Penn Live Arts Blog / Tagged / Penn Live Arts Commission

Spring 2026 Highlights

Penn Live Arts Commission

We couldn’t be more pleased with how the second half of our 25/26 season unfolded. Closing out 2025, we were honored to be named WHYY’s favorite venue. Multimedia journalist Tonya Pendleton shared, “The staff is lovely, the seats are comfy and the acoustics are great.” Pendleton also selected drummer Justin Faulkner as her favorite musician of the year, and he was most recently seen on our stage in the fall with the Branford Marsalis Quartet.

Stepping into 2026, we continued the celebration of our country’s 250th anniversary Read more...

Making Losing My Religion

Penn Live Arts Commission

We are proud to have been an incubator for Rennie Harris’ impactful work over the past three years and look forward to continuing this great partnership in the future. In this video, we reflect on the residency and take a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Losing My Religion.

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Amplifying the Arts in America 250 Celebrations

Penn Live Arts Commission

Kathy Sachs, founder and chair of ArtPhilly, wanted to amplify the arts in the city’s semiquincentennial celebration this summer . As plans took shape for the organization’s inaugural What Now: 2026 Festival, Sachs turned to us at Penn Live Arts, where she sits on the Board of Advisors. Read more...

America Unfinished: Tommie-Waheed Evans

Penn Live Arts Commission

Tommie-Waheed Evans is a featured artist in our 25/26 season, America Unfinished, marking our country’s 250th anniversary. The choreographer’s latest work, in case of fire, speak—which we co-commissioned with ArtPhilly—responds to Martha Graham’s American Document (1938) and its essential question: “What is an American?”. Performed by the Martha Graham Dance Company with dancers from PHILADANCO!, the work premieres on our stage on May 29-30.

Ahead of the performance, we invited Evans to reflect and share his thoughts on the piece and this pivotal moment in our country’s legacy: Read more...

America Unfinished: Delbert Anderson

Penn Live Arts Commission

Delbert Anderson is a featured artist in our 25/26 season, America Unfinished, marking our country’s 250th anniversary. On April 26, Anderson and his quartet will perform the world premiere commissioned work Beyond Belief, a multi-part meditation on Navajo history and the tribe’s broken relationship with America. We invited Anderson to reflect and share his thoughts on his work and this pivotal moment in our country’s legacy: Read more...

Fall 2025 Highlights

Penn Live Arts Commission

Thank you for joining us for a wonderful start to our 25/26 season: America Unfinished. As we head into the new year, we’d like to take a moment to reflect on some of the highlights from the past few months. Between outstanding artists making their Philadelphia debut, new works taking the stage, impactful engagement with audiences and construction progress on our new venues, it’s already been such a rewarding season. Read more...