PNC Arts Alive: Philadelphia, Delaware & Southern New Jersey

PNC Arts Alive and PNC Arts Alive CONNECT are competitive grant programs for one- and two-year funding terms, respectively, that begin in September of each year. The original PNC Arts Alive grant program remains much the same as it did when it first launched more than 10 years ago, while the new PNC Arts Alive CONNECT, launched in 2019, is designed to support smaller, community-based arts and cultural organizations over a two-year term.

The application period for the 2021 PNC Arts Alive & PNC Arts Alive CONNECT grant programs is now closed. Please visit this page in early 2022 for further information on any future grant term, or feel free to familiarize yourself with PNC’s most recent Arts Alive application packages, which are included below for reference purposes only. Please be aware that the Arts Alive application process is highly competitive, and neither past grantees nor first time applicants are guaranteed funding.

2021 PNC Arts Alive Grant Guidelines & Application (PDF)

PNC Arts Alive CONNECT Grant Guidelines & Application (PDF)

PNC Arts Alive Program Budget 2021 (Excel)

For thirteen consecutive years, PNC has supported large and small arts groups in the Philadelphia, Southern New Jersey, and now greater Delaware region. The grants cover a wide range of disciplines, audiences and participatory experiences.

PNC recognizes the vital role that the arts play across the Greater Philadelphia, Southern New Jersey, and Delaware region, and the 2021 grantee portfolio in fact demonstrates the resiliency of the sector as arts organizations navigate a path to recovery and reopening. PNC Arts Alive supported projects cover a wide range of disciplines, audiences and participatory experiences, including lively community celebrations to welcome guests back to museums and arts venues, Shakespeare and opera under the stars, free or discounted theatre tickets for the region’s front-line and essential personnel, as well as an array of exhibitions and productions that tell the story of African American, LatinX, and other previously underrepresented cultural communities. Whether programs are in-person, virtual, or live at-a-distance, we are grateful for the many Arts Alive grantees “keeping the Arts Alive” here in this region.

Delaware Art Museum Aesthetic Dynamics and the Delaware Art Museum will collaborate to restage an historic exhibition of the Black Arts Movement that first premiered at the Wilmington Armory (Wilmington, DE) in 1971. Afro-American Images 1971: The Vision of Percy Ricks will serve as a reassembling and rehanging of this 1970s exhibition of Black artists, as originally organized by the local arts organization, Aesthetic Dynamics, Inc., and its founder, the late Percy Ricks. Numerous factors led to Ricks’ ambitious project, originally featuring over 130 works by 66 African American artists -- most notably the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ricks’ desire to celebrate Black artists. Sadly, the exhibition received little contemporary acknowledgement and was not properly documented. Now, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the original show, the Museum is working in partnership with the remaining members of Aesthetic Dynamics, as well as a broad community advisory group of African American scholars, artists, and activists, to restage the show. Afro-American Images 1971 will now include most of the 66 artists who participated in the 1971 show, with the goal of this rehung exhibition to celebrate the legacy and vision of the original exhibition’s organizers; raise local and national awareness of the original show and the wider Black Arts Movement; identify, document, and discuss the effects that erasing the original exhibition from the art historical canon has had on understanding the Black Arts Movement; and restore Aesthetic Dynamics’ local and national history via a range of performances, lectures, and community discussions.

Media Arts Council The Media Arts Council (MAC) will present the 14th annual Media Film Festival in 2021. First launched in 2007 with just three film-loving volunteers working to make one night of locally-made shows a reality for Delaware County residents, the Media Film Festival has today grown to include three full days of local and international short films, shown each April at the 450-seat Media Theatre for the Performing Arts and reaching an audience of more than 1,000 over the three day event. The popularity of the Film Festival has directly contributed to MAC's overall growth and success, and the continued increase in audiences is largely due to their commitment to showcasing the best of locally made films, and films of local interest, while providing opportunities for audiences to experience internationally made films that are not yet readily available. A series of community events likewise allow for greater audience engagement -- including Q&A sessions with area and regional filmmakers, as well as year-round "Best of the Fest" events held at libraries, community centers, drive-ins, parks and other non-traditional venues, reaching hundreds of people who may not have previously interacted with a Media Arts Council event.

Opera Philadelphia Opera Philadelphia, in partnership with Art-Reach, will present a series of three outdoor screenings of recorded opera productions, with a viewing experience designed to prioritize the residents of Greater Philadelphia who have special sensory needs. This free and open-to-the-public opera series will create a sensory-friendly environment for the participants and families who may have sensory, social and cognitive needs or are otherwise susceptible to sensory overload. In addition, these productions will feature audio narrative descriptions and wearable vibration technology vests, designed by Not Impossible Labs, that sync with onscreen content. Inspired by the deaf community, this technology provides all users a unique and nuanced musical experience by translating sound onto the skin using vibration. These vests will be available to all guests but will be prioritized for those with special sensory needs, in particular. All screening events will feature opera programming created especially for the Opera Philadelphia Channel, the company's digital streaming platform that launched in fall 2020 and features new opera films designed for at-home streaming along with recorded live-performances.

Orchestra 2001 Orchestra 2001’s Emerging Markets performance series will present casual, open rehearsals and concerts at the markets where residents already shop, work, and play. Aimed at breaking down barriers within arts attendance, all planned events will take place at food and farmers markets in parts of Philadelphia outside of Center City, plus Camden, Chester, and Wilmington. The series will highlight the full creative process of music-making, including collaboration, composition, fundraising, community engagement, publicity, and performance, rather than just the final product typically heard at a concert hall. Importantly, all event programs will also be informed in some way -- big or small -- by their location. By way of example, prospective event venues include the 9th Street Market in South Philadelphia, where the program will reflect the market's surrounding community, including Italian, Mexican, Southeast Asian, Chinese, and African American musical influences; Reading Terminal Market ("The Gig at the Pig"), featuring lunch hour and afternoon concerts with connections to the market's ethnic eateries, craft stores, and a new composition honoring the Terminal's mascot, Philbert the Pig; Cherry Street Pier, with Market Pop-Up Concerts alongside the food and artisan markets of First Friday's and Sunday's; Chinatown and Washington Avenue Supermarkets, including music by Asian and Asian American composers, and percussion music played on the items found there, including cookware, canned goods, and produce; and various Farmers Markets, at locations from Overbrook and East Falls to Chester, Wilmington, and Camden, and with performances including instruments made from vegetables and fruit.

Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz & Performing Arts Now celebrating its 55th Anniversary, the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz & Performing Arts will present a third season of the highly successful Jazz Cultural Voices — a series of free and reduced cost concerts, each featuring ethnically diverse, nationally renowned and emerging artists. These concerts and educational activities will also include open-to-the-public masterclasses, talkbacks, and interdisciplinary activities as a way to deepen engagement for established music lovers and those newer to the genre alike. Artists under consideration for 2021-2022 are Grammy Award Winner jazz drummer Jonathan Blake and saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins as well as the Sun Ra Arkestra band; master R&B, soul and funk drummer Bernard Purdie; saxophonist Oliver Lake; musician/composer Kevin Diehl; bandleader, composer and performer Michele Rosewoman; and bassist Gerald Veasley. All concerts will be specifically programmed to highlight the various Latin, Cuban, Japanese, European, East Indian and African American influences of Jazz, with the hope that this multidisciplinary approach will continue to attract new and diverse audience to Jazz music.

Contact Information:

General questions may be directed
by email to:
Hugh McStravick
PNC Client & Community Relations

Kara LaFleur
PNC Client & Community Relations

Mary Liz Biddle
PNC Client & Community Relations - Delaware

Media relations inquiries:
Jason Beyersdorfer
(732) 220-3055

Thanks to Our Community Partners
Art Reach
Arts & Business Council of Greater Philadelphia
Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance
WHYY