Not everyone who comes to the Kimmel Center comes for music, dance or theater performances. Thousands of people a year don’t think about art at all while they’re inside the Center, and that’s a good thing.
One of my favorite things about the Center is its ability to welcome seemingly unlikely guest/event combinations. Punk rock fans at classical concerts, devoted orchestra patrons spotted at the Alanis concert, teenagers at the Johnny Mathis performance, otherwise demure grown-ups dancing in the aisles at a gospel concert.
The building welcomes this cheerful culture clash in a quieter way on a weekly basis, outside the view of the general public. Highly specialized community activities, ranging from a real estate developer’s press conference or a volunteer training session to a financial firm’s off-site staff retreat, bring brand new visitors into the Center.
Having worked in some fashion in the nonprofit arts field for fourteen years, I’m always fascinated by people whose passion is not the arts. They get up in the morning devoted to doing something completely different, and they are as committed to it as we are to the chaos of the performing arts. Next week it’s the Philadelphia Immunization Coalition, meeting in the Rendell Room and hosting staff from hospitals, health care networks, pharmaceutical companies and medical professional associations. Like thousands of their neighbors, they’re learning that the Kimmel can be the Center of just about anything.