Bill Adair: Our vision with ArtPhilly is to establish Philadelphia as a globally recognized arts and culture destination, celebrate our city’s vibrant, creative communities and diverse artistic expressions, and inspire and engage people from all walks of life.

Katherine Sachs: In 2026, ArtPhilly is going to present a six-week, multidisciplinary, citywide festival showcasing arts of all kinds. There will be dance and theater, visual arts and music, films and storytelling, all to highlight the talented artists who live here and are worthy of being celebrated. The Philadelphia artistic community is extraordinary and from May through June 2026, you will see why.

Artists are the very best interpreters of this moment in time. They can address the cracks and help us all find the light.

Adair: We see this project as a community development and economic development project for artists and arts-oriented communities. It’s as much a project about promoting artists as it is promoting incredible things we have here in our communities, in our neighborhoods.

Sachs: We are inspired by a quote from Leonard Cohen: “There are cracks in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” We are Philadelphians, our Liberty Bell with its crack is our city’s most famous tourist attraction. As we prepare to celebrate the nation’s anniversary, we want to show that artists are the very best interpreters of this moment in time. They can address the cracks and help us all find the light.

Adair: There are many questions right now about the future of democracy in our country and where this experiment of America is going. As Kathy said, we think artists are some of the best people to interrogate those questions. That’s why we think it’s particularly powerful to launch our festival in 2026, to coincide with the 250th anniversary. It feels like we’re in a moment of reckoning around questions of democracy.

Sachs: Penn had a huge effect on my life. I met my husband at Penn, and I majored in art history. Art was very important to both of us. Keith felt very strongly that the arts drive creativity and allow one to go beyond the ordinary—to think and see differently. He believed that with imagination, you could find a way to make the impossible possible.

Adair: I went to school in the ’80s. I graduated in 1985. Everything about Penn was instrumental in my feeling like I had access to incredible organizations. I was this kid from Flourtown, Pennsylvania, and suddenly I was working at a world-class archaeology museum, and then helping to run an education department at the Institute of Contemporary Art. All of that, 100 percent, was because I was fortunate enough to go to Penn. My life would be very different if I hadn’t.— February 7, 2025 • As told to Michele W. Berger, Photo by Brooke Sietinsons