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Historic Exhibits
“Voices of Eastern State” Audio Tour
With this state–of–the–art audio tour, the long-abandoned cellblocks come alive with the sounds of daily life inside the ancient prison.
Tower Cam!
Opening April 10, 2010!
High-definition remote-controlled cameras in the guard tower
allow visitors to achieve the perspective of an Eastern State
guard on the center tower's catwalk.
The William Portner Memorial Exhibit on Jewish Life at Eastern State
The newly restored Alfred W. Fleisher Memorial Synagogue and the companion exhibit on Jewish life at Eastern State Penitentiary are open to the public during all public hours.
Linda Brenner: Ghost Cats
Thirty-nine sculptures represent the colony of cats that took up residence in the prison grounds after the penitentiary closed in 1971.
William Cromar: GTMO
A materially and dimensionally accurate representation of one cell from the now abandoned Camp X-Ray at GTMO (military abbreviation for the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba) is inserted inside of a now-abandoned Eastern State Penitentiary cell.
Mary DeWitt: Pardon Me
Reverse glass paintings of a group of life-sentenced women in Pennsylvania's State Correctional Institution at Muncy. Each painting is accompanied by a recording of the woman's voice.
Susan Hagen: Recollection Tableaux
A series of miniature dioramas in Cellblock 7 show - accurately and poetically - the daily lives of prisoners at Eastern State throughout its history.
Alexa Hoyer: I always wanted to go to Paris, France
Using three televisions to screen excerpts from over seven decades of prison film history, this installation challenges visitors to re-examine their notion of prison life.
Bill Morrison and Vijay Iyer, curated by Julie Courtney: Release
Release brings together film and music artists to manipulate and score newly found archival footage of the 1930 release of Al Capone.
Sharyn O'Mara: Victim Impact Statement
A group of videos exploring the impact of a violent crime on a 45-year-old woman who was attacked in her North Philadelphia home in 2008.
James Mills: On Tour
James Mills' installation adds a set of directional signage to Eastern State Penitentiary that suggest other sites of "Dark Tourism" that visitors may wish to visit.
Judyth VanAmringe: Crosses, Bones, Cherry Trees
Thousands of bones, crosses and Stars of David create a "monument to lost souls."
Historic preservation projects currently underway are supported in part by grants from the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program – Honorable Governor Edward Rendell; the City of Philadelphia Cultural Corridors Fund; the City of Philadelphia Department of Public Property; Save America’s Treasures, administered by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior; the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, and The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Heritage Philadelphia Program.
Release by Bill Morrison and Vijay Iyer has been funded by The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage through the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative with additional support from the National Endowment of the Arts, the Berwind Fund, Carole Haas Gravagno, and The Barra Foundation.
Artist installations are supported through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
Historic preservation and arts programming are also made possible with funding from Eastern State’s Halloween Fundraiser Terror Behind the Walls and donors to our Annual Appeal.
Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, Inc.
2027 Fairmount Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19130