Penn Receives Naming Gift For New Student Performing Arts Center

 Penn Live Arts at the University of Pennsylvania announced a gift from Julie Beren Platt and Marc E. Platt, both 1979 graduates of the College of Arts & Sciences, to name the Platt Student Performing Arts Center, currently under construction at the intersection of 33rd Street and Woodland Walk.  

Designed by Steven Holl Architects, the new building will include 38,700 square feet of performance, teaching, rehearsal, and practice spaces for use by the 2,000+ students involved in the performing arts on campus. Once complete, the Platt Student Performing Arts Center will be a dedicated, flexible, and modern facility for the University’s student performing arts community, which includes dance, theatre arts, a cappella groups, and musical ensembles. 

“Julie and Marc Platt have a long history of supporting the performing arts at Penn, and we are grateful for their most recent transformative gift that will name the Platt Student Performing Arts Center,” says Penn President J. Larry Jameson. “Their generous partnership will have an immeasurable impact on generations of students by providing a creative home to rehearse, perform, and bring their artistic visions to life.”

“As the University’s home for the performing arts, our role is to nurture, incubate, present and support the full ecosystem of performance on campus,” says Christoper A. Gruits,, executive and artistic director of Penn Live Arts. “Julie and Marc’s generosity will be transformational, as more than a quarter of Penn’s undergraduate students participate in the performing arts. Expanding on their 2006 gift that created the Platt Student Performing Arts House, this new facility will greatly enhance opportunities for students to learn, create, and refine their craft in state-of-the-art spaces. We are sincerely grateful to the Platts for their ongoing generosity and enduring commitment to student artists.”

“The arts are central to the University’s mission,” adds Timothy Rommen, Penn’s vice provost for the arts. “The Platt Student Performing Arts Center will transform what is possible for our students. Thanks to Julie and Marc, we will soon have an exceptional space where students can fully embrace their creativity and showcase their considerable talents.”

Julie Beren Platt serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees and is also on the Board of Advisors for Penn Live Arts and Penn Hillel’s National Board of Governors. She previously served on the Board of Advisors at the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies and as President of the Penn Alumni Board of Directors. Marc E. Platt is a film, theatre, and television producer, and serves on the Director’s Advisory Council for Penn Live Arts. Both Marc and Julie are former members of the Parent Leadership Committee, and four of their five children are Penn graduates. The Platts have generously supported multiple initiatives across the University, including establishing the Platt Student Performing Arts House and the Julie Beren Platt and Marc Platt Rehearsal Room in Houston Hall. In addition, they have funded initiatives at the Katz Center and endowed numerous undergraduate scholarships and professorships, and recently donated two leadership gifts to support the Jewish Studies Program at the School of Arts & Sciences.