"Casual observers would be forgiven if they thought the longest-running art museum and school in America had given up the ghost. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts announced in January that it was ending its college degree program, and a few months later it closed its historic landmark…

"Hailing the Ferry, Daniel Ridgway Knight’s richly hued rural scene of two women standing beside a river, is one of the stars at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Widely reproduced and recognized, the 1888 canvas is the kind of work that art museums strive to own: a beloved friend that…

Philadelphia Revealed: Unpacking the Attic evokes memories with every step—if not your own, then ones you’ve heard from older friends and relatives.

"The show, a nod to the old museum’s informal title, Philadelphia’s Attic, features 600 objects from the Atwater Kent Collection (AKC), which was…

"Representing 350 years of Philadelphia history, Philadelphia Revealed: Unpacking the Attic is an interactive exhibition of over 600 artifacts from the Atwater Kent Collection (AKC) at Drexel University on display at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA). Hundreds of historical images…

"For as much history as Philadelphia represents, the city no longer has a physical location for its history museum. After the Philadelphia History Museum shuttered in 2018, its collection was transferred to Drexel University. Renamed the Atwater Kent Collection, it contains more than 130,000 objects…

"Key to the institutional retooling are repairs to one of the crown jewels in the relatively small inventory of surviving Frank Furness-designed structures — PAFA’s historic landmark building just north of City Hall. The Academy has about $5.5 million in hand for a $10 million project to replace the…

"A stadium turnstile and crushed copper kettles.

Quaker-made lacework and murals from Gimbel’s.

A Miss Flora McFlimsey with hair done in rings …

These are a few of Philly’s favorite things — at least that’s what Drexel University hopes.

About 650 objects selected from the Philadelphia historical archive…

"At an exhibit opening Thursday, visitors can get a snapshot of Philadelphia history from its 17th century beginnings to its more recent baseball victories.

" Philadelphia Revealed: Unpacking the Attic" will tell the story of the city through 650 items. Some, like the teapot fragments recovered from…

Lately, museums have been exploring our complicated, often rapacious relationship with the natural world. DC’s National Portrait Gallery is currently showing Forces of Nature: Voices that Shaped Environmentalism, and last year the Brandywine Museum of Art mounted an exhibition titled Fragile Earth…

River Towns Magazine | Spring 2024
"Birthplace of the American Art Museum" By Patti Zielinski

"The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, in Philadelphia, holds a dual distinction as America’s first art school and first museum of fine arts. Inside the museum, visitors will find a world-class…

"You might not know much about John Rhoden’s Nesaika, but you have walked past it every time you have passed Seventh and Arch Streets. The 9-footbronze sculpture, which stands outside the African American Museum in Philadelphia, was dedicated on June 10, 1976, by Mayor Frank L. Rizzo.

Eight days…