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Through our dynamic programs, valued partnerships and an engaged membership, The Athenæum continues to foster connections and learning within our community.
Besides offering more programs in 2023-2024, The Athenæum staff responded to a deepening desire among our members for opportunities to engage in learning while building relationships by increasing quality small group events. Approximately 4,800 people attended our programs in FY2024.
The 161 programs offered during the fiscal year included 25 lectures or book talks; 8 concerts and 2 monthly book clubs; a monthly knitting and conversation group, Member Mondays and First Fridays; 18 movie screenings & discussions and Le Cercle Francophone. We brought back the Socrates Cafe for philosophical discussions and started a Spanish conversation group and a Salon series.
Popular classes included an Odyssey reading group, teen and adult writing courses with Cordelia Biddle, an introduction to comic books and graphic novels with Matt Madden and a Suburban Philadelphia architectural history course taught by Kevin Block and Greg Prichard.
We restarted The Roger W. Moss Symposium series, created in 2005 in honor of The Athenæum’s long-time Executive Director Roger Moss and on hiatus since the pandemic. According to the symposia endowment, the focus is on the history of art, architecture, design and cultural history with related exhibitions. In Fall 2023, The Athenæum hosted a sold out symposium, “Documentation by Design: A Celebration of the Historic American Buildings Survey 90th Anniversary and the Charles E. Peterson Prize 40th Anniversary,” with complementary exhibitions highlighting both the HABS Survey and the Charles E. Peterson Prize.
Among our most popular programs by attendance were the Classical Guitar Soiree featuring classical guitarist John Marcel Williams and violinist Maya Anjali the screening of Peter Bogdanovich’s unreleased Squirrels to Nuts a talk by Athenæum Literary Award Winner Will Bunch and the launch of ‘Pemi Aguda’s novel Ghostroots.
Guests flocked to The Athenæum for the exhibition openings of Elayne Bryn’s show, Orbis: The Natural World, an exhibition of Boston artist Peter Tatum’s work and the exhibition opening for Constructing Knowledge: 300 Years of The Carpenters’ Company of the City and County of Philadelphia. March’s First Friday, A Visual History of Photography in Philadelphia, featuring items from The Athenæum’s 19th century photographic collection and curated by our intern MeiXing Hunt-Babcock, proved very popular as well.
*Note: Approximate total attendance between 30 June 2023 and 30 June 2024. These three programs had the highest attendance during the same period.
The Athenæum strengthens our community and Philadelphia through strategic partnerships with other cultural organizations. This past fiscal year’s programming represented collaborations with more than 15 other organizations.
In 2023-2024, The Athenæum collaborated on speaker series events with (re)FOCUS 2024, the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, Professional Italians of Philadelphia, Society Hill Civic Association and the African American Children’s Book Project. The Library of Congress, the national park service and the American Institute of Architects partnered with us for our fall 2023 Roger W. Moss Symposium.
We celebrated 5 years of quality music with Allegro Music Consultants and Opera Philadelphia, our third annual Sunday in the Square concert with Independence National Park and our first full season with the Philadelphia Classical Guitar Society.
In April, we joined the Global Philadelphia Association in celebrating the International Day of Monuments and Sites, while in May, we opened an exhibition with the Carpenters’ Company exploring 300 years of that august institution. Through the Spring, we planned with Historic District Philadelphia Partners for the first annual July 3rd Red, White & Blue To-Do. During the year, our Young Friends participated in events jointly hosted by The Athenæum and the Bok Building and Fleisher Art Memorial.
As members of the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries, Historic District Philadelphia, and the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, we champion the value of special collections libraries for our region. We support our local architectural and preservation communities by offering our space for programs and events with the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, and the Philadelphia Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects among other organizations.
The Athenæum library services continue to partner with cloudLibrary and Penn Libraries.
The Athenæum’s membership has been on an upward trajectory since 2019, after years of slow decline. Cumulatively, membership grew by 25% in FY2024, reaching nearly 2000 members.
The membership categories with the biggest increases were those that we created in response to demand back in 2021: Students and the two Dual Subscriber options. As we develop our services and heighten awareness of our beautiful, inspiring space, more young adults and households with more than one adult are interested in joining our community.
Members and the public love all that The Athenæum has to offer. During the 2023-2024 season, approximately 13,298 people visited The Athenæum to attend events, view exhibits, use our Regional Digital Imaging Center (RDIC), undertake research, check out books, enjoy the Member Lounge or use our Reading Room. That averages 1,160 unique visits per month.
Growth % during 2023-2024
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Total % of each membership level 2023-2024
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For me, the secret sauce of the Athenæum is the community. From First Fridays to online book clubs to the knitting circle, everyone has been warm and welcoming.
Monday 9am-7pm
Tuesday 9am-5pm
Wednesday 10am-5pm
Thursday 9am-5pm
Friday 9am-5pm
Saturday 10am-3pm
Closed Sundays
All content ©Athenæum of Philadelphia 2024. Photography by Joseph Elliot. Website design by Garlic Agency.
