BY SHAWN DOHERTY

In print | September 25, 2008

This Saturday, Campus Philly, a non-profit organization focused on connecting Philadelphia area college students to the resources of the city, will host College Day to welcome students from all over the area back to school. With free admission to 11 museums with a college I.D. and a kick-off concert featuring bands Armor for Sleep and the Cool Kids, College Day is expected to bring approximately 15,000 students out to explore the City of Brotherly Love.

Busses will run from the Ben West Parking Lot to the Ben Franklin Parkway starting at 9:30 a.m. with the last bus to Swarthmore departing from Philadelphia at 7 p.m.

Museums open their doors at 10 a.m. and student admission will be free with a valid ID until 5 p.m. Participating art museums include the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Rodin Museum, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Galleries at Moore College of Art and Design and the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania.

Two science museums will also participate in College Day: the Academy of Natural Sciences and the Franklin. The Academy of Natural Sciences is popular for its butterfly room, where visitors can walk through an indoor garden filled with approximately100 butterflies, as well as for its dinosaur exhibit, where visitors can see assembled dinosaur skeletons and dust for fossils. Favorites from the Franklin (formerly the Franklin Institute) include the Giant Walk-Through
Heart exhibit, the train room and the Tuttleman IMAX theater.

The National Constitution Center, featured in the movie “National Treasure,” has an interactive exhibit that allows visitors to take the Presidential Oath-of-Office and frequently features its own Ben Franklin and Betsy Ross impersonators, who, ironically enough, got married last July 4. The Eastern State Penitentiary, popular for its nighttime tours during the Halloween season, will be open for daytime tours so that visitors have the chance to see the former prison that once held Al Capone.
Other College Day museums include the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, currently hosting exhibits on evolution and the Lenape tribe and the Free Library of Philadelphia Central Branch.

Bands will begin playing on the Ben Franklin Parkway at 3 p.m. and will continue until 7 p.m. The main stage will feature tNew Jersey alternative band Armor for Sleep, the Chicago hip-hop group The Cool Kids,and the Philadelphia indie band Twelve Twenty. The local music stage will showcase three bands nominated by local magazines and radio stations: the Victor Victor Band, Robes and Patty Crash.

In addition to the music and museums, College Day will also include a non-profit Involvement Fair, a skateboarding demo, tons of freebies and more.

« RETURN TO LIVING & ARTS

« PREV ARTICLE | NEXT ARTICLE »