Photograph by Karen A. Mauch
The
Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), founded in 1963, is a geometric building located on the
University of Pennsylvania campus in West Philadelphia. The ICA, which gave the artist
Andy Warhol (1928–1987) his first museum exhibition, shows contemporary art (made within the last thirty years). The museum does not have a permanent collection; instead it presents
changing exhibitions of work by contemporary artists. The ICA also commissions (hires) several artists each year to create new works of art for the museum’s ramp space, a ninety-two-footlong,
sloping passageway connecting the museum’s first and second floors. The ramp features enormous windows that allow sunlight into the building during the day and give passersby on the street a view inside at night.
