Philadelphia Launches Ambitious International Arts Festival

The City of Philadelphia announced plans to host an international arts festival next year throughout the city that will include music, dance, fashion, fine arts, poetry and cuisine.

Representatives of the newly formed Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts held a press conference February 2 announcing the event but provided few details on the more than 100 local and international performances (including unusual collaborations) it plans to host during the three-week extravaganza, from April 7 to May 1, 2011.

Instead the organization released its logo, a cube balancing on its point (pictured above), along with a performance of Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat in a mash-up collaboration with two local DJs, Dave P and DJ Statik (shown below). Coverage of the press conference can be found here.

While it will be a citywide event, the official host is the Kimmel Center, the city’s performing arts center that serves as the home of eight city performance arts organizations, including The Philadelphia Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and Peter Nero and the Philly Pops.

Collaboration, creativity and innovation are the themes of the festival. While the full PIFA program will be announced April 7, exactly one year before the start of the festival, organizers did release some program highlights, including the first-ever major collaboration between The Philadelphia Orchestra and the Pennsylvania Ballet; and Philadelphia-based hip hop band, The Roots, in concert with a French chanteuse to be announced.

The inspiration for the event is the Paris arts explosion from 1910-1920—a period of time that reshaped and redefined art through collaborations of talented artists from all over the world in all genres of artistic expression. This movement helped to define and interpret art for the rest of the 20th Century.

The festival director is Edward Cambron, a 20-year Philadelphia Orchestra Association veteran. The program will be guided by artistic producer Barbara Silverstein. The festival idea originally was hatched by Kimmel Center president and chief executive Anne Ewers about three years ago.

The festival is being financed with the help of a $10 million grant from the late Leonore Annenberg.

Philadelphia Philanthropist’s Diamond Ring Fetches $7.7M

A 32 carat diamond ring owned by billionaire philanthropist Leonore Annenberg sold for $7.7 million at action Wednesday at Christie’s, New York to an unidentified buyer, according to news reports.

Annenberg purchased the square emerald-cut diamond for her 90th birthday. The ring was offered for sale by Annenberg's estate. She died in March at the age of 91.

The ring is designed by Manhattan jeweler David Webb. It is flanked by two pear-shaped diamonds, one of them 1.61 carats and the other 1.51 carats.

“The Annenberg Diamond … combines the best of the 4 C’s: top color, perfect clarity, ideal cut, and excellent weight. And if you add to this the impeccable provenance of the Annenberg name, you have one of the finest gems to appear on the market for many years,” François Curiel, chairman of Christie’s Europe and International Head of Jewels, said in a statement prior to the auction.

Annenberg, served as chairwoman and president of the Annenberg Foundation and was the U.S. chief of protocol during the Reagan administration. Her husband, Walter H. Annenberg, was a prominent newspaper publisher, broadcaster, diplomat, and philanthropist. He died in 2002 at the age of 94.

The Annenbergs lived in the suburban Philadelphia community of Wynnewood. Several of Walter Annenberg’s businesses were located in the area, including the newspapers, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, and TV Guide, which he founded in 1952.

More information is available on Christie’s Web site.