Construction is slated to begin in the summer of 2024 for a $75 million Student Performing Arts Center that will form a beacon of light and activity along Woodland Walk and 33rd Street. The 37,300-square-foot building will enable even more students to find creative outlets on campus thanks to its flexible, state-of-the-art spaces for teaching, rehearsals, and performances.
This, along with the forthcoming Weitzman Theatre at the Annenberg Center, will bring the first new theatres to campus in over 50 years, offering new and expanded resources for the thousands of Penn students who participate in and enjoy the performing arts.
Read more about plans for the Student Performing Arts Center.
For more than 70 years, Penn archeologists have been making remarkable discoveries—including the oldest standing wooden building in the world—in Gordion, Turkey. In the fall of 2023, Gordion was named a United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site—the first site to be added to the list while under active excavation by the Penn Museum.
Supported by philanthropy, Penn researchers at Gordion and their Turkish partners have uncovered the first decorated stone mosaics ever found, extraordinary achievements in carpentry, and much more. Research at Gordion has even revealed that King Midas, plagued in mythology by the “golden touch,” was an actual historical figure who ruled Gordion in the eighth century BCE.
Watch video about the Gordion Archaeological Site.
Five years ago, Chris Mario, C’85, and The Mario Family Foundation made a generous $500,000 challenge gift to kick off a $1 million campaign to boost the Penn Band’s endowment, so it could provide a permanent source of support for the Band’s ongoing operations. Mario’s gift would match all donor commitments dollar-for-dollar up to $500,000.
More than 200 alumni, family, and friends of the Penn Band rallied to the challenge. But that was not the end of the good news: Thanks to the success of the endowment challenge, the position of Penn Band Director has been named the R. Greer Cheeseman III, EE’77 Director of Penn Band, in honor of the group’s long-time director, who has been involved with the Penn Band for more than 50 years. Much to Cheeseman’s surprise, the naming was announced at a gala celebrating 125 years of the Penn Band.
