Arts festival planned for 2011

This year, Philadelphia is dipping its toe into a citywide international arts festival with Philagrafika 20-10.

This year, Philadelphia is dipping its toe into a citywide international arts festival with Philagrafika 20-10. Next year, the city will dive deeper. The Kimmel Center has announced the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts for April 20-11.

Organizers have not yet announced the performances scheduled for the month-long festival beginning in April of next year. They have said, however, that the Philadelphia Orchestra will perform with the Pennsylvania Ballet. The two entities have never shared a stage, and will present the French ballet Pulcinella.

Kimmel Center president Anne Ewers says more 100 local arts organizations will participate, many collaborating with international guests.

Ewers: What’s unique about this, it is centered on arts organizations that are here – spotlighting the great art here – and tying it to the international things we bring into the city regularly, now as a focused theme and a focused festival.

The festival will be heavy on performance but will include the visual and even the culinary arts. Some of the funding comes from a $10 million gift by Lee Annenberg. It was one of the last large gifts the philanthropist gave before she died last year.