Copied to Clipboard
Painted Bride Art Center
Most major cities have alternative performing arts spaces, but Philadelphia’s Painted Bride Art Center is the mother of them all.
The Bride, as Philadelphians call it, mounts art exhibits and installations and acts as a magnet to the community for intimate social and cultural events.
Leading the nation for three decades with visionary, dynamic performances in world and jazz music, poetry, dance, and theater, the Bride presents work that the public cannot see at the big “MacArt” centers springing up around the country.
It continues as a beacon to the arts as they are being invented, a starting point for innovative artists and a magnet for adventurous audiences.
Six artists from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts started Painted Bride Art Center as a cooperative gallery on South Street in 1969, but it was Gerry Givnish who shepherded the gallery into a performance space.
Givnish, who recently retired, moved the Bride to its permanent Old City site in 1982. Past performers at the Bride include Carlos Santana, Elvin Jones, Penn & Teller, Spalding Gray and Sonia Sanchez.
The Visit Philly Overnight Package — booked more than 190,000 times since 2001 — comes with free hotel parking (worth up to $100 in Center City Philadelphia) and overnight hotel accommodations.