October 29, 2026
Molly McVety/PhillyVoice
The Portal art installation will remain in the City Hall courtyard after receiving financial support from an anonymous donor, Mayor Cherelle Parker said.
The Philadelphia Portal was set to be removed from the City Hall courtyard Friday, but a "generous patron" stepped in to keep the art installation running amid efforts to secure long-term funding, Mayor Cherelle Parker said Thursday.
"For now, it remains at Philadelphia City Hall and there are no plans for it to leave anytime soon," Parker said in a statement. "I also want to thank a generous patron who came forward to support the Portal's continuance. I said from the beginning that the Portal belongs here, and here it stays."
Portals Organization, which oversees the sculptures around the world, said on Instagram in a repost of Parker's social media post that it was "deeply touched" by the outpouring of support and would share more details about the Portal's long-term future soon.
"This little window in our courtyard has done something big," Parker said. "It brought that world a little bit closer to Philadelphia — and Philadelphians a little bit closer to each other."
A representative with Portals Organization did not respond to a request for comment.
The Portal — a large circular screen that operates like a silent video call to other sites in cities including Dublin, Ireland; Lublin, Poland; and Piaui, Brazil — was initially installed in LOVE Park in 2024 in preparation for the country's 250th anniversary celebrations. After multiple vandalism incidents, it was relocated to City Hall last year.
Organizers said in August that the Portal would be forced to leave Philly for another city by Halloween if it didn’t receive funding or an offer for a new location. Initially, the installation only had the support from officials to remain for two years, but Portals Organization said its ambition was for the sculpture to be a permanent fixture.
According to KYW, the sculpture was set to be dismantled and moved to Miami before an anonymous donor stepped up.
