop the next generation of museumgoers and art enthusiasts.Throughout the year, the museum offered virtual and in-person programs for adult audiences, such as lectures with guest artists and scholars that complemented special exhibitions and the permanent collection. The program schedule ranged from deep dives into the practice of artists such as Sean Scully and Emma Amos to interactive programs that focus on individual creativity and wellness. In the fiscal year, 6,870 people participated in public programs at the museum.PMA is deeply committed to furthering our vision to be a welcoming place that is inspiring for all. An essential part of this vision is ensuring community members can participate in the museum's mission regardless of physical, cognitive, or developmental ability. Accessible programs offer people with specific disabilities transformative encounters with the museum and its collection. In 2022, CEA connected with 5,600 individuals via various programs, including Veterans Empowered Through Art (V.E.T. Art), Parkinson's Programs, and Community Partner Spotlights.In the fiscal year 2022, the museum also launched our Community Partner Spotlight initiative to offer local organizations access to the permanent collection, programming, and digital partner organizations every quarter. This year's partnership with the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund included an in-person program with the Bail Fund and the People's Paper Co-op to combine artmaking and advocacy; and a local maker market on Mother's Day Weekend, with 10% of all sales going to support the Mama's Day Bail Out.