\nThe 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.\n<\/p>\n
MORE:\u00a0Openings & Closings: South Philly gets a new boxing gym and Rittenhouse loses its library-themed bar<\/a><\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n \nPortals Organization, which oversees the sculptures around the world, said on Instagram in a repost of Parker’s social media post<\/a> that it was “deeply touched” by the outpouring of support and would share more details about the Portal’s long-term future soon.\n<\/p>\n “This little window in our courtyard has done something big,” Parker said. “It brought that world a little bit closer to Philadelphia \u2014 and Philadelphians a little bit closer to each other.”<\/p>\n A representative with Portals Organization did not respond to a request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Portal \u2014 a large circular screen that operates like a silent video call to other sites in cities including Dublin, Ireland; Lublin, Poland; and Piaui, Brazil \u2014 was initially installed in LOVE Park in 2024<\/a> in preparation for the country’s 250th anniversary celebrations. After multiple vandalism incidents, it was relocated<\/a> to City Hall last year.<\/p>\n Organizers said in August<\/a> that the Portal would be forced to leave Philly for another city by Halloween if it didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n \nAccording to KYW<\/a>, the sculpture was set to be dismantled and moved to Miami before an anonymous donor stepped up.\n<\/p>\n