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
Imparting the patterns of history and disaster repeating on Ruination Day
A Philadelphia artist takes cues from Gillian Welch and folk ballads to paint historic repetition.
7 years ago
Listen 3:34
Knocking on doors in search of Philadelphia’s jazz history
A pair of historians are hunting for artifacts for an archive of Philadelphia’s jazz history. They’re holding a scanning party to digitize bits of music history.
7 years ago
Listen 2:37
Philadelphia Free Library builds new public rooms, new modern mission
More than 40,000 square feet of new, technology-savvy public space do not hold books, but aim to promote civic engagement as the Philadelphia Free Library refines its mission.
7 years ago
Airing the cleaned, pressed, and folded laundry of the American experience
The wardrobe of Maira Kalman’s mother tells the story of a 20th century American Jewish experience. You can take a peek inside.
7 years ago
Philly no longer an ‘antiques town’: City gets its first shot at contemporary art fair
High-end art fairs have become the backbone of the global contemporary art market. Now, a producer is trying it out on Philly.
7 years ago
Listen 2:00
The plain white Confederate flag of truce and surrender inspires exhibit in Philly
The white dishcloth that ended the Civil War has been recreated in monumental size at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia.
7 years ago
Listen 2:03
Luis Biava, beloved violinist and teacher at Temple, dies at 85
Former violinist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and influential teacher Luis Biava dies at 85. He led the Temple University Symphony Orchestra for decades.
7 years ago
Tree of Life Synagogue joins Philly Orchestra for ‘Healing Tones’
The premiere of “Healing Tones,” by composer Hannibal Lokumbe, will feature a member of the Pittsburgh synagogue where a mass shooting happened last year playing a shofar.
7 years ago
Listen 4:05
Women and trans playwrights find fame on the Kilroy List
Philadelphia theater companies mine the annual list of under-produced scripts to find dramatic gold.
7 years ago
Listen 4:19
How a massive Robinson Fredenthal sculpture moved to Chestnut Hill in the dead of night
The “White Water” sculpture had been in downtown Philadelphia for 40 years. It now lives on the front lawn of the Woodmere Museum.
7 years ago
Listen 1:57
Kung fu to zombies, remembering the Trocadero
Philly’s 150-year-old Chinatown concert venue will close at the end of the month.
7 years ago
Will whistle for work: Orchestra whistles tribute to Philly’s labor history
Temple art gallery has commissioned a UK artist to compose and assemble an orchestra of local whistlers in Philadelphia.
7 years ago
Listen 3:36