Accessible Arts & Culture

At Penn, students have that kind of access thanks to world-class programming at Penn Live Arts, the University’s home for performing arts. These performances have transformative powers, which was the case one April evening, as the Cuban Mambo revolution of the 1940s and ‘50s came alive at the Zellerbach Theater. Orquesta Akokán, a Grammy-nominated Latin ensemble, brought the audience to their feet with mid-century-inspired mambo and some of Cuba’s greatest instrumentalists.

The night kicked off a broader celebration of the Kaplan-Perry Student Ticket Initiative—a PLA program that offers $3 tickets to Penn First Plus students who are the first in their families to pursue a college degree and those with modest financial resources.

Longtime philanthropists, Arthur Kaplan, C’67, and his husband Duane Perry, are passionate about increasing access to the performing arts on campus. “As a student in the 1960s on a limited budget, I didn’t attend many performances on campus or in the city,” says Kaplan. “The experience of watching performing arts—whether music, dance, or theatre—can be so enriching and we wanted to open that up to more Penn students.”

“We get far more out of the scholarships and initiatives we support than the dollars we put in,” adds Perry. “It’s a lifelong benefit for us.”

As part of the inaugural event, Penn First Plus students enjoyed a meal featuring dishes inspired by Cuban, Latin American, and Caribbean culture and engaged in a conversation led by Jairo Moreno, a Penn professor in the Department of Music. As students ate, Moreno contextualized the performance they were about to hear: “In the 1940s and ‘50s, there was a great deal of circulation between Havana and other Caribbean cities, and New York City,” says Moreno. “During that time there was a magnificent explosion of Afro-Cuban music, deeply informed by those cultures and by jazz in the United States.”

Mackenzie Coultoff, W’26, is a member of the PLA Student Advisory Council and a Penn First Plus student. Going to live performances on campus gives Mackenzie something to look forward to when she’s in the throes of classes and extracurriculars. “I’m able to see incredible performers without paying astronomical prices—or even crossing the street,” she says. “The Kaplan-Perry Student Ticket Initiative underscores just how accessible these opportunities are—it’s so fun to experience the performing arts with friends, and at what other point in my life will I have such easy access to amazing talent?”

Success in the classroom can be strengthened by exposure to the arts, according to Marc Lo, Executive Director of Penn First Plus. “The performing arts punctuate the moments between academic milestones for students,” he says. “To experience ephemeral art like a devastating scene in a play or the urge to dance during a Latin mambo performance, those opportunities should not be beyond anyone’s reach.”

Learn more about how PLA is sharing the performing arts with students on campus.

Header image by Dennis Degnan.