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 trolls at Philly Zoo have a message: Save nature and you’ll save yourself
A set of troll sculptures made from reclaimed wood by Thomas Dambo presses visitors to think about the environment.
2 years ago
Listen 1:11
Penn Museum has laid to rest 19 skulls from its Morton Cranial Collection
This historic collection of 19th century skulls — acquired by unethical means for racist research — is beginning to be laid to rest, over protests.
2 years ago
Listen 1:40
Beach body: Cape May shows off its scrapbook of a historically Black beach
The Carroll Gallery at the Emlen Physick estate displays family photos of Grant Street Beach, the city’s once-segregated beach.
2 years ago
Listen 1:36
50 years later, (re)Focus brings women artists back into galleries across Philadelphia
A landmark, city-wide feminist art exhibition from 1974 is reborn and updated for 2024.
2 years ago
Listen 1:37
Hanging on the telephone: Maguire Museum tracks America’s disappearing payphones
The cell phone may have killed the payphone, but photographer Eric Kunsman seeks out people for whom payphones are a lifeline.
2 years ago
Listen 2:43
The Mütter Museum exhibits homelessness as a public health concern
“Unhoused” advocates empathy for people experiencing homelessness, through art installations and scientific data.
2 years ago
Listen 1:15
National Liberty Museum amplifies the liberating power of music
The Old City museum explores the intimate, fraught connection between music and liberty.
2 years ago
Listen 1:48
How minstrel tune became the signature song of the Mummers Parade
Once an international star, the Black composer of “Oh Dem Golden Slippers” died penniless in Philadelphia.
2 years ago
The arts are having a bumpy pandemic recovery in Philly, new report shows
An influx of $6 million in federal COVID recovery funds is coming to Philly. But a new study shows the progress in the arts sector is uneven.
2 years ago
Listen 1:13
To die for: The Science History Institute shows us how we dye
A new exhibition at the Science History Institute, BOLD, tracks the cultural and environmental impacts of synthetic dyes.
2 years ago
Listen 2:57
For 5 years, Cherry Street Pier has given us a reason to visit the Delaware River
Since 2018 the former industrial fruit dock has fostered an artist community to give people a reason to visit the waterfront.
3 years ago
Listen 1:04
‘The least of us’: The Crossing premieres hymns written for an imagined religion
Composer David Lang wrote “poor hymnals” for a congregation solely focused on helping the less fortunate.
3 years ago