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Our Story

Vision Statement | World View | Mission Statement | Diversity Statement |
History | Resident Companies |

Vision Statement

Transforming lives daily through the arts.

World View

The Kimmel Cultural Campus believes that the arts build strong communities and are essential to enhance the human experience.

Mission Statement

The Kimmel Cultural Campus engages the region’s diverse communities in art through performance and education. Our Cultural Campus serves as an inclusive and preeminent place to enjoy exceptional experiences that reflect the spirit of the Philadelphia region. 

The principal means by which Kimmel Cultural Campus achieves its mission include:

  • People: Cultivate a creative, inclusive, socially-responsible community where artists, guests, staff, donors, and volunteers share experiences that are delivered with pride and integrity.
  • Exceptional Experiences: Collaborate, present, and produce to ensure a broad range of relevant and meaningful performances, events, and artistic programs, including support to artists in the creation of new work for the Campus that serves the region’s audiences.
  • Arts Education: Educate the region’s young people through access to quality arts experiences and multi-year opportunities to see, make, and understand the performing arts both on the Campus and in communities.
  • The Cultural Campus: Operate venues and nurture assets that deliver diverse and vital arts experiences, are a proud home to its Resident Companies, and are active gathering spaces for social and community events.  These venues include the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, The Academy of Music, and the Miller Theater (formerly the Merriam Theater).

Diversity Statement

The diversity of our region is our strength and Kimmel Cultural Campus is dedicated to creating a diverse and inclusive cultural campus that reflects our commitment to an environment where everyone feels welcome and valued onstage and off. 

Learn More Here

History

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts began to take shape in 1996 when two projects came together: The Philadelphia Orchestra's ongoing plan to build a new home for itself, and a plan of then-Mayor Edward G. Rendell to provide a much-needed venue for some of Philadelphia's most prominent performing arts companies and for touring presentations. With the generous consent of The Philadelphia Orchestra, which had acquired a property at Broad and Spruce Streets, the two plans were merged under the supervision and management of a new organization, the Regional Performing Arts Center (RPAC).

Today, the original dream has grown into a full Campus of buildings and represents 164 years of artistic inspiration along Philadelphia’s Avenue of the Arts. The Kimmel Cultural Campus incorporates public amenities and operates three major venues:

  • The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, which is home to Verizon Hall (2,500-seat concert hall), Perelman Theater (650-seat recital theater), and SEI Innovation Studio – a 2,688 sq. foot black box theater,
  • A renovated and upgraded Academy of Music (2,900 seats)
  • And the Miller Theater (formerly the Merriam Theater) (1,841 seats).

Our rich history spans over a century and a half, representing a generations-long commitment to presenting the transformative power of the arts to Philadelphians.

In Summer 2021, The Campus introduced a new alliance and formation of a parent company with The Philadelphia Orchestra. The two organizations join forces to present great performances and impactful education and community programs – charting a better shared future together – under the leadership of President & CEO Matías Tarnopolsky.

The Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center, Inc.

Together we’re creating a vibrant cultural future for Philadelphia.

On June 17, 2021, The Philadelphia Orchestra and the Kimmel Center announced a pathbreaking partnership to create a brighter, more inclusive, innovative cultural future for Philadelphia: The Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center, Inc. 

This new organization will reimagine the power of the arts to bring joy, create community, and effect change—to uplift all Philadelphians. We are uniting from a position of strength to bring the greatest performances and most impactful education and community programs, in person and digitally, to the diverse audiences of our city, and beyond.

Resident Companies

With the Kimmel Center’s Verizon Hall as the home to The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Kimmel Cultural Campus' facilities host seven Resident Companies: Verizon Hall is home to The Philly POPS®; Perelman Theater is home to PHILADANCO!, The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and Curtis Institute of Music; and the Academy of Music is home to Opera Philadelphia and Philadelphia Ballet.

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