We are, and have always been, a global museum that seeks to provide a larger, global perspective. We collaborate with scholars from around the world, and train new generations of scholars, both at Penn and internationally, to participate in our history making enterprise. In today’s rapidly changing, interconnected world—where communications, understandings and misunderstandings travel faster than at any other time, the expertise and perspective that archaeology, anthropology, and our extraordinary collections can provide are more important than ever before.

Plans are underway to bring the Museum to the next level—to increase public visibility and access, upgrade key public presentation and meeting spaces, and provide critical endowment for the future.

Central to our plans—and our vision for an even more expansive future—is the Museum’s new Master Plan for the 21st Century—developed by the London and Berlin-based David Chipperfield Architects, recipients of the coveted 2007 Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize, working in collaboration with Philadelphia-based Atkin Olshin Schade Architects. The Master Plan looks boldly to the future, balancing a comprehensive restoration and renovation strategy for the Museum’s historic building complex with dramatic new public spaces designed to engage and appeal to a wider public, as well as state-of-the-art research, teaching and collection storage spaces to foster increased research collaboration.

Penn Museum is poised to build upon its proud tradition of international research and public education, moving forward to foster original scholarship and public engagement as a unique local, national and international resource, and an inspiration for our rapidly changing global community.