Chess League Finals at the Penn Museum Determine the City Champs!

Penn Museum congratulates all the teams who competed in the Philadelphia Scholastic Chess League Finals under the ominous gaze of the Sphinx. The Chess Challenge is an after-school program organized by After School Activities Partnerships (ASAP). Sixty-nine teams at the elementary, middle and high school levels, began the season competing in weekly matches across Philadelphia, but in the end, only three teams emerged victorious at the event hosted in the Lower Egyptian Gallery at the Penn Museum.

Since 2004, ASAP has annually organized over 200 chess clubs for 4,000 youth playing in schools, community and recreation centers, libraries, places of worship and homeless shelters across the city. Created in 2002 in response to a civic outcry for help with activities for the city’s youth during the critical unsupervised hours after school, ASAP/After School Activities Partnerships has provided after school recreational and enrichment activities to Philadelphia kids in some of the poorest and most dangerous areas of the city. Read more about ASAP

Discover Ancient Worlds on Both Sides of the City

Penn Museum offers visitors a chance to step back in time and explore ancient Greece and Italy with its suite of galleries, Worlds Intertwined: Etruscans, Greeks and Romans. The Museum has teamed up with the National Constitution Center, now showing Ancient Rome and America (through August 1, 2010) to offer you a complementary experience—at a discount!

If you are a Penn Museum member
...or if you join today, you can show your Penn Museum membership card for FREE ADMISSION to the National Constitution Center and its special exhibition, now through August 1, 2010.

Just visiting?
Keep your Penn Museum admission receipt dated from March 1 through August 1, 2010, and use it for $2 off admission to Ancient Rome and America at the National Constitution Center, now through August 1, 2010 (one discount offer per receipt).

Ancient Rome & America
February 19 – August 1, 2010
$2 off when you present Penn Museum ticket stub

Discover the cultural, political, and social connections between the lost world of ancient Rome and modern America. The 8,000 square foot exhibition features more than 300 artifacts from Italy and the United States, bringing together a never-before-seen collection from Italy’s leading archaeological institutions in Florence, Naples, and Rome, paired with objects from over 40 lending institutions in the United States.

Exhibition highlights include:

• A Roman bronze eagle and American gilt eagle depicting the classic symbol shared by ancient Rome and America

• Roman busts of Scipio Africanus, Julius Caesar, and Cicero
• Busts of the Founding Fathers portrayed in togas
• Remnants from Pompeii, including a preserved piece of a wall fresco, and the cast of a man frozen in time by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius

Get tickets and information
National Constitution Center, 525 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106

Worlds Intertwined: Etruscans, Greeks, and Romans
$2 off adult admission/$1 off senior admission when you present National Constitution Center ticket stub

Explore the rich, interconnected cultures of the sun-drenched ancient Mediterranean—and discover anew how these cultures continue to influence and inspire our world today. Worlds Intertwined, a suite of galleries at the Penn Museum, features more than 1,400 ancient artifacts, including marble and bronze sculptures, jewelry, metalwork, mosaics, glass vessels, gold and silver coins, and painted pottery. The objects, drawn from the Museum’s outstanding Mediterranean collection, help tell the remarkable, interwoven stories of the ancient Greeks (1050-31 BCE); the Etruscan peoples, the first great rulers of central Italy (800-100 BCE); and their empire-building Roman successors (500 BCE-500 CE).

Penn Museum, and Ban Chiang Project, Honored by Thailand's Princess at Formal Opening of New National Museum at Ban Chiang, Thailand

Ban Chiang Project Continues Study of, Debate about, this Technologically Advanced Ancient Southeast Asia Community

PHILADELPHIA, PA—The University of Pennsylvania Museum and Dr. Joyce White, Associate Curator of the Museum's Asian section, were honored by Her Royal Highness of Thailand, Crown Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, on February 9, 2010, at the opening of the new National Museum at Ban Chiang, Thailand, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1992.

Read more...

On Thursday, February 18, FOX 29's popular weather anchor Sue Serio paid a special visit to the Penn Museum to encourage visitors to attend the Celebration of African Cultures this Saturday from 11 am to 4 pm. During the live taping, Atiyaola Malik Khan demonstrated how to tie an African head wrap and the Women's Sekere Ensemble's Omomola Iyabunmi and Mama Binta Nia performed on their sekeres (a percussive hand drum made from a gourd.)

Read more...

Penn Museum Lecture Sexes Up Ancient History
Penn Museum hosted a Young Friends Event, “Cougars, Playas and Baby Mama Drama in the Ancient World”
The Daily Pennsylvanian, February 19, 2010, by Dana Tom

Attendees of last night’s lecture at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology learned Mrs. Robinson has nothing on the cougars of the ancient world. Lil’ Wayne can’t compete with the “playas” of old Egyptian thrones. The rift between Courtney Love and her daughter stands trivial next to the drama between the babies and mamas of the Middle Eastern lands long ago.
Read the full article

Learn more about The Young Friends Program

Arts and the City at Penn Museum and all around the Penn Campus

Did you know that the Penn Museum is one of a wide variety of arts and cultural organizations and activities available to you on the University of Pennsylvania campus? Now you can stay connected with all Penn has to offer culturally, when you bookmark the Arts at Penn webpage on the phillyfunguide.

It's Penn's Arts and the City Year, and there's never been a better time to sign up for Pennsavers weekly half price discount ticket emails. Produced by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, Pennsavers features half price tickets to events throughout the city-including events with a special Penn connection. Sign up from the Arts and the City Year box, today!