Background on Capital Campaign

The Brandywine Workshop owns three distinct properties situated on a mini-campus at 720-734 South Broad Street on the cultural district (Avenue of the Arts) and along adjacent Pemberton Street from 1404-1410. The mini-campus is within ten –minutes walking distance to Philadelphia’s City Hall and the heart of downtown.

The main building is in a four-story 9,500 square foot historic firehouse built in 1871, which was renovated in 1991-92. The structure was built as the Harmony Fire Engine Company and Franklin Hose.  From 1993-2008, it housed  Brandywine’s  Printed Image  and Tanner Galleries, offices, gift shop, classrooms and art storage areas.   The firehouse at 730-32 South Broad Street has been closed since the fall of 2008 due to massive restoration and unanticipated structural stabilization work to the façade. This property is now being prepared for redevelopment, but not as previously utilized for programming.

Brandywine also built the four-story, 28,000 square foot masonry building at 1404-1410 Pemberton Street (aka 728 South Broad Street) in 1997. The brick building sits approximately 100 feet to the rear of Broad Street. The first two floors have provided space for The Offset Institute, its printing operation, Archives, Video Lab, Glass Lobby Gallery and additional office space.  In 2005, the upper two floors were sold to Solutions for Progress, a public policy and technology firm, which displays an extensive collection of prints, masks, and sculpture from the personal collection of its owner-chairman, Robert J. Brand.

The third property is a landscaped public plaza at 720-730 South Broad Street that connects the two buildings and provides visibility and access from Broad Street to the rear property and an outdoor venue during warm weather for diverse programming.  The total cost of capital investments since 1992 has been more than $7 million, which has been complemented with additional investments by private and public entities and resulted in the transformation of an entire community.

Art in Place

The current economic recession has slowed our planned development efforts and caused a re-thinking of strategy in terms of programming and space that can be sustainable long-term. After conferring with multiple partners and a variety of stakeholders, Brandywine will soon unveil a new Capital Development Plan, which will take advantage of our great location, strong community support for advancing arts and cultural programing and its leadership capacity to spur coordinated planning for future community development.

We have designated our plan Art in Place.  Art In Place takes into account creating livable, diverse communities and cities where the arts are significant to the economy and education, while forging innovative connections to technology and commerce.

Art in Place is an integrated approach to community planning that seeks to create complementary opportunities for business, arts, commercial and residential development, which furthers the vibrancy of the Avenue of the Arts, South of South Street.  It will reinforce the idea of arts training and education on the Avenue’s southern end with existing assets such as the Clef Club of Jazz, High School for Creative and Performing Arts, Rock School of Dance, The Art Bank and Brandywine Workshop. Art in Place utilizes the redevelopment of the Brandywine campus at Broad and Fitzwater Streets to establish an anchor for extending daytime cultural programming and other needed amenities necessary to create a cultural and heritage neighborhood destination for area residents and tourists.

Visit our Web site regularly for the unveiling of the plan and updates on progress.