PHILADELPHIA, August 27, 2002 – Art is everywhere this fall and winter in Philadelphia. It’s on the streets, at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and even on billboards. In the mood for hip-hop dance or trapeze mastery? How about handmade paper or the works of Edgar Degas? Perhaps it’s European glass or mixed media that intrigues you.

From annual shows and alternative performances to blockbuster exhibits and behind the scenes tours, Philadelphia is the place to enjoy the arts this season. Here are some of the hottest tickets in town:

• Now in its sixth year, the Fringe Festival takes to the streets August 30-
  September 14, 2002 with its vast and varied showcase of hybrid, edgy art. Highlights include a Britney Spears-style video of Dante’s Inferno and the return of actor/hip-hop commentator Danny Hoch. (215) 413-9006, www.pafringe.org

• When Imprint explodes over Philadelphia, there will be art at every turn. The Print Center is bringing works by major local artists to billboards, bus shelters and mall kiosks throughout the city. You can even find their artwork on 250,000 paper coffee cups. The visual celebration takes place September 3-November 9, 2002. (215) 735-6090, www.printcenter.org

• Varekai, meaning "wherever" in the Romany language of the gypsies, is the apt title of the latest production by Cirque du Soleil. The story of a young man who arrives by parachute on a volcano’s peak is illuminated by traditional dance and acrobatic wonders. The spectacle touches ground September 19 and hovers until October 6, 2002.
  (800) 678-5440, www.cirquedusoleil.com

• Experience history and culture at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, where Juke Joint, a provocative mixed media installation that recreates artist Willie Little’s childhood memories of his father’s juke joint in North Carolina, is on display from October 11, 2002 through January 11, 2003. (215) 574-0380, www.aampmuseum.org

• Go behind the scenes and into the place where creative ideas are conceived during the Philadelphia Artists’ Open Studio Tours. Local visual artists of all mediums allow visitors to stop in and view their works in progress for two consecutive weekends, October 12-13, 2002 and October 19-20, 2002. (215) 683-2086, www.inliquid.com

• Theatrical virtuosity meets musical luminance when Tom Stoppard and Andre Previn’s Every Good Boy Deserves Favor lands on the Kimmel Center’s stage from
  November 20-26, 2002. The story of imprisoned political dissenters in the Soviet Union is a joint production by the Wilma Theater and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
  (215) 546-STAGE, www.wilmatheater.org

• At the National Liberty Museum, glass represents the fragility of freedom. During Glass Now Weekend, September 27-29, 2002, the museum and the Coalition of Glass Collectors and Artists honor both the art form and its symbolism with discussions about the community, award presentations and an auction of international glass works.
  (215) 925-2800, www.libertymuseum.org

• Collectors can do some one-stop art buying on October 18-20, 2002, when the USArtists: American Fine Art Show, featuring 50 dealers of American art, sets up shop at the 33^rd Street Armory. Sales benefit the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
  (800) 455-8312, www.usartists.org

• There is art you can cook with and art you can wear, and it’s all for sale at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show from November 7-10, 2002. The personally crafted wares, judged by a team of experts, include baskets, jewelry, paper works and furniture by 190 artists. (215) 684-7930, www.philamuseum.org/pmacraft/

• The latest in the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s series of blockbuster exhibitions, Degas and the Dance, opens February 12 and runs through May 11, 2003. The show explores the renowned artist’s fascination with the ballet, displaying new insights and more than 150 works of art. (215) 763-8100, www.philamuseum.org. Coinciding with Degas and the Dance is the Pennsylvania Ballet’s production of Carmina, a Degas-inspired world premiere ballet by Matthew Neenan, which is on stage from February 14-22, 2003.
  (215) 551-7000, www.paballet.org

The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation is a non-profit organization dedicated to generating awareness of and visitation to Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties. For more information about travel to Philadelphia, visit www.gophila.com or call the new Independence Visitor Center, located in Independence National Historical Park, at (800) 537-7676.

Note to Editors: For story angles and photographic images of Philadelphia and its surrounding countryside, visit www.gophila.com/pressroom.

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