The MoA Experience
Coming 2025
The MoA Experience is a work of art that you can walk into…and more. A historic bank building in Old City, Philadelphia becomes, itself, an exquisite work of art grown from Meg Saligman, Philly artists, history, spirit and community. Bring your own unique “currency” as the MINISTRY OF AWE invites you to join us in the creation of Philadelphia’s next cultural jewel.
MoA’s name shape-shifts to become whatever you find most valuable. MoA is a bank that values you.
MoA (Melodies of Allure) is a 19th-century bank building turned work of art. The 8,000-sq.ft. historic bank, closed to the public for decades, is undergoing a mesmerizing transformation. MoA (Museum of Action) is more than a museum: it is a living canvas, inviting each of us to step into a world where art and narrative intertwine to create an unforgettable journey of exploration.
A playful counterpoint to nearby historical attractions, MoA (Market of Absurdity) will captivate the public with alluring art, interactive performance, and ever-evolving soundscapes that spill across six stories and a labyrinth of over 20 rooms.
In our bank, we do not trade in traditional currency. Instead, we trade in beauty, creativity, expression, empowerment, and acceptance. Here, an experience, a memory, an idea, a piece of supposed trash, is a cherished valuable.
WHAT IS MoA?
WHO IS CREATING The MoA Experience?
World renowned Philadelphia artist Meg Saligman leads the creation of what will be her largest work to date. The project is being created in collaboration with Creative Director Lizzie Kripke (former Director of Art at Meow Wolf) and a diverse cohort of professional Philadelphia artists who will engage in the design and execution of various components of the installation. The MoA Experience is designed as an evolving work of art to be impacted by visitors, visionaries and wild ideas at every stage of the artistic process. Ever inclusive, we seek all citizen artists.
WHY IS The MoA Experience BEING CREATED?
Because Meg received a vision and can’t seem to get it out of her head. MoA is a powerful force in the making. By reactivating an old bank into a mesmerizing work of participatory art, The MoA Experience will help you discover your inner artist. As a bank with no money, we are creating a participatory sanctum of exchange that trades in art, poetry, music, and storytelling.
This unique, multidisciplinary approach seeks to redefine how we think about art and institutions. Now, there is beauty within the walls of a shuttered bank, there is music in the mundane hum of an ATM and the rhythmic tap of a bank teller’s pen. The MoA Experience challenges and morphs the conventions of the everyday into a revolutionary and unexpected tapestry of beauty, eccentricity, and spirit-opening possibility.
Where better to start a creative banking revolution than in Philadelphia, the birthplace of the American Revolution, and of the first Bank of the United States (located down the street on 3rd)!
WHAT WAS THIS HISTORIC BUILDING AND HOW WILL IT BE CHANGED?
MINISTRY OF AWE’s building at 27 N. 3rd Street was originally the Manufacturers National Bank (MNB) designed and built by the firm of Fraser, Furness and Hewitt. The building itself is a five-story, 8,000 sq.ft. granite Italianate building.
The site showcases intricate details of Frank Furness’ style (he also designed Broad Street Station and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art). The most interesting feature may be the original bank vault, which remains operational today with all original doors, mechanisms and hardware. The vault, along with many other exterior and interior features, will continue to be preserved and protected for future generations.
HOW WILL The MoA Experience OPERATE?
With a projected full public opening in 2025, The MoA Experience will offer a time-ticketed experience: one in which visitors can wander freely through the building and its variety of installations and participatory experiences while being surprised by live performance occurring throughout the space.
Capital funds will derive from a mix of public and private dollars through governmental, community, business, and organizational partnerships, as well as philanthropic support from foundations, corporations, and individual donors.
The MoA Experience is designed to rely substantially on earned time-ticket revenue, leveraging tourist dollars into our region’s art economy. Earned revenue will include entrance tickets, events, educational offerings, and rentals. MoA will augment outreach and programs with diversified charitable revenue such as corporate sponsorships, governmental and foundation grants, major and planned giving, and individual “pipeline” donors, through grant writing, campaigns, appeals, and special events.
WHAT VALUE WILL MoA BRING TO THE COMMUNITY?
MoA offers a unique experience for visitors from the Philadelphia region and beyond. Full of interactivity, MoA will surprise and delight, offering new and different ways to look at ideas, forms, figures, colors, money and each other. It will fortify Old City Philadelphia’s history as a cultural center. It is quintessentially Philly, a unique blend of vibrant street art, storied historic architecture, and urban charm where contemporary meets historic.
MINISTRY OF AWE was created to serve the entire community, providing opportunities to artists both professional and aspiring, and offering educational opportunities to schoolchildren and adults, for creativity is as important as literacy. MoA works with the community in the creation and evolution of its art; we find the most empowering impact lies within the act of making the art. Engaging with the art sends ripples of inspiration through our collective communities and individual journeys.
The rehabilitated building will be open to the public six days per week, and will provide a new and unique art and education venue for residents and tourists alike. During the run-up to the opening of The MoA Experience, workshops and engagement events will bring the community together to learn about and permeate the planned vision.