Civic Engagement and Partnerships
The Center connects to Philadelphia across a variety of programs and seeks to initiate and sustain collaborative partnerships locally, nationally, and internationally. Partnerships bring together faculty, students, artists, and community members to blend scholarship, social change, and the arts.
The Contest of the Fruits
The Contest of the Fruits is a multi-year collaboration with Berlin-based art collective Slavs and Tatars, Philadelphia non-profit Twelve Gates Arts, and the Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Philadelphia). The Contest of the Fruits is a nineteenth-century allegorical text, written in Uyghur, that captures the possibilities of boundary crossings to cultivate understanding, tolerance, and identity in a pluralistic world. The Contest of the Fruits is supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
Philadelphia Area Creative Collaboratives (PACC)
Supported by a $750,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Philadelphia Area Creative Collaboratives (PACC) program brought together nonprofit organizations, artists, faculty, students and other community members for collaborations that blended social change, art, and scholarship. Over a four-year period, the program developed creative alliances that paired local, regional, and international artists with students and faculty to work with community nonprofits and civic advocacy groups.