WHYY’s arts and culture reporter Peter Crimmins first became interested in radio in the fourth grade, when he smuggled a contraband crystal-diode radio into the Boy Scout summer camp. Subsequent radio projects were more successful.
Crimmins has been reporting on arts and culture for WHYY News since 2010, as well as filing award-winning radio and print stories locally and nationally. He started his career in the San Francisco Bay Area, cutting his teeth at community station KALX and producing syndicated radio programming for Ben Manilla Productions. He lives in Fishtown with his wife and two dogs.
More from the Contributor
The multi-disciplinary “Pepperpot” performance brings to life the 18th-century peddlers' songs from Philadelphia’s cobblestone streets.
20 hours ago
After 50 years as an interview host, Gross fields questions from Nézet-Séguin about opera, life choices and smoking.
1 day ago
Listen 1:34For decades, descendants of Abigail Hartman Rice have hunted for evidence of their ancestor’s patriotic contribution to enshrine her in the nonprofit.
2 days ago
Listen 1:11Pennsylvania restores arts funding for small arts organizations
Pennsylvania Creative Industries voted to alter the previously approved overhaul of its funding process.
5 days ago
Listen 1:41The British army took control of Philadelphia in 1777. They had a whale of a time
The “dark days” of the British occupation were filled with parties, dancing and theater.
1 week ago
Listen 3:10A Philadelphia arts festival asks: ‘What Now’? as the U.S. approaches its 250th birthday
“What Now: 2026” features 34 original premieres in visual and performing arts to “interrogate” America ahead of its semiquincentennial.
2 weeks ago
Listen 1:50The collapse of the Federation of Neighborhood Centers has left nonprofits scrambling to recover lost funds.
2 weeks ago
Listen 2:50Gretjen Clausing, founder of PhillyCAM, has died
Clausing founded PhillyCAM in 2009 to put media production into the hands of all Philadelphians.
2 weeks ago
Listen 1:08The new play, based on the 19th-century Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, centers international students studying in Philadelphia.
4 weeks ago
Listen 1:36Philadelphia gave America its first major musical oratorio in 1781. Then it got buried in poop
Tempesta di Mare is presenting a fully orchestrated “America Independent, or The Temple of Minerva” as it has never been done before.
1 month ago
At Philly’s Fabric Workshop, Jesse Krimes turns incarcerated people’s memories into quilts
“Quilt Elegies” includes a prototype of Krimes’ fabric-based mural designed with people recently released from prison.
1 month ago
Listen 1:10In Philadelphia, a new exhibit shows American independence was not inevitable
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania traces colonists' fractured, decadeslong shift from loyalty to rebellion.
1 month ago
Listen 1:27











