Rachel Zimmerman
Founder, Visionary, and Executive Director of InLiquid
Rachel’s vision of quality, accessible, and unified arts programming is the driving force of InLiquid.
“InLiquid was motivated by a need for a collaborative structure that could connect working artists to galleries, to collectors, and to community.”
Born and raised in West Philadelphia, Rachel Zimmerman received her degree in photography from New York University. Upon returning to her hometown, she experienced first-hand the lack of opportunity within Philadelphia’s art scene caused by a disconnect between the city’s artists and the curators looking for artwork.
Recognizing a need to bridge the gap, Rachel launched InLiquid in 1999 to virtually showcase work by Philadelphia’s rich community of contemporary visual artists and connect them to curators, collectors, and the general public. As one of the first websites of its kind, InLiquid quickly became the go-to source for art news updates in Philadelphia, providing information about gallery receptions, open calls, and community gatherings.
In the 25 years since, Rachel has led the local arts community into the digital age, continuing to provide vital online resources for artists and arts professionals, while simultaneously developing exhibitions in gallery and alternative spaces across the east coast. Rachel moved InLiquid’s operations to South Kensington’s Crane Arts Building in 2006, leading the cultural revitalization of the area and establishing North American Street as a corridor for the arts. In 2018 the organization opened its flagship space, InLiquid Gallery, a premier destination for contemporary visual arts in the city.
Through it all, Rachel has led the way, navigating the website’s expansion digitally and the organization’s expansion into physical spaces, all while facilitating numerous exhibitions of work by contemporary artists.
Leader
Regarded as an industry leader for her expertise in contemporary art, Rachel has been an active participant on committees for numerous area cultural organizations, including Design Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Cultural Fund. Currently, she is on the art advisory committees of CFEVA and the Main Line Art Center, the co-chair of ArtTable, and a board member of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance.
Connector
Rachel has overseen hundreds of visual arts exhibitions in a variety of gallery, corporate, retail, hospitality, and residence spaces across Philadelphia, New York City, and Miami. With each project comes an expansion of InLiquid’s network, bringing artwork by living artists to new collectors and curators, fulfilling InLiquid’s mission of expanding appreciation for our region’s working artists. InLiquid partnerships have included Sundance TV, The Kimmel Center, Commerce Square, Hyatt, URBN, Mariott, Drexel University, Park Towne Place, and more.
Collaborator
In recognition of her administrative track record and contributions to Philadelphia’s arts community over the last 25 years, Rachel was the 2024 recipient of The Collaborator Award from the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance.
From her acceptance speech:
“if we want this city to be what we want it to be, we have to build it!”
From the beginning, community support has been crucial to our efforts. With 25 years (and counting) of expertise, we provide our community with dependably compelling visual arts experiences. When you support InLiquid, you support quality, accessible, and inspiring arts programming in your area.
Click here to learn more about InLiquid's mission and support our efforts.
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