Given the vast array of artistic and cultural outlets on Penn's campus, a Web site that unites all of these opportunities may seem long overdue. However, after nearly a year of planning, a new arts and culture Web site is set to launch within the next few days.
The site -- titled "Arts and Culture at Penn" -- will be a central location for information about any of the University's arts and culture venues -- from the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology to WXPN.
"We wanted to unify all these different aspects under one umbrella," said Deni Kasrel, director of web and publishing services in the Office of University Communications.
"We actually have a tremendous amount to offer in this area."
According to Kasrel, the site will entice visitors by featuring a different arts and culture event on its main Web page each time the site is accessed.
The Web site will also include profiles of all the arts and culture venues on campus, under three main categories -- Literary Arts, Museums and Galleries and Music, Theater, Dance and Film.
Also available will be a calendar of Penn arts and culture events, as well as an opt-in monthly e-newsletter, which will provide updates about upcoming performances, exhibitions and other programs.
The site will also feature descriptions of all the academic degree programs available at Penn associated with arts and culture.
Although initial discussions concerning an arts and culture site began back when the University was revamping its Web site a few years ago, preparations really started rolling in December 2003.
To create the site, a committee composed of members representing all of the main arts and culture venues at Penn -- the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, the University Museum, the Institute of Contemporary Art, WXPN and Morris Arboretum -- as well as Penn's Office of Business Services and the Provost's Council on Arts and Culture provided input.
The committee also sent a survey to other arts and culture venues on campus, including Kelly Writers House and Arthur Ross Gallery, so as to incorporate their input.
Target audiences for the site are "both internal and external," Kasrel said.
"They would include arts and culture enthusiasts. ... They could be faculty, staff, alumni [and] current and prospective students."
Director of Marketing and Communications at the Annenberg Center Roy Wilbur would like the site to increase audience members, particularly from outside of the Penn community.
"I'm hoping that the site will encourage ... people from beyond the campus ... to attend events here and across campus," he said.
According to Kasrel, a main goal of "Arts and Culture at Penn" is to increase ticket sales for the arts and culture venues on campus, because currently visitors must go to each venue's individual site in order to learn about upcoming events.
However, the central Web site "will not replace any of the venue's sites," Kasrel said. There will be links to those sites on "Arts and Culture at Penn."
Interim Provost Peter Conn--who ended a more than four-year run as chairman of the Provost's Council on Arts and Culture when he assumed his current position -- called the site "a project dear to my heart," as it was from the Provost's Council that the idea for the site emerged.
"We've put in a lot of time in part because we wanted to get it right," Conn said. The site is "part of a broad strategy to make these [events] more visible."
Kesrel elaborated, saying, "The Web site is step one in possibly a large marketing plan" for "Arts and Culture at Penn."
Conn commented further on the necessity of creative outlets in the higher education environment.
"A great university must nurture excellent achievement in a very wide range of activities -- academics chief among them, but also such areas as the artistic and the cultural."
