Mann Center in Fairmount Park sells naming rights to Highmark insurance

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The Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park has sold its naming rights to the health insurance company Highmark, also known as Highmark Blue Shield.

The Mann will now be called the Highmark Mann Center for the Performing Arts. The naming agreement for an undisclosed amount will last 12 years.

"We believe that signifies how much Highmark appreciates what the Mann represents, what the Mann is doing, and what the man hopes to do for both Philadelphia and our region," said president and CEO Catherine Cahill. "Not only are they standing with us, but they are inspiring others to join us."

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The Mann is in the midst of a $70 million capital campaign to transform its physical campus, to which revenue from naming rights will be added.

"As one of Philadelphia's cultural treasures, the Mann has a long, successful history of community involvement and arts education that changes lives, and we couldn't be prouder to now play a larger part in that story," she said.

Construction has begun on planned improvements, including a new indoor visitors' center with its first-ever gift shop, an expanded welcoming plaza that will triple the size of its entryway, and more bathrooms. The Highmark Mann's temporary Skyline Stage on the upper lawn will be made permanent.

Cahill said that, at 50 years old, the venue needed basic upgrades.

"We were so blessed to finally do really needed backstage improvements. Nothing had really been done since 1976," she said. "It leaked like a sieve."

The Highmark Mann Center's renovations are expected to be completed next summer.

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