PHILADELPHIA—The Pew Charitable Trusts (Pew) announced today that the Barnes Foundation has been selected as the new operating partner for The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage (the Center), planned to begin on Aug. 4. In this capacity, the Barnes will oversee the Center’s operations. The Center will retain its name, brand, and all grantmaking activities, and Center staff members will continue to lead its day-to-day work at their Walnut Street office.
The new partnership is the result of a comprehensive search stemming from the June 2024 closure of the University of the Arts, which had served as operating partner since the Center was established in 2005. To ensure continuity of the Center’s work and grantmaking, Pew temporarily oversaw the Center in the interim and will continue to serve as its primary funder.
As the new arrangement gets underway, the Center’s longtime executive director, Paula Marincola, has announced that she will leave her position in October after overseeing the transition and helping to ensure that the Center is positioned for success. The Barnes is expected to begin a search for a new Center executive director in the coming weeks.
As a leading arts organization with an expansive mission that includes deep expertise in education and community engagement, the Barnes will provide opportunities for innovative, collaborative programming. In particular, alignment with the Barnes offers increased access to an established community of practicing artists, as well as collaborations within and outside the sector. The partnership also enables the Center to extend its longstanding commitment to convening arts institutions and artists to address shared challenges and provide resources to strengthen the fields of arts and heritage. The Barnes will not be eligible to apply for Center grants while acting in its new capacity.
“We are thrilled to announce this partnership with the Barnes Foundation,” said Donna Frisby-Greenwood, senior vice president for Philadelphia and scientific advancement at The Pew Charitable Trusts. “This new chapter for the Center brings together two pillars of the Philadelphia region’s cultural community to support the Center’s grantmaking to local organizations and individual artists, while strengthening its role as a hub for capacity building, convening, and knowledge-sharing in the sector. Pew remains committed to fostering a thriving arts and culture community in Philadelphia, and we look forward to seeing the new programs that result from this collaboration.”
Thom Collins, Neubauer Family executive director and president of the Barnes Foundation, said: “The Barnes is honored to become The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage’s new operating partner. Given our shared commitments to fostering new ways of thinking about human creativity; advancing arts, culture, and knowledge-sharing activities; and deepening conversations across a broad and diverse community, the Barnes and the Center are natural collaborators. Under Paula Marincola’s visionary leadership, the Center has become a true stalwart and buoy for the arts and culture community in Philadelphia. Transcending the role of grantmaker, the Center always asks what it can contribute to Philadelphia’s cultural community beyond funding. With its focus on convening cultural producers, encouraging discourse, and supporting scholarly endeavors, it has made possible incredibly important contributions to art history writ large. Paula and her team have made an indelible impact on the city, and it is the strong foundation forged under her leadership that we will build upon in this exciting new chapter.”
Marincola, executive director of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, added: “After nearly 30 years of immensely gratifying, impactful, and meaningful work in the arts in Philadelphia on Pew’s behalf—including 17 years as the Center’s executive director—this feels like the right moment to begin a new chapter. I’ve long planned to step down from my position when the Center turned 20 this year, and I’m delighted for the Center, the Barnes, and Pew as they embark on this new partnership. I know it will bring many exciting opportunities to enhance the Center’s impact in the community.”
Frisby-Greenwood said of Marincola: “Paula’s legacy as a champion for our region’s arts and culture community is unmatched—she will be sorely missed. We can’t thank her enough for her tireless and unyielding dedication to the Center and its mission, its grantees, and the broader Philadelphia cultural sector, and we are so grateful that she will help the Center transition and find success in its new partnership with the Barnes.”
Pew has supported individual artists and cultural organizations in the Greater Philadelphia region for over 35 years, through programs such as the Pew Fellowships in the Arts and, since 2005, The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
The Center’s grantmaking invests in ambitious, substantive work that showcases the region’s artistic vitality. Each year, the Center awards project grants to organizations in the areas of performance as well as exhibitions and public interpretation, making possible thousands of performing arts events, history and visual arts exhibitions, and other cultural programs. The Center’s 12 annual Fellowships also provide unrestricted grants and professional development resources to help exemplary local artists pursue their goals.
Additionally, the Center produces an extensive collection of online interviews with and essays by noted experts and artists, as well as in-depth publications on artistic practices and cultural leadership. This knowledge-sharing work aims to advance the arts and heritage fields and connect Philadelphia to a global network of cultural practitioners.
Since its first program was established in 1989, the Center has invested more than $192 million in the Philadelphia region’s cultural sector.
###
Media Contact: Elizabeth Lowe, 215-575-4812, elowe@pewtrusts.org
Founded in 1948, The Pew Charitable Trusts uses data to make a difference, addressing the challenges of a changing world and helping communities thrive. In our hometown of Philadelphia, Pew promotes pathways to economic advancement, access to civic and cultural enrichment, and the safety and well-being of all residents by strengthening local nonprofits’, government’s, and civic institutions’ abilities to address complex challenges. Pew does this through its grantmaking, capacity building, research, policy analysis, and stakeholder convenings. Learn more at pew.org/Philadelphia.