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.
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Raising the dead: PATCO Franklin Square ghost station reopens after 46 years
The train station beneath Franklin Square park has been closed since 1979. A $29.3 million renovation wakes it up to a new neighborhood.
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The seriously whimsical art of writer Kurt Vonnegut is on view at Drexel University
The novelist who died in 2007 wrote novels for more than 50 years, while also making drawings on the side. Drexel opened an exhibition of two dozen.
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Listen 1:10“Philadelphia in Color: 1950 - 1990,” coming in 2026, will feature candid snapshots submitted by the public.
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Listen 1:20Shakespeare goes up the country in ‘Ballad of King Henry’ at Swarthmore’s Players Club
A version of “King Henry IV” adapted into Americana folk songs is getting its world premiere.
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Listen 3:18Dozens of miniature ships moored inside Philadelphia’s Seaport Museum for its new exhibition
“Small but Mighty” is an armada of toys and models representing 400 years of maritime history.
1 year ago
Listen 1:38The end of Macy’s closes the chapter on the Wanamaker Building. A look back at a Philly landmark
The building at 13th and Market streets has been a department store for 149 years. The legacy of Philly’s proud retail history is scattered around the city.
1 year ago
Listen 1:11“Beards on Ice,” about climate change, was mocked on Fox News in December. The cabaret group's artistic director hopes the negative attention heightens her message.
1 year ago
Listen 1:16Philly arts organizations are navigating stormy federal funding guidelines
As the National Endowment for the Arts tries to comply with the shifting legal status of Trump’s executive orders, arts organizations are struggling to keep up.
1 year ago
Listen 1:31Detroit, Chicago and Philly street dancing represented in Rennie Harris’ new performance
The Philly-raised choreographer pulled together dancers from three cities to show how street dancing evolves in different places.
1 year ago
Gabriela Lena Frank’s “Picaflor: A Future Myth” digs into ancient Peruvian mythology to tell a story about the future.
1 year ago
Listen 2:41Philadelphia Ballet nears completion of its North Broad building
The Center for Dance will quadruple the ballet’s size and include community spaces.
1 year ago
Listen 1:20Artist Cecily Brown’s first exhibition at the Barnes Foundation in Philly is a 30-year retrospective
The Barnes Foundation has a touring overview of Brown’s long career in the spotlight.
1 year ago
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