By Erica Hawthorne, Campus Philly

Campus Philly held their Annual Meeting on Thursday, December 5 at WHYY in Philadelphia, where 240 stakeholders gathered to learn about the organization’s focus and progress on accelerating internships and connecting Philadelphia college students to community.  The meeting highlighted Campus Philly’s newest connector initiative: Open Arts, a program that builds a student community around arts and culture in Philadelphia and is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, with matching corporate support from Comcast.

“[The Open Arts program] fits squarely into the work we’re trying to achieve at the Knight Foundation in Philadelphia,” said Donna Frisby-Greenwood, Philadelphia Program Director at Knight Foundation. “And that’s attracting and retaining talent.” She added that Philadelphians are deeply attached to the arts and that the arts are one of the main reasons that people remain in the area.

“We are very proud to be part of this relationship with Campus Philly and to really create an environment, a forum for students to discover what a wonderful place this is while they stay here, and hopefully stay here for a long time afterwards,” shared Marcien Jenckes, Executive Vice President of Consumer Services at Comcast, during the Open Arts launch party held this August at their Center City headquarters.

Open Arts includes an array of options for students to experience the arts, including always-available student discounts, as well as student membership rates and rush ticket policies. In addition, over 13,000 students from Campus Philly’s partner schools received key cards this semester.  The key cards include access codes to a special section of the website where students can view and register for events for free around the city.  More than 2,900 students have registered for 420 event tickets for over 41 arts and culture events in the City. The Open Arts website, openartsphilly.com, also features student-written reviews and arts commentary provided by the Center for Cultural Outreach from the Pennoni Honors College at Drexel University.

Campus Philly utilized the Annual Meeting to outline the three new areas of their strategic plan also funded by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and share the excitement of the new program in an Open Arts video. Campus Philly produced the short video to show students gaining access to Open Arts venues and events throughout the city. The event concluded with a guest panel discussion on “The Intersection of Art, Business and Education in Philadelphia.”

Campus Philly is a nonprofit organization that fuels economic growth by encouraging college student to study, explore, live and work in the Greater Philadelphia tri-state region.