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City Invests $69M in Cultural Expansion

PHILADELPHIA-With a $30-million grant, the Philadelphia Museum of Art is the biggest beneficiary of the city's largest investment ever in cultural institutions.

By Marita Thomas | Updated on August 20, 2007

PHILADELPHIA-As he prepares to exit City Hall in January, Mayor John Street has handed out $68.6 million in grants to 24 cultural institutions, primarily to support expansion and/or renovation of building assets. It is part of Street’s Cultural Corridors Grant program that was funded through a $150-million bond issue, proposed by the mayor and approved by the city council in late 2006.

With $30 million, the Philadelphia Museum of Art is the biggest beneficiary. The grant supports its 10-year, $500-million capital campaign to create a new 80,000-sf underground gallery in the main building, renovate the existing 633,835-sf structure and add a 400-space underground parking garage.

The Please Touch Museum received $3.5 million for its renovation of the 129-year-old Memorial Hall building in Fairmont Park. The museum that now occupies approximately 68,000 sf in adjacent buildings at N. 21st Street is relocating to the historic, 157,000-sf Beaux Arts landmark under an 80-year lease, which it obtained for an aggregate of one dollar from the City Commission of Public Property. Nancy Kolb, the museum’s president and CEO, estimates costs at $35 million for relocation, $13 million for exhibits and $10 million in building retrofits.

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