JOHN MCINERNEY TO HEAD UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA’S SACHS PROGRAM FOR ARTS INNOVATION
John McInerney, vice president of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, has been named the inaugural executive director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Sachs Program for Arts Innovation.
“John McInerney is the ideal leader to launch our exciting new Sachs Program,” Penn provost Vincent Price said. “He is a highly respected innovator, collaborator, and mentor across every part of the arts, widely admired not only at Penn and in Philadelphia but also in the arts community across the country.”
During his thirteen years at the Cultural Alliance, a research and advocacy organization representing more than 450 cultural nonprofit groups in Greater Philadelphia, McInerney launched the Phillyfunguide events calendar and Funsavers, one of the largest nonprofit discount ticket programs in the United States, generating annual revenues of as much as $1 million for the 250 participating arts organizations. He also led the Cultural Alliance’s strategic research, advocacy, and communications campaigns, including Engage 2020, a long-term initiative to increase cultural engagement in the city.
Previously, he served as director of communications and marketing at Penn’s Institute of Contemporary Art and as production manager of the Grand Opera House Theater in Wilmington, Delaware. He is a longtime board member of the Vox Populi Gallery, the largest and oldest independent nonprofit visual arts collective in Philadelphia, serving as vice chair for community engagement and, most recently, as interim executive director and chair of the executive director search committee.
The Sachs Arts Innovation Program was founded with a $15 million gift from alumni Keith and Katherine Sachs, the largest donation ever made across the arts at Penn. Its mission is to visibly energize the arts and arts innovation at the university by integrating research, teaching, and practice, and to establish a dedicated arts innovation hub in the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.
