Get our monthly newsletter in your inbox for the latest on cultural events, ideas, conversations, and grantmaking news in Philadelphia and beyond.
The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage (the Center) is a multidisciplinary grantmaker and hub for knowledge-sharing, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, dedicated to fostering a vibrant cultural community in Greater Philadelphia. Please visit our About page to learn more about our work.
The Center is funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and is the major instrument of its ongoing support for culture in the Greater Philadelphia region.
The Center makes awards to organizations for projects and to individuals through fellowships. Each of our funding programs has a set of annual guidelines detailing the types of grants available and eligibility criteria. Our grant types include Project grants in the areas of Performance and Exhibitions & Public Interpretation, and Pew Fellowships for individual artists, which are awarded through a nomination process.
In 2024, the Center awarded Evolving Futures grants to provide risk capital for organizations to evolve and transform their business and operating models for greater future vitality, relevance, and sustainability.
To find out if your organization is eligible to apply for funding through the Center, please visit our Apply page or contact Center staff directly. Center staff members are always available to answer your questions.
Pew Fellowships in the Arts are open to artists of all disciplines currently working in the Philadelphia area. Artists are nominated and invited to apply for fellowships.
Grants are made annually through rigorous peer-review panels composed of a rotating group of distinguished, internationally recognized experts. These panelists come from outside the region and bring both general and specific areas of disciplinary expertise to the process.
In 2024, the Center awarded 49 grants totaling more than $10 million and providing funding for nine Evolving Futures grants, 18 creative project grants, and 12 Pew Fellowships in the Arts. Since 1989, the Center has provided more than $192 million to artists and arts and heritage organizations based in Greater Philadelphia’s five counties.
Guidelines and eligibility criteria for our grants can be found on our Apply page, along with a calendar of application due dates and deadlines. Pew Fellowship applicants are determined by a nomination process, and apply by invitation only. Please review our guidelines and contact Center program staff with questions.
The Center aims to advance the arts and heritage fields and connect Philadelphia to a global network of cultural practitioners through our Questions of Practice series. We produce an extensive collection of interviews with and essays by noted field leaders and thinkers, as well as in-depth publications that grow out of our experience as cultural grantmakers, to present ongoing dialogue about issues critical to artistic practice today.
View our full list of Pew Fellows, ranging from 1992 to the present.
Please visit our Credit Guidelines page.
The Center was established in 2005 to house seven funding programs of The Pew Charitable Trusts. These programs merged to form a single entity that awards grants throughout Greater Philadelphia. In 2013, the Center consolidated its Project grant programs to create two new funding categories: Performance and Exhibitions & Public Interpretation. Our timeline below provides a look into our history and the culmination of the Center as it exists today.
The Center’s offices were designed by BluPath Design, Philadelphia. All of the artwork in our office, including text excerpts, has been created by Pew Fellows. For details about individual works of art in the space, download the Center’s Art Notes PDF.
Our library is made available to constituents upon request. Please contact Ellen Maher at emaher@pewcenterarts.org to request more information and to schedule an appointment.
The Center is located on the 18th floor of 1608 Walnut Street, between 16th and 17th Streets in Center City, Philadelphia, near Rittenhouse Square. Limited street parking is available. There are two parking garages on Chancellor Street between 16th and17th streets (The Hyatt Centric and the 1616 Chancellor Garage) within walking distance.
The Center is also easily accessible via public transportation. The closest Regional Rail stop is at Suburban Station, located at 16th Street and JFK Boulevard. The closest subway stop is on the Broad Street Line at Walnut Street and Broad Street. Trolley lines and the Market-Frankford Line are accessible at 15th Street Station, at 15th Street and Market Street.
The views expressed herein are those of the author(s)/contributor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Pew Charitable Trusts.