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Advancement Grant: Penn Museum, University of Pennsylvania

Penn Museum, University of Pennsylvania
The Penn Museum’s new Middle East Galleries will invite visitors to interact with both iconic and everyday objects from the first cities. Photo courtesy of Haley Sharpe Design.
The Penn Museum’s new Middle East Galleries will invite visitors to interact with both iconic and everyday objects from the first cities. Photo courtesy of Haley Sharpe Design.
Women's coat (Ak Chirpi), multi-color hand-embroidered robe with fringe along edge of hem., from Central Asia, Turkmenistan, made ca. 1890, purchased for the Penn Museum from A. Barsa in 1913. Photo courtesy of Penn Museum.
Women's coat (Ak Chirpi), multi-color hand-embroidered robe with fringe along edge of hem., from Central Asia, Turkmenistan, made ca. 1890, purchased for the Penn Museum from A. Barsa in 1913. Photo courtesy of Penn Museum.
Visitors at Penn Museum’s Cultures in the Crossfire: Stories from Syria and Iraq around a work by Syrian-born artist Issam Kourbaj. Photo courtesy of Penn Museum.
Visitors at Penn Museum’s Cultures in the Crossfire: Stories from Syria and Iraq around a work by Syrian-born artist Issam Kourbaj. Photo courtesy of Penn Museum.
Bull-headed Lyre (head height: 35.6 cm; plaque height: 33 cm) from the Woolley-coined “King’s Grave” royal tomb of Private Grave, 789, constructed with gold, silver, lapis lazuli, shell, bitumen and wood, ca 2550 BCE at Ur. Photo courtesy of Penn Museum.
Bull-headed Lyre (head height: 35.6 cm; plaque height: 33 cm) from the Woolley-coined “King’s Grave” royal tomb of Private Grave, 789, constructed with gold, silver, lapis lazuli, shell, bitumen and wood, ca 2550 BCE at Ur. Photo courtesy of Penn Museum.
The Penn Museum’s new Middle East Galleries will invite visitors to interact with both iconic and everyday objects from the first cities. Photo courtesy of Haley Sharpe Design.
The Penn Museum’s new Middle East Galleries will invite visitors to interact with both iconic and everyday objects from the first cities. Photo courtesy of Haley Sharpe Design.
Head of lion (height: 11 cm; width: 12 cm) made of silver, lapis lazuli and shell, from the Royal Cemetery of Ur, ca 2550 BCE. Photo courtesy of Penn Museum.
Head of lion (height: 11 cm; width: 12 cm) made of silver, lapis lazuli and shell, from the Royal Cemetery of Ur, ca 2550 BCE. Photo courtesy of Penn Museum.
MAYA 2012: Lords of Time, 2012, installation view, Penn Museum. Photo courtesy of Penn Museum.
MAYA 2012: Lords of Time, 2012, installation view, Penn Museum. Photo courtesy of Penn Museum.
The Penn Museum’s new Middle East Galleries will include rotating displays of textiles and manuscripts, with interactive screens inviting further explorations of these rich collections. Photo courtesy of Penn Museum.
The Penn Museum’s new Middle East Galleries will include rotating displays of textiles and manuscripts, with interactive screens inviting further explorations of these rich collections. Photo courtesy of Penn Museum.

The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Penn Museum) will launch a five-year initiative to develop new approaches to exhibition design, public programming, and communications. With the goal of enriching visitors’ understanding of human history through the museum’s collection of more than one million objects, the project will begin with reimagined installations and programs for the galleries of the Ancient Middle East—the first of the museum’s galleries to undergo renovation as part of a comprehensive museum transformation plan. Exhibition space will be expanded to accommodate up to 1,200 artifacts, many that have long been held in storage. Interpretive approaches such as replicas of artifacts that visitors can touch, interactive computer stations, and displays that mimic excavation sites will serve as models for subsequent reinterpretations of the museum’s Egyptian and Asian galleries. Refreshed branding and marketing efforts will promote the new developments and target increased museum visitation. [fn]Advancement grants were awarded from 2014 through 2017.[/fn]

Recipient
Penn Museum, University of Pennsylvania

Penn Museum, University of Pennsylvania

Founded in 1887, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Penn Museum) is the largest university museum in the US and is regarded as a world leader in archaeology and anthropology research. Its collection of more than one million objects encompasses materials from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Canaan and Israel, Mesoamerica, Asia, and the ancient Mediterranean World, as well as artifacts from native peoples of the Americas and Africa. The museum has conducted more than 400 archaeological and anthropological expeditions around the world, and many of its prized artifacts have been obtained through these field excavations. Center-supported projects include Imagine Africa @ Penn Museum, which tested a new visitor-centered method of exhibition planning, and Science and Race: History, Use, and Abuse, a series of public conversations investigating the connections between race, science, and social justice. In 2017, the museum received an Advancement grant to develop new exhibition, public programming, and communications strategies, as it unveils its newly renovated Ancient Middle East galleries.

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News

The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Announces 2017 Grants for Philadelphia Artists, Organizations

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James Sprang, 2022 Pew Fellow. Photo by Neal Santos.

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Ahn Sekwon, Lights of Wolgok-dong, 2005, digital C-print, 70.8" x 94.5". Photo courtesy of the artist.
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Terence Nance, film still from Swimming in Your Skin Again, 2014. Courtesy of Terence Nance.
Artist Terence Nance on Presenting Film in a Gallery Space
Video Cross-Disciplinary Practices
Adebunmi Gbadebo and Odili Donald Odita, 2022 Pew Fellows.

Fellow to Fellow: Adebunmi Gbadebo and Odili Donald Odita on Meaning in Materiality 
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The Barnes Foundation, Returning to Before, performed as part of William Edmondson: A Monumental Vision exhibition, choreographed by Brendan Fernandes. Photo by Daniel Jackson for Embassy: Interactive.
How Dance Converges with Sculpture in Barnes Foundation Exhibition
Video Site-Specific Performance