Philadelphia Art Alliance

The Philadelphia Art Alliance at University of the Arts is a multidisciplinary arts center located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood. It is the oldest multidisciplinary arts center in the United States for visual, literary and performing arts. History Founded in 1915 by theater aficionado and philanthropist Christine Wetherill Stevenson, the Philadelphia Art Alliance was awarded its charter of operations on September 27, 1915 by Judge Ferguson in Philadelphia's Court of Common Pleas No. 3. At the time, the organization had fifty members. In December 1915, the alliance purchased property at 1823-25 Walnut Street in Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square section, where members initially planned to establish the organization's headquarters. Models of the alliance's proposed building designs were displayed at the Philadelphia Today and Tomorrow Civic Exposition that was held in the auditorium building of the Commercial Museum in Philadelphia from May 15 to June 10, 1916. Alliance members hoped that their new building would ultimately come to be known as the "Art Center of America." In January 1917, the alliance launched a new series of "sociable luncheons" that were designed to familiarize prominent men and women in the Philadelphia region with fine arts and music trends. The first speaker was Olga Samaroff, an American pianist and music critic who was married to Leopold Stokowski, conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Samaroff, who was well known to the alliance and residents of the Philadelphia region from her work on the alliance's music committee, presented a lecture on "The Correlation of Music and the Fine Arts."