Endowment

The Philadelphia Orchestra Association is out of bankruptcy. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Eric L. Frank approved the association's reorganization plan June 28, but with the writing of checks and completion of other administrative matters Monday and Tuesday, the curtain officially came down on perhaps the most perilous episode in the history of the organization that supports and presents the storied ensemble. "I feel like I'm getting out of jail," said orchestra chairman Richard B. Worley.

Buoyed by the success of its expanded slate of pop acts, the Mann Center for the Performing Arts is adding a second stage. The Skyline Stage and Lawn, opening at the end of July with two concerts by ethereal Icelandic band Sigur Rós, perches on a newly annexed three or four acres of Fairmount Park leased to the Mann by the city. The patch of green, where listeners will stand, is larger than the current lawn; the stage is smaller and portable. The changes are in response to an evolving relationship between musicians and fans, says Mann president and CEO Catherine M. Cahill.

To a greater degree than before, the Annenberg Foundation is requiring accountability from the Philadelphia Orchestra in exchange for the $50 million gift the foundation made in 2003. That grant was the largest in the orchestra's history. But even after it was paid out, its use and destiny were never entirely left to the orchestra. The foundation reserved the right to recall the gift and any accumulated investment income if the orchestra ever filed for bankruptcy. Although the philanthropy, now based in Los Angeles, did not exercise that right when the orchestra filed for Chapter 11 in April 2011, a new and more controlling donor agreement has been crafted as part of the reorganization plan filed last week by the orchestra in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Resolving the most quarrelsome aspect of its bankruptcy, the Philadelphia Orchestra Association has settled with the national musicians' pension fund that had threatened expensive and time-consuming litigation over the orchestra's withdrawal from it. The American Federation of Musicians and Employers' Pension Fund (AFM-EPF), which had filed a $35 million claim in the case, will drop all its legal challenges in exchange for $1.75 million from the orchestra. The fund did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

For seven years, it was a hot spot of teenage American pop culture. From 1957 until 1964, Dick Clark hosted American Bandstand at the West Philadelphia studios of WFIL-TV, where thousands of teens dreamed of appearing on the hit show. But few actually got the chance to dance inside the nondescript building in the shadow of the Market-Frankford El at 46th and Market Streets. If you were one of those teens who yearned for your Bandstand moment, here's your chance.

It was not exactly a twist-and-shout moment when The Dance came off the wall at the Barnes Foundation in Merion. Nearly two decades ago, amid incessant legal skirmishing, Matisse's 34-foot-wide triptych mural on canvas was maneuvered from the wall it had been made to fill, and traveled to Washington, Paris, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art for exhibition. It was a tense, court-approved voyage, but The Dance waltzed through it, finally returning to its newly renovated Merion home in 1995.

On 55 acres of historic landscape in the heart of urban Germantown, the yellow aconite is blooming, the snowdrops and purple crocuses are up, and you can sense the fragile promise of spring. That's a way of thinking about Awbury Arboretum, too, as it looks to reinvent itself - yet again. This grand old estate has new leadership and big plans: To stabilize finances, to work with the neighborhood and local schools, to tackle long-standing maintenance and organizational problems, and to reassert ownership of what Christopher R. van de Velde calls "our primary mission - the care and feeding of the landscape.

As the night began, a Harvard staffer looked over at the stuffed-in West stands of the nearly full Palestra and said, "Wow, are those all students?" Yes, right up to those standing in the top row in front of the air vents. It was a corners crowd on 33d Street Friday night - as in, those were the places to find seats. The attendance of 7,462 stands as the largest this group of Harvard players had ever seen in Ivy play. Maybe any group, at least in a long time. Despite Harvard's national ranking, and how close the Crimson came to the NCAA tournament last March, this remains uncharted territory.