Institute of Contemporary Art

Founded in 1963, the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) at the University of Pennsylvania has developed an international reputation as a preeminent venue for contemporary art and culture. ICA is widely known for exhibiting artists at critical points in their careers. It organized, for example, the first museum shows on the work of Andy Warhol, Laurie Anderson, Robert Indiana, and Agnes Martin. Among the projects presented with Center support are exhibitions that examine contemporary artists' relationships to craft (Dirt on Delight), architecture (Fertilizers: Olin/Eisenman), and design (Stefan Sagmeister's The Happy Show). Other recent Center-supported exhibitions include the retrospective Barbara Kasten: Stages, and Endless Shout, an interdisciplinary, multi-artist project exploring the role of performance in museum spaces. In 2016, ICA received a Center Discovery grant to investigate the concept of “institutionality” to inform future curatorial and programmatic initiatives. In 2018, the organization received a Center Project grant to present Colored People Time: Mundane Futures, Quotidian Pasts, and Banal Presents, a three-part, multidisciplinary exhibition that examines the history, present, and future of blackness in America, featuring the work of artists Carolyn Lazard, Cameron Rowland, Sable Elyse Smith, and Martine Syms.