New Center for Cultural Outreach at Drexel

Jason Wilson will direct the new Center for Cultural Outreach

Drexel University’s Pennoni Honors College announced today the establishment of a new entity, the Center for Cultural Outreach, which consolidates a variety of cultural endeavors within the Honors College and offers a platform for collaborative ventures with other units at Drexel. The Center’s name reflects its mission to create innovative publishing initiatives and develop new forms of cultural engagement both for students and audiences beyond Drexel.

The Center provides various opportunities for professional writers, faculty and qualified student writers to engage in critical thinking and creative expression. It also provides opportunities for student writers to engage in experiential learning, often resulting in publication.

The Center promotes engagement with arts and culture through a variety of means, including high-quality publishing initiatives, formal and informal experiential education and special events. A locus of critical thinking, literary skill, creative expression and professional opportunities, the Center connects the campus with various audiences and cultural institutions. The Center seeks to collaborate with other departments on campus, with Philadelphia’s museums and performance venues, and with local, national and international media.

The Center will be directed by Jason Wilson, a columnist at the Philadelphia Daily News and the Washington Post, and editor of Drexel’s The Smart Set and Cultural Passport, as well as an adjunct professor of writing at Drexel.

“Support for establishing this Center is a result of the outstanding work Jason and our staff have done to showcase high quality writing in a variety of forms and in a variety of outlets,” said Dave Jones, dean of Drexel’s Pennoni Honors College.

Among the Center’s charges are the following:

• The Smart Set , Drexel’s online magazine of literary and arts journalism, which reaches an international audience
• Art Attack , the Knight-NEA arts journalism project in conjunction with the Philadelphia Daily News
• Table Matters , an online journal of food writing
• The Honor Roll , a quarterly newsletter for alumni, parents and friends of the Pennoni Honors College
• The Cultural Passport, a resource about cultural activities in Philadelphia that is distributed to all freshman and certain other incoming students
• Other publications or appropriate special projects that may arise