The University of Pennsylvania’s Institute of Contemporary Art, WXPN, Morris Arboretum and Penn Institute of Urban Research have each received 2014 Project Grants from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. The PCAH Project Grants to Penn total more than $1 million.

The ICA received a PCAH Project Grant for $360,000 for the exhibition “Barbara Kasten: Stages,” which will run Feb. 4 to Aug. 16, 2015. The exhibition will be the first major survey of the work of Kasten, a Chicago-based conceptual photographer, whose work with abstraction in a digital age has had a broad influence on young contemporary artists.

WXPN received a PCAH Project Grant of $360,000. The radio station was awarded the grant for “Zydeco Crossroads,” a yearlong project that will examine the evolution of the musical form. The project will include performances showcasing celebrated zydeco musicians, an exploration of the genre’s intersections with hip-hop, soul and rock, as well as the creation of a new documentary film by Robert Mugge on zydeco to be screened at a culminating weekend festival in the fall of 2015.

A PCAH Project Grant of $295,700 was awarded to the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania for “Awakening the Senses: New Interpretive Approaches at the Morris Arboretum.” The project is designed to engage visitors’ deeper interest in plants. The Arboretum will develop mobile technology that provides instant access to video and audio clips, maps, activities, games, photographs and oral histories. The content will run the gamut from the educational to the playful.

The fourth PCAH Project Grant awarded to the University of Pennsylvania went to Penn IUR, which received $72,000 for “Monument Lab: Creative Speculations for Philadelphia.” The Lab will provide a forum to explore the questions: What is the ideal monument for the current City of Philadelphia, and what does a 21st century urban monument look like? The centerpiece of the project will be a temporary monument by the late, award-winning artist and Penn professor Terry Adkins to be installed in City Hall’s central courtyard. Additional activities will be organized in advance of the planned Philadelphia monument festival, to take place in 2016 or 2017.

The projects funded by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage highlight Penn’s commitment to Arts and Culture and the University’s determination to build collaborative opportunities to integrate knowledge across academic disciplines emphasizing exploration, innovation and discovery as outlined in the Penn Compact 2020.