Arts, Culture and Creative Economy

Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia Finalists Announced

2012-01-10T11:31:00.000-05:00

The Knight Foundation today announced the 55 finalists in the Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia. These applications were chosen from the 1,267 application submitted. The ideas cover a huge range, and were submitted by arts organizations of all disciplines and sizes, as well as by many individual artists and creative business-people.

Collectively the ideas represent a great expression of the creative energy and entrepreneurial spirit in Philadelphia. With I think maybe one exception (Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra?), this is a totally new group of organizations and individuals from those selected last year. Would love to see ALL these projects happen, but each of these finalists now goes to the next round where they must submit a full proposal. If last year is a guide, roughly half of these projects will actually be funded.

The group ranges from pretty large scale - the Janet Echelman public art piece that will be integrated into the new Dilworth Plaza design - to an individual who proposes to create a micro-grant program for artists, to projects targeting such immigrant populations as Lao, Liberian and Latino.

You can access the full list of finalists here. Congratulations to all of them!

Cultural Journalism - Alive and Well in Philadelphia? (Or At Least Not Dead...)

2011-12-08T13:59:00.001-05:00

Much has been written about the decline of cultural journalism in America, an outgrowth of the larger challenges being faced in the journalism sector. The now defunct Columbia University National Arts Journalism Program published a study in 2003 "Reporting the Arts II" that followed the original "Reporting the Arts" that was published in 1999. RTAII found that during this period when the number of arts organizations was growing, editorial coverage of the arts was flat or shrinking in most markets. Philadelphia was one of the cities studied and here is the link to the Philadelphia section of the report. The big news at that time was a dramatic decline in the average length of arts and culture stories, though the number of stories remained steady. And perhaps it is not a coincidence that the National Arts Journalism Program itself at Columbia now longer exists

Now the Knight Journalism program has partnered with the National Endowment for the Arts to launch the Knight/NEA Community Arts Journalism Challenge, designed to find a solution to how cultural journalism can survive and even flourish in an environment where many communities have lost their daily newspapers - the primary source of arts media coverage - or seen a sharp decline in the space devoted to the arts, as well as number of arts journalists employed. Five proposals were funded with $20,000 grants to further develop their ideas, and three organization will get an additional $80,000 for implementation. One of the selected ideas was in Philadelphia: a partnership between the Philadelphia Daily News and Drexel University to expand arts coverage by using Drexel student journalists to generate some of their content, called "Art Attack." This effort is already underway.

But I have to say, for all the talk of gloom and doom in local cultural journalism, I believe Philadelphia is faring pretty well, and we should not lose sight of that. Yes, our daily newspapers have struggled, and, yes, I am sure it is a challenge for the remaining arts beat writers. I suspect the writing staff has been reduced, perhaps compensation cut, column inches reduced. Yet, robust and engaging reporting and criticism is still happening and a very high level. The recent three part series of articles by Peter Dobrin on the Curtis Institute is a great example of that. Here are links to the first article, the second article, and the third article. That is a lot of "ink" for in-depth coverage of a classical music education story. But even more notable, is that all this coverage is clustered under a multi-media area of the Inquirer's Website called The Curtis Factor, which includes even more content, including video as well as a new piece of music commissioned by the paper from a Curtis composer as part of the story. I can't remember ever hearing of a newspaper commissioning a piece of music as part of a story.

We also have at the Inquirer and Daily News excellent reporters like Stephan Salisbury, who covers general stories about the arts that have elements of policy, civic and community issues, etc. Not to mention writers/critics like Howard Shapiro, David Patrick Stearns, Inga Saffron, Wendy Rosenfield, Toby Zinman, Carrie Rickey, Molly Eichel, Ed Sozanski, Gary Thompson (and all those Drexel students participating in the Art Attack program). I know I am missing some - apologies and please don't hold it against me, whoever you are! We even had the Inquirer recently publish an editorial citing our recent Number One ranking for Culture from Travel + Leisure and calling on policy makers to "face up to the need to create a sustainable funding source for the cultural assets that, even with strained government and corporate help, manage to earn so much praise." This was the second such arts-centric editorial in the past few months, the first being inspired by the recent Portfolio report issued by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance.

And then there is the cultural coverage offered by such other print publications as Philadelphia Weekly, Metro Philadelphia, the Tribune, City Paper, Al Dia and Philadelphia Magazine. Most of them offer both reviews as well as thoughtful and important longer pieces such as the recent profile in Philly Mag by Stephen Fried (and most also have listings). A new arrival is JUMP Philly magazine which covers the local music scene, with occasional forays into other art forms. And I am not even mentioning the many regional newspapers and magazines that also cover Philadelphia's cultural scene.)

On the Web, radio and TV we have Peter Crimmins at WHYY radio, as well as the arts-related coverage offered by Newsworks, a program of WHYY. On WHYY-TV we have FridayArts, a wonderful arts-focused news magazine program. Also on the radio at WRTI we have Jim Cotter and Susan Lewis and the "Creatively Speaking" program. While not journalism per se we have excellent representation on the radio in terms of paying attention to local musical artists in their airplay from WHYY, WRTI and WXPN. in addition, WXPN has their "The Key" program specifically covering the local music scene.

We have Websites and blogs like Broad Street Review, ArtBlog, and LocalArtsLive. Libby Rosof and Roberta Fallon at The Art Blog, in addition to their blog, also produce a regular audio podcast and video content.(Their ArtBlog radio takes place via Newsworks). And in addition to my blog, and the sites cited above, there are countless other blogs covering and commenting on the Philadelphia cultural scene. I am not going to get into the larger argument over whether such blogs constitute journalism, but they certainly help add to the dialogue, spark conversation and promote interest in cultural activities.

Is it perfect? Of course not. Is the community always happy with the quality and/or nature of the coverage they get? I doubt it. I don't mean to minimize the mighty challenges being faced by cultural journalism and journalists.

But my sense is that compared to other communities we are doing pretty well in terms of media coverage of arts and culture, both in terms of quality and quantity. It is a diverse media universe that encompasses both traditional print and broadcast media, as well as growing web-based and other media. Is it just that the gloom and doom sweeping the country has just not hit us yet? Perhaps, but I think something else is going on. I think the scrappiness and ingenuity that is part of Philadelphia's culture, and informs our arts and creative business community, is also reflected in our cultural journalism. Stuff is percolating here. "Legacy" publications are working to find new models. New efforts on the web - and even in print, like JUMP - are popping up. Entrepreneurs are somehow finding a way to make it work. And I think we - the cultural policy and arts workers - need to take a moment to acknowledge the efforts of our cultural journalists, even if we don't always agree with them. Our relationship with them is symbiotic - we need each other. And their efforts every day help make the Philadelphia cultural scene as robust and dynamic as it is.

Note: in the links above, for general interest publications I have tried where possible to link to the cultural coverage area of their website.

Philadelphia Ranked #1 for Culture by Travel + Leisure

2011-10-28T17:47:00.000-04:00

Every year Travel + Leisure magazine runs a poll as part of its "America's Favorite Cities" feature. Readers of the magazine and visitors to their Web site are invited to rate cities on a wide array of criteria, both their own city as well as other cities they visit.

It is exciting news in Philadelphia that in 2011, this poll resulted in Philadelphia being named by visitors the #1 city in the nation for Culture. This is quite a coup, given the competition and how Philadelphia has ranked in the past. In 2010 we ranked #10 for culture. Here is the link to the 2011 results.

Now, the survey is really not scientific, but it still is a great barometer of the growing stature and recognition of the cultural scene in Philadelphia, which encompasses both arts and heritage. There are four sub-categories in "Culture": Historical sites/monuments, where we ranked #1 (up from #6); Theatre/performing arts, where we ranked #5 (up from #18); Classical music, where we ranked #2 (up from #10); and Museums/galleries, at #5 (up from #8). Live (non-classical) music is a category under "Nightlife" which also includes bars, singles scene, cocktails, etc. In this category we were up from 28 to 9.

So Culture is not the only area where Philadelphia made a big leap in the rankings, though it is the only area where we are now #1. In "Food, Drink and Restaurants" the city went from #22 to #3. In "Shopping" Philadelphia went from #30 (out of 35) to #5, and in the creative economy-related sub-category of "home decor and design" we rose from 29 to 9.

What is also gotten a lot of attention is the perception that the survey also ranks Philadelphia as relatively unwelcoming and dirty and Philadelphians as unattractive and unstylish. While there is some truth to that take on the ratings, there is also a lot more nuance. On the category "Quality of Life and Visitor Experience" we went from 31 to 18, with big improvements in "public transit and pedestrian friendliness" and in "public parks and outdoor access." Under the "People" category, in "Diversity" we went from 20 to 5, and in "Stylish" we went form 32 to 17. In "athletic/active" we went from 33 to 21, but it is important to note there are no East Coast cities in the top ten, which include places like Denver, San Diego, Seattle, Portland and Austin, known for their outdoorsy, athletic lifestyles. And yes, under "attractive" we are #25, but that is an increase from 33 last year. And, yes, we are #30 for "cleanliness", but in 2010 we were #34, and cities like New York City, Baltimore, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Dallas , Miami and Memphis are also in the bottom ten in this category. W can't be in the top for everything.

Faced off "head to head" - a cool feature of the T+L web site, Philadelphia tops NYC, LA, Boston, Chicago, DC and Miami, some of our top competitors both for tourism and talent. The only other major City that seem to "beat" Philly in a head-to-head match-up for over-all rankings is San Francisco.

Another factor that bears mentioning is that Philadelphia is one of the few - if not only - cities where the residents consistently rank the City lower than visitors. Even in Culture, our ranking by residents puts us at #3 (tied with DC and Boston) as compared to #1 by visitors. This is clearly the much-discussed negativity about itself that still persists in Philadelphia. It is not a coincidence that the recent "Creative Connectors" project of Leadership Philadelphia, which selected 76 people as the leaders in connecting the creative sector, found that roughly 70% of the "connectors" were people that had moved to Philadelphia. This challenge of the City's negative self-perception was even evidenced in the press coverage of the great news about the Travel + Leisure ranking. In the Daily News, the story did not explicitly mention that we were rated #1, or what a significant leap this was in the ranking, and it also paired the news by emphasizing we were "bashed for being dirty, dangerous and home to some rather grumpy residents." We seem incapable of accepting good news without pairing it with a "yeah, but..."

On a more serious note, I also think we need to consider that the reason Philadelphia residents may rate their own city lower than visitors, is that they do not see the same City as visitors. They take our cultural and other assets for granted and are often unaware of the depth and breadth of what is here, in their own backyard. We are now discussing with the Greater Philadelphia Tourism and Marketing Corporation (GPTMC) and others some ideas about how we could better promote the city's assets to residents as effectively as we are selling the city to visitors. And while they are probably not the residents who filled out the Travel + Leisure survey, we also have vast numbers of residents who through poverty and lack of education and opportunity are not able to take advantage of our rich cultural assets. That also needs to be addressed.

Bravo to the cultural community, our artists, GPTMC, the Convention and Visitor's Bureau, the City Representative's Office, The Center City District and other BIDs and CDCs, and everyone else involved in both producing and maintaining our cultural assets, and communicating them to our visitors. This is a great city, that is only getting better every day.

Thoughts on Time, Age and Children

2011-09-12T13:39:00.000-04:00

I know that my blog is usually pretty tightly focused on issues of professional interest, around arts, culture and creative economy. But as many readers of my blog may know, on August 27th I also became the father of a new baby daughter, and that has gotten me thinking about the nature of time and aging, especially as a somewhat "older" dad.

Dana Carvey - Grumpy Old Man

I feel sometimes like Dana Carvey's "Grumpy Old Man" character on the old SNL. (Here is a link for those that don't remember: http://www.hulu.com/watch/ad/57340) I know it is a stereotype at this point, but sometimes I am just astonished at how much the world has changed in my adult life, and with the accelerating pace of change it is mind-boggling to think how the world may be transformed by the time my newborn is an adult.

Xerox Telecopier, circa 1975

I am not that old and yet I remember working in an office - a United States Congressman - where some of the first modern fax (or telecopier) machines were installed. They used that old thermal paper that curled up and smelled like something was burning while a fax was coming in, and the system only worked with paired machines - we could only send faxes between our own offices in DC and NY. Someone would make a phone call and then you would have to manually put the receiver in the cradle of the fax machine. As primitive as that all sounds now it was a revelation at the time. To have a speechwriter type a draft of the speech in DC, fax it to NY, have the Congressman edit it and then fax it back for finalizing: brilliant!

IBM 8088, circa 1981

Just a few years after that I was the Managing Director of the Vineyard Theatre in NY when a helpful board member bought for me one of these newfangled IBM personal computer things - the original IBM 8088, with MS-DOS. You had to "swap floppies" - load one floppy drive to "boot up" the operating system and install your software into memory (Lotus 123 or Wordperfect as I recall), then remove that disk to install the disk with your files on it. Sometimes if you executed a command, like spell check, you would ask to remove your data disk, install a second program disk, and then swap again. The monitor was the old monochrome "green screen" variety, and you had to learn how to use that tauntingly simple but often infuriatingly cryptic "command prompt": c:\. And yet, as primitive as this sounds, in light of what we have to work with today, it was revolutionary at the time in terms of my productivity. I could do MAIL MERGES - send out dozens, or even hundreds - of personalized letters to donors or subscribers. I could create spreadsheets that allowed me to enter a formula changing the assumption of percent of paid seating capacity sold from 65% to 75% and have the entire income statement recalculate numbers. (Of course, I printed those spreadsheets on a dot-matrix printer with pin-feed striped ledger paper - another now defunct technology!) This literally eliminated hours and hours of work with green ledger paper and an old fashioned adding machine. There are just a couple of examples of how this then very new, now very primitive, technology, was in fact a miraculous productivity booster - things we take for granted now used to be onerous chores.

Treo 300 - 2002

The list goes on and on - the first computerized theatrical lighting systems, database and contact management software, e-mail, the Internet, the Web, my first "Palm Pilot" Personal Digital Assistant, before there even were smartphones, let alone cell phones, followed by my first Treo 300 smart phone in 2002 - again, in its time, a miraculous productivity booster - I could be out of the out of the office at meetings for a full day and still get email, check my schedule, look up addresses and phone numbers, make notes, AND make and receive phone calls.

I still remember when my oldest daughter was maybe about 4 - perhaps 1990 or so - and got a birthday gift of a toy typewriter. She pulled it out of the box and exclaimed "Wow - a computer!" - I knew then that the days of the already dying IBM Selectric were surely VERY numbered. In her world "keyboard" already meant "computer". Typewriters were for the museum.Now that 20-something daughter is part of the generation that is steadily dropping their use of e-mail in favor of texting and social media.

So the world my new child enters may be radically transformed within just a few short years, in ways that if I could predict I would have had the success of Steve Jobs.

And yet - AND YET - think how much still remains the same,, and how constant the arts remain in our humanity. Symphony orchestras still make the original "wall of sound" (due respect to Phil Spector who brought it to pop music), and there is no substitute for listening to this music live in a concert hall. We still hold our children, and talk to them, and sing to them, and dance around with them. Artists make art (yes, some now use technology in their art and the nature of visual art is changing - no disconnect between art and technology) and many of those actually still use paint and canvas, pen and paper (Claes Oldenburg chose the paintbrush as the motif for his "Paint Torch" sculpture because the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts - PAFA - is an art school and museum still rooted in the tradition of painting.) We still glory in planting and tending gardens, and in transforming fresh ingredients into delicious home-cooked meals in the kitchen, and eating food communally, with family and friends. We still ride bicycles - an invention of the 19th century - to get around our 21st Century city, and increasingly recognize the practicality and utility of this "ancient" mode of transportation/recreation. The Knight Foundation's Soul of the Community study found that the things that attaches us to place are communal social gathering opportunities like the arts, the physical beauty of the community - like the built environment, parks and green space, and openness. Might not the findings have been similar in Ancient Athens?

Finally, while it also has become trite to opine that "40 is the new 30", "60 is the new 50" etc., there is truth to the fact that we are living longer (and in better physical shape) and now view what used to be a time of "winding down" or retirement, as a time vibrancy and change. WE change personally now, reinvent ourselves, the way technology is so rapidly transformed. People change careers, move to new cities, start new families, learn new skills and art forms in a way that would have been unthinkable just a few decades ago. I still play basketball three times a week, and intend to keep doing it as look as exercise and ligaments (and luck) will allow me to. And I intend to be there at my newborn daughter's college graduation and maybe even celebrate with a little on one-on-one hoops with her. I don't think this is just a creation of Boomers who want to extend their middle age indefinitely. I think this is the new normal.

Musings of a sleep-deprived new/old father!

A-Plus Art - Student Art Celebrated at City Hall

2011-08-23T17:24:00.000-04:00

Antonio Williams, Carver High School, 10th Grade

The newest show at the Art Gallery at City Hall is "A-Plus Art." This exhibition continues a tradition we began last year, where we partner with the School District of Philadelphia to cull the best art from their annual summer art exhibition at the School District headquarters (2,000 pieces!) and select about 50 pieces to be exhibited at City Hall.

This show once again highlights the extraordinary artwork being done by our young Philadelphia students: their dedication, talent, and discipline. Their work is made possible by the dedication and skill of their art teachers, and by the support of their parents. Without all these elements success is nearly impossible. The work covers a a wide array of ages/grades, and also many different neighborhoods of the City. (See the map and list of schools below)

The exhibit will culminate in a panel discussion on arts education on arts education issues, as well as a closing reception where every young artist will be presented with a certificate from the Mayor, recognizing the honor of being exhibited in City Hall.

Ricky Lee, Hancock Elementary, 2nd Grade

I blogged a few weeks ago about why arts education is important, a piece that was later adapted for Lorene Cary's blog. I encourage those who have not seen it to take a look (here is the link), if you need to strengthen the case that arts education is crucial not just for artistic and social reasons, but for economic development reasons as well. Recent unfortunate incidences of anti-social behavior by young people have obscured the fact that we have vast numbers of talented, dedicated, engaged young citizens in this City. The arts can play an important role in the lives of young people, and frankly resources invested in arts education in the long run save money that would otherwise have to be invested in law enforcement and prisons. Given the current challenges at the School District, we need informed and passionate advocates for the importance of arts education now, more than ever.

If you want to be inspired about the future of our City, represented by the young people who ARE the future, come to this show! [Exhibition closes September 30th]

Details:

Art Gallery at City Hall is open Monday-Friday (except holidays) 10-4. It is in Room 116 of City Hall, which can be accessed without going through security. Enter the East portal and turn right into City Hall inside the portal. Gallery will be on your right. The closing reception is September 30th, 4:30-7 PM. And the panel discussion will be in City Hall (room TBD) at 3:30 PM (Check here for more details, call 215-686-9912, or e-mail artincityhall@phila.gov).

Some thoughts on Environmental Art

2011-08-09T18:48:00.000-04:00

Jeanne Jaffe - Little Red Riding Hood as a Crime Scene (Schuylkill Center)

I was able to spend the day earlier this week at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education and spend some time taking in Facts and Fables: Stories of the Natural World, their new art installation. The installation explores how stories - narrative - affect our understanding of nature. The artists are Jeremy Beaudrey, David Dempewolf, Brian Collier, Chad Curtis, Susan Hagen, Blane De St-Croix, and Jeanne Jaffe.

The environmental art department at the Schuylkill Center is a truly important and unique component of Philadelphia's cultural scene - bringing together artists with the resources of naturalists and environmental educators to use art to raise awareness of the environment. Kudo's to Mary Salvante for founding this program, to Jenny Laden for leading it now, and to the Center itself for sustaining this commitment to the role the art can play in fulfilling its mission.

The art is definitely worth a visit, and if you have not yet been to the Center, make the trip. Yet another hidden Philadelphia gem and evidence that this City is filled with more green space and "wilderness' than any other major American City. While there we had an interesting dialogue about the different variations of "art and the environment" - from art that may comment on or illuminate an environmental issue, to art that may actually use the environment in the execution of the piece, or art that is designed to actually impact the environment in a positive way.

A great example of the last category is Mel Chin's "Revival Field" piece, that involved constructing an installation of plants in a contaminated field, plants that were specifically chosen due to their scientifically researched capacity to leach certain contaminants from the soil, naturally, over time.His more recent Fundred Dollar Bill Project, to address soil contamination in New Orleans, while more conceptual and playful, still has as its ultimate goals CHANGING for the better our environment.

Mel Chin - Revival Field

Another example of art that does more than comment on the environment but actually interacts with it would be Soil Kitchen, the temporary installation by the artist collaborative FutureFarmers that the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy brought to Philadelphia earlier this year.

FutureFarmers - Soil Kitchem study

It is important to distinguish this work from the land art movement, like Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty (Smithson in fact coined the term "land art"). Not to do diminish the value of this work. Works like Spiral Jetty and Roden Crater by James Turrell, can have an extraordinary majesty and mystery, and an intimate relationship with nature and light. They are designed to change based on environmental changes and time. But they are not designed to specifically change the environment in a positive way, or even make an environmental statement. My conversation with Jenny Laden and Theresa Rose from my staff got me thinking about this important distinction.

Smithson - Spiral Jetty (from Wikipedia)

The role that artists can play in helping to address environmental and sustainability issues is something of great interest to me and my Office. We have been in discussions with the Mayor's Office of Sustainability about a deeper partnership, and have also been in discussions with the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation about how temporary public art can help raise awareness of, and interest in, the Delaware waterfront, which could also involve exploring wetlands and water quality issues. It is great to have so many great partners and organizations of like mind in Philadelphia (like the Schuylkill Center) - look for lots more great project to come in the coming years!

Deconstructing the Department of Alternative Affairs

2011-07-15T18:03:00.000-04:00

The current exhibition at the Art Gallery at City Hall is called "The Department of Alternative Affairs" and it is a collaboration between three artist collective groups in Philadelphia: Little Berlin, Extra Extra, and FluxSpace. One of the especially vibrant aspects of Philadelphia's visual arts scene is a growing number of artist collectives, some (but not all) of which may also have physical spaces, usually in areas of the City where really affordable space can be found. We thought it would be valuable to invite in three of these collectives and give them the opportunity to figure out how they would like to use the gallery space.

What they have chosen to do is create a new "City agency" for the duration of their exhibit called "The Department of Alternative Affairs" (DAA). This conceit is carried through in the installation of desks and other office equipment in the space, at which members of the groups actually do their work. There are also performative aspects of the installation as well - more info below.

It is an interesting challenge for a public gallery space like this one to present work of this sort of a conceptual nature, and something we debated about a lot. There is probably more explanatory signage than the groups would have preferred, and the artists really wanted to make the DAA as "official" as possible, including an actual City web site, City email addresses, and City ID badges (not something we were able to do - but they found a way to create great "faux" elements that utilize the City seal). I think this tension is healthy. The majority of our visitors are tourists and City workers, or people in the building to deal with a City agency - not a traditional gallery audience. As a result we - and the artists who are sometimes on site - must spend a lot of time talking about the nature of art, and explaining what conceptual art is. Lots of folks peek into the gallery through our glass door - see some desks and chairs and lack of "art" on the walls, and are hesitant to come inside. The show has gotten some nice press coverage from Peter Crimmins on WHYY, as well as from DoN Brewer on Philly Side Arts.

I asked the director of our exhibitions programs, Tu Huyn, to provide his thoughts on the show. Here is what he had to say:

"The only attitude (the only politics--judicial, medical, pedagogical and so forth) I would absolutely condemn is one which, directly or indirectly, cuts off the possibility of an essentially interminable questioning, that is, an effective and thus transforming questioning."
- Jacques Derrida, Points…Interviews 1974-1994

It has been 50 years since Jacques Derrida founded "Deconstruction", a philosophy and rigorous form of textual criticism that breaks apart structured modes of thinking revealing its flawed parts. Through this questioning of the language used to build the foundations of our thinking, we are left with further questions about power and ethics, whether or not a restructuring of the way we think is possible, is the "immediacy" and existential process championed in Modern Art an illusion that is perpetually delayed...on and on? Essentially, the introduction of deconstruction is an important chapter to the evolution of artists, writers, creative people as critics (and self-criticism of institutions) who not only question of the nature of art and its traditions (be it Western), but by doing so open up a questioning of cultural values and social structures. Artists became institutional critics. New structures of thinking emerged, post-structuralists in the age of Postmodernism, Feminism, social activists...the necessary progression of society.

This current exhibit revisits some of these challenges from a generation ago, even using some of its vocabulary, such as "hierarchy/non-hierarchical", "institutional critique" and "structure". So, while the presentation of art isn't traditionally framed by a white wall or a pedestal, it has its historical context, its precedent in the Postmodern era. That does not mean that these questions are irrelevant today even though the institutional critics of the 70s are now well established and accepted by the institutions of museums and the art world. There will always be questions such as: what is art, what it should be, how it can be used, how it is used (as a vehicle, utility, forum...), who should be its authority and whether or not there should be such an entity to begin with, what role art plays in society, what does art do, what is the role of government and the arts, how can art be more accessible, what's the difference between fine art, commercial art, student art and who is to decide on this separation, its quality...on and on? These are ongoing conversations, and they are healthy ones to have.

We are part of government and as Peter Crimmins from WHYY wrote in his article, we are an "agency up to its neck in city bureaucracy and politics." So does an exhibit like this hurt the OACCE, seeing that it can also be regarded as a critique of our government hierarchical structure? I think the opposite, that by allowing these upcoming artists to showcase their ideas about art, the art gallery becomes a forum to discuss these issues and at the same time highlight these three progressive artist-run spaces, their values and alternative approach to the artistic process. We are embracing this emerging, experimental art scene and the overall spirit of artists as collaborators. Their artistic process is a collaborative process, a non-hierarchical structure devoid of the traditional curator. These artists are their own curators, not to mention, they are self-published, their own fundraisers, administrators, cheerleaders, volunteers....That is the other picture that's being presented in this exhibit. As nonprofit, grassroots organizations that are run by artists, they are also proving that even though they do not sell a lot of art or seldom showcase works that are traditional objects worthy of sales, their work do in fact provide a valuable service. The questioning of art traditions, cultural values, hierarchical structures is an old endeavor, but it is still a relevant exercise.

On Mondays, Daniel Wallace from Extra Extra puts on his pagan robe and meditates beside EE's video installation depicting a collection of tension building and collapsing moments, colliding and retreating structures. On WHYY's, Peter Crimmins states that Wallace's Meditation Mondays is a pun on corporate focus groups. While it happens as part of the Department of Alternative Affairs - one can make that connection - but I think it is also reflective or metaphorical of their creative process - art as necessary collapse and reconstitution of ideas. The tension comes from duality, contradictory forces, which can mean many things obviously but Wallace's presence is a break from Western duality and introduces a triangle. The third entity being the artist in reflection and meditation.

The microfilm reader questions the values of technological advances by looking at an obsolete piece of machinery. Some things are lost information is transferred, digitized, such as the character of the newspaper, the advertisements, the elements that capture a time period, etc. FLUXspace is also concerned about the accessibility of art - the mundane object is now placed in a new context as a work of art and has new value, which presents the notion that anything can be regarded as art.

Little Berlin is producing an exhibit called "authorLESSity", which asks anyone to email an image that he or she considers as great art. They will print it out and make an exhibit (in whatever format) during the closing event on July 29th 5-7 pm. They are also signing up other artists to work in the space and form further collaborations.

An end to this experimental collaboration may include further videos by Extra Extra working in the space, building sculptures...We will soon see.

Here is the official description of the show, with all the show details:

The Department of Alternative Affairs

The City of Philadelphia’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy introduces its summer emerging artists exhibition: The Department of Alternative Affairs. Three artist-run collectives from the emerging Kensington art scene present a collaborative project as the new Department of Alternative Affairs. Featured artists from Extra Extra, FLUXspace and Little Berlin are utilizing City Hall’s art gallery as a non-hierarchical workspace to create, perform and educate visitors about their respective organizations and Philadelphia's creative climate.

Participating Artists:

Extra Extra: Derek Frech, Joe Lacina and Daniel Wallace.

FLUXspace: Nike Desis, Angela Jerardi, Susanna Gieske and Warren Miller.

Little Berlin: Kristen Neville-Taylor and Martha Savery (founders), Beth Heinly,
Kelani Nichole, Tim Pannell, Masha Badinter, Tyler Kline and Maria Dumlao.

The Department of Alternative Affairs (DAA) is the second emerging artist show in the Art Gallery at City Hall since the gallery opened in June of 2010. This annual invitation to grass roots arts organizations is an opportunity to sample Philadelphia’s dynamic visual arts scene and to continually gain insight on the creative people behind it. This year, the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy - with assistance from an independent City Hall Exhibitions Advisory Committee - is highlighting artist-run spaces, their values and creative, curatorial processes as an alternative to more traditional presentations and notions of art.

The Art Gallery at City Hall has been transformed into office workspace where members of the DAA are serving a residency. The gallery is a stage for conceptual performances and a platform to educate and discuss the state of today’s artists as administrators, curators and volunteer workers at group-run art spaces operating on shoe-string budgets. It’s an opportunity to recognize their uncompromising, yet collaborative spirit, and their challenge to accepted cultural values and structured modes of thinking. Each organization is presenting an installation of desks (two were created by the artists) and office furniture with unique mission statements. Depending on which artist is on hand, each day may be a different experience for visitors. During their residency, artists may forge collaborations as they interact with City Hall visitors and staff in this experimental process.

“This use of the gallery is a break from the tradition of art presentation and is a reflection of the unique process and sensibility of these three organizations,” says Mary Salvante, Chair of the City Hall Exhibitions Advisory Committee. “It is new ground for the gallery program as it provides an opportunity for the general public to be engaged by the artists and the installation in a nontraditional context.”

The Department of Alternative Affairs has extended gallery hours scheduled for Wednesdays 7/6, 7/13, 7/20, 7/27 from 5 – 8 pm; an Open Web Studio workshop by Little Berlin on Monday, 7/18 from 5 – 8pm. A closing reception, which will be a culmination of their experiences in City Hall will take place on Friday, July 29^th, from 5-7 pm.

To learn more about the Department of Alternative Affairs, visit: http://littleberlin.org/DAA/.

Our Town Grants Announced by NEA

2011-07-12T15:33:00.000-04:00

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) just now announced the recipients of grants under their new "Our Town" arts and placemaking initiative. $6.575 million in grants will go to 51 communities in 34 states that have created public-private partnerships to strengthen the arts while shaping the social, physical, and economic characters of their neighborhoods, towns, cities, and regions. NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman made the announcement during a press conference this afternoon. The full NEA press release and descriptions of all the grantee projects is available here.

I am very excited that the City of Philadelphia (the Office of Arts Culture and the Creative Economy, working with our Commerce Department) has partnered with The Reinvestment Fund (TRF) and University of Pennsylvania’s Social Impact of the Arts Project (SIAP) to secure one of the largest grants awarded, $250,000, to build and launch a Creative Assets Mapping Database for the City of Philadelphia (TRF is the actual grantee). The multi-faceted project will further research related to the relationship between cultural engagement and economic development and will produce a web tool that can inform planning, marketing, policy development and public/ private arts investment strategies. Creation of this geodatabase will allow the City and other cultural leaders to monitor the growth in creative assets and assess their civic, economic and social impacts.

This initiative began with a simple question from Mayor Nutter a couple of years ago - "Can we map all the cultural and creative economy activity in the City and can we then use that tool to drive our policies and decisions?" The answer was that no such tool existed - at least not in a comprehensive enough form - so we began immediately to work with TRF and SIAP, national leaders in studying the impact of the arts at the neighborhood level (more information on their arts work is available here). TRF also operates Policy Map, the leading source of mapped social and demographic data. We were able to secure a small planning grant from the NEA last year and since then have been working to develop our plans for this project.

Our Town grants range from $25,000 to $250,000 and represent a range of rural, suburban, and urban communities with populations ranging from just over 2,000 people to more than 8.2 million people. More than half of the Our Town grants were awarded too communities with a population of less than 200,000, and seven to communities with fewer than 25,000 people. Grants were awarded for planning, design, and arts engagement projects that strengthen arts organizations while increasing the livability of communities across America. By requiring a partnership between local government and an arts or design organization, Our Town encourages creative, cross sector solutions to the challenges facing towns, cities, and the arts community.

There were 447 applicants to this program, and we are truly honored to be one of the 51 grantees. We hope our project will not only help strengthen what we are doing in Philadelphia but also serve as a national model for other communities. MANY other exciting projects funded throughout the country, and I also congratulate all the other grantees. This is another example of the transformative work the NEA is doing now under Rocco Landesman's leadership.

Thoughts on Arts Education as an Economic Development Imperative

2011-06-14T14:05:00.000-04:00

A few days ago I spoke at a reception for the Philadelphia region music education organization Musicopia. Because so many other speakers were already attesting to the value of their work (which IS wonderful - check out their website), I decided I would focus on the larger issue of the value of arts education, with specific emphasis on what sorts of direct impact on a community quality arts education provides. To me, and to those of us in the field, this information, this perspective may seem self-evident. But to many, this may not be the case. A corporate foundation director came up to me afterwards and asked if could share my remarks with her to be distributed to her board, so they could understand the larger civic and economic value of arts education investments.

Unfortunately, I spoke without notes, but I thought it might be helpful to try and recreate my key points on my blog, with links so others can use it if they wish.

Arts education is a crucial civic imperative for an array of reasons, none of which undercut its importance simply as a human right for young people to have the benefit of the arts as part of their educational experience, not just at home (where they may or may not get it) but at school as well.

But why should a funder, a legislator, a business-person care about arts education, especially in these challenging economic times when it can seem like a frill?

Quality arts education has an array of positive social benefits, that translate directly to positive economic benefits. First, there is the area of workforce development. A 21st century economy needs a certain kind of worker. This is NOT just a worker who has done well on standardized tests and is competent in math and English. This is a worker who is strong in so-called "applied" (as opposed to "basic") skills. A young person who is strong in collaboration and teamwork, strong in communication and self-expression, understanding of ambiguity and nuance (it is not a rote, hierarchical, assembly line world anymore; in today's world there is often no "right:" answer - just the best course of action with the information available). These are skills that we KNOW arts education develops. A study done a few years ago by the Conference Board, in partnership with a number of workforce development organizations, called "Are They Really Ready to Work," showed that employers felt that their incoming workers were very poorly prepared in these applied skills, but that they rated the applied skills as the most critically important workforce skills that they needed. A follow up report called "Ready to Innovate" - conducted by the Conference Board in partnership with Americans for the Arts and the American Association of School Administrators - looked at how the views of employers aligned with those of school district leaders. It found a truly overwhelming - nearly unanimous - agreement among both the hirers and the educators that creativity was an increasingly important workplace skill. Those doing the hiring, however, found that they largely cannot find the creative workers they seek. Both employers and educators rate arts study as a very high indicator of creativity (#1 for educators, #2 for business just behind entrepreneurial experience). A recent study by IBM found that creativity was rated as the most important skill for future success as a CEO. I remember speaking at a conference with a very senior executive from a large food service company, who indicated that their HR team found engagement in arts education and arts practice as being the best indicator of success in the workplace - not just for executives and managers, but all the way down to entry-level waitstaff, kitchen workers, etc. They found that workers who played an instrument, acted in plays or were otherwise engaged in the arts were better members of their team, stayed in their job longer, were more productive, and were better at customer service.

And in 2009 Dr. James Catterall, a professor at UCLA, released a study "Doing Well and Doing Good by Doing Art," that followed up 12 years later with 12,000 students studied as part of Champions of Change, an earlier, seminal study of the impact of arts education on youth (also still worthwhile reading!). They found that intensive involvement in the arts in middle and high school is associated with higher levels of achievement and college attainment and also with many indicators of pro-social behavior such as voluntarism and voting. And while they found that intensive involvement in other activities like sports, also had positive outcomes, there were special and stronger results with the arts. In their research they also adjust for socio-economic differences so they are not just measuring the results of students with more advantages attending wealthier schools more likely to provide arts-rich learning.

And anecdotally, we see this in our own City, Philadelphia, and our own youth. Our Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Everett Gillison, sees that the young people engaged in arts education programs like Mural Arts are much less likely to get into trouble, and end up "in the system." Engagement in the arts by ex-offenders - arts education IS a lifelong learning issue - also significantly reduces recitivism. The dollars that we invest in quality arts education programs are not only helping to enrich the lives of our young, not only developing workers that our businesses needs that will help drive our local economy. They are also frankly getting many young people onto a different path in life that will also save our society and economy significant investments in police and prisons.

In effect, the same things that arts education produces in young people that makes them better people, happier human beings, also produces a wide array of social and economic benefits that helps our City. Hence the title of Catterall's study, a play on the "doing well by doing good" philosophy of socially responsible business. The research is clear: investing in arts education is one of the best investments we can possibly make - it builds a 21st century employment-ready workforce that is needed by business; it builds better citizens, more likely to vote and volunteer; it strengthens our communities by producing young people less likely to drop out, less likely to engage in criminal behavior; it makes our schools livelier, engaging, welcoming places of learning, and combined with integrating the arts into other subject areas, fuels the joy of learning and ultimately academic achievement.

In these challenging economic times, education funding and programs are seriously threatened, at the federal level, the state level, and the local level. In this climate, arts education resources are especially at risk, as there is a thoroughly misguided impression that arts education and training in schools is an "extra", a "frill", an "amenity" that is OK to invest in when we are flush, but expendable when purse strings are tightened. Perfectly smart people who are all about data, achievement, competitiveness and jobs, somehow have a blind spot when they support disinvestment in arts education - which actually goes against all their principles.

This is not a partisan issue - arts education should be supported by anyone who cares about a future for all of your young people, and anyone who cares about the health of our local and national economy. Shouldn't that include everyone?

[Note: I know there is much more research out there than the studies I have cited. These are just the studies that came to mind first - this is not an academic paper. Anyone who is interested in more research can go to the Americans for the Arts "Art: Ask for More" advocacy campaign website, which has great concise data, and links to other resources. The site has excellent tools for parents, teachers and other advocates for arts education. Another wonderful research is the Arts Education Partnership.]

Can't get away from that Art Czar nickname!

2011-06-06T12:11:00.000-04:00

This past Friday, our local PBS station, WHYY, profiled the work of me and the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy on its monthly arts news-magazine program, "Friday Arts". The episode also featured a segment on the wonderful Wharton Esherick Museum, The Fruit Guys (a business devoted to promoting fresh fruit as an alternative to junk food in workplaces and schools), and Orchestra 2001 (a contemporary/new music ensemble that is associated with Swarthmore College. The embedded video below only features my segment but I encourage you to click through and watch the entire episode.

Watch the full episode. See more Friday Arts.

It may seem like shameless self-promotion, but since many may have missed the episode, and since those outside of the Philadelphia market were not able to tune in, I thought it would be helpful if I included the segment in my blog. I do think it captures pretty well the work that we are trying to do here. It also highlights some of the initiatives we have tried to support. I thought it might be helpful if in my blog I explain some of the locations of the scenes.

For example, I talk about the importance of DesignPhiladelphia to our efforts to highlight Philadelphia's strong design assets. What may be less evident is that the scenes of a reception in a large very high-ceilinged space with "curtains" of hanging diaphanous shapes, is a DesignPhiladelphia site-specific installation by the artist Aurora Robson in a multi-function space called the Skybox, at 2424 Studios in Fishtown, one of the City's many great creative economy workspaces.

Similarly, there are scenes of me, along with a group of other people, walking through an ornate decayed vacant building with a grand rotunda space. This space is Germantown Town Hall and this was a site visit with our colleagues from Public Property to show the space to the folks from Hidden City as a potential site for that program. Definitely a great building that needs a new, appropriate tenant!

The scenes where I am walking around in a hard hat in a reception at what seems to be a construction site were shot at the under-construction new Barnes on the Parkway. Since the footage was shot a few months ago, the building is, of course, much further along now. There are also some shots of the press conference at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts for the ground-breaking of Lenfest Plaza, the new public space that will connect PAFA's two buildings (and feature a major a major new work of public art by Claes Oldenburg).

There are also some scenes shot in our new Art Gallery at City Hall space. Apologies to those organizations not included in the segment - it was really just chance as to what was going on at the time they were shooting. I am getting a little tired of the Art Czar thing; as I have often said, "look at how it ended up for the Czar - I don't want to end up the same way". But, I suppose it is the nature of the media to grab onto these shorthand phrases. And it should go without saying - but I will say it anyway: even though the focus of this piece is on me, my work would not be possible without: 1) the support and encouragement of a truly great Mayor, 2) the efforts of a very talented and dedicated staff, and 3) an amazing arts, culture and creative community that inspires me every day! For those that are interested, here is an additional segment - a more extended interview on what the "creative economy" is and why it is important: video.whyy.org/video/1965121120/.

Let me know what you think!

What is Philadelphia's "Brand"?

2011-05-03T15:33:00.000-04:00

Patricia Martin, author of RenGen, and an expert on corporate sponsorship and connecting brands with consumers, visited Philadelphia last week to work with some of our leaders in government and tourism who are responsible for marketing the City to potential sponsors. The meeting was organized by the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (thank you GPTMC!), and in addition their staff, and me, also included representatives from the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, the City's Parks and Recreation Department, Historic Philadelphia and others. Pat writes about her Philadelphia visit (which included attendance at the Arts & Business Council's annual luncheon) here. For those of you that don't already follow Pat's blog, consider this a recommendation, and read her "Philadelphia Story" as a first intruduction! I wrote an entry in my blog not that long ago on some recent research she published on how arts groups can better understand and communicate with the Millennial generation.

Part of the discussion involved exploring the "brand" of the City, since in exploring how to better sell City promotions and events to potential corporate sponsors, it is clear that in a sense you are also selling the brand of the City. It was also clear that in all of our individual communications efforts, how we talk about the City in effect helps create and hone that brand, and there is much to be gained by being more strategic and coordinated in our language and messaging.

There was a really engaging discussion about how Philadelphia is perceived both internally and externally and how we can better communicate our core assets.

There was general agreement that as a City we have a "culture of ingenuity", and that this framework can be a useful construct to link our heritage (which essentially involved "inventing" America and the modern democracy, as well as Benjamin Franklin's famous spirit of intellectual curiosity and invention) to our 19th C. period as the "workshop to the world" when we were about designing and making just about every kind of product imaginable, to our current creative energy that ties together our arts & culture scene with technology and science. Think about this past week with PIFA, Philly Tech Week and the Philadelphia Science Festival all happening at the same time - how cool was that?. Our history is not frozen in time like Williamsburg VA, or Machu Picchu, but integrated into and still part of a living, breathing, creative metropolis.

We also discussed that we have a population that "looks like the future" - our increasing diversity mirrors the demographic shifts taking place throughout the country. Not only do we have ethnic diversity but we also have a huge Millennial population, by virtue of our array of colleges and universities in the region - a total of about 300,000 FTE students in the region attending over 100 different colleges. Yet we are not just a "college town." We also have a robust population of Boomers, Seniors and young families.

And - to put it bluntly - "we are NOT New York City." By this we meant that we have many unique assets that preclude measuring ourselves in relationship to New York. We are not "the sixth borough." Yet our geographic location between New York City and Washington DC, combined with an excellent international airport clearly offers significant benefits from a business attraction, tourism and branding perspective. Our "place" does matter. This is not a knock on NY - I still love NY and love spending time there. This language is a useful shorthand, but Philadelphia needs to do a better job communicating what it IS without resorting to having to say what it is not.

It is interesting to have Pat's take on this as an expert, informed, "outsider" who has the opportunity to travel all over the country and can view Philadelphia's assets and image with that informed dispassionate perspective.

Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy Testifies Before City Council

2011-04-04T10:16:00.000-04:00

On Monday, March 28th, I testified before City Council as part of the FY12 budget process. I was joined by Moira Baylson, Deputy Cultural Officer. The Office staff, and other cultural leaders such as Tom Kaiden of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, attended as audience (and moral support). In the end, the hearing was relatively free of contention, which in these times is always a good thing. However, since so much work goes into preparing the testimony, and it serves as a good report on the past year's activities and plans for the coming year, I am summarizing the testimony here, with a link at the end for a fuller version.

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I am honored to have the opportunity to report on the Office’s accomplishments over the past year, and to explain how our Office plans to use and leverage City funds in Fiscal Year 2012. After spending two years reorganizing programs and staff from multiple departments, we are pleased to provide testimony from our new home, right here in City Hall. The opening of our new office and gallery in June of 2010 has allowed our staff to work together in one location and for the first time, has provided the public direct access to our office. With this change, we have gained tremendous momentum in the services and programs we offer to Philadelphia and in serving our larger mission: to support and promote arts, culture and creative industries; and to develop partnerships and coordinate efforts that weave arts, culture and creativity into the economic and social fabric of the city.

In Fiscal Year 2011, the Philadelphia Cultural Fund will distribute a little over $1.6 million to 200 Philadelphia cultural organizations. The Fund’s Youth Enrichment Program, in its second year, will distribute an additional $100,000 in grants. Last year the program distributed $350,000 in grants to eight organizations with exemplary youth arts programs such as Art Reach, Asian Arts Initiative and Kùlú Mèlé African American Dance Ensemble. Although down 42.5% from 2010, the Fund continues to achieve its mission of re-granting City funds to hundreds of deserving cultural organizations throughout our Philadelphia neighborhoods.

The African American Museum in Philadelphia, the first museum funded and built by a city to help preserve African American culture, celebrated its 35th Anniversary this year. The Office, through an annual grant of roughly $230,000 helps to ensure that the museum has adequate resources to deliver high quality programming and exhibitions to the public. Through its core exhibit, “Audacious Freedom: African Americans in Philadelphia 1776-1876,” the Museum details the freedom journey of African Americans in Philadelphia..

In December 2010, with funding from the William Penn Foundation, the Office released the report Creative Vitality in Philadelphia: A Three Year Index 2006-2008. Highlights from the report include a 7% increase in Philadelphia’s creative health from 2006-2008; a 70% stronger creative community than the national benchmark; and a nonprofit cultural sector five times stronger than the national benchmark. Areas identified for improvement, such as creative sector employment, which was 15% below the national benchmark in 2008, are priority areas for the Office in FY12. In January of this year we held a Town Hall meeting, which was attended by over 150 people. The Office shared the findings of the report and solicited input into how the City can better promote, unite and invest in the creative sector. We are currently investigating these recommendations, which will guide our strategy for the development of programs and policies that serve and add capacity to the creative sector.

We have also been working on how to better communicate about our programs and services, and this year will launch an official website, through the pro-bono services of Electronic Ink, that will better connect all City programs and services to the arts and cultural community and creative businesses.We have also created an active social media presence through Twitter and Facebook.

With a $25,000 planning grant from the National Endowment for the Arts matched by funds from the William Penn Foundation, we have partnered with The Reinvestment Fund and Social Impact of the Arts Project at the University of Pennsylvania to create a creative assets mapping database. This initiative is a comprehensive effort to identify and promote arts, culture and creative assets in Philadelphia. It will also be an ongoing resource and tool for asset-based community and economic development.

The Mayor’s Cultural Advisory Council, a diverse group of cultural, creative business and philanthropic leaders have continued their work through FY11 crafting and finalizing a comprehensive Vision and Plan for the Office. The Office expects to publish this plan within the next few months.

In May, we will announce a $300,000 fund that will support artists, nonprofit arts and culture organizations and for-profit creative businesses through capital facility investments that produce specific benefits for low- and moderate-income neighborhoods or create or retain jobs. The goals of the program are to strengthen the relationships between the creative industries and their neighborhoods, and to foster organizational growth and job creation, asset development and economic efficiencies within the creative sector.

Since 1992, Art In City Hall has presented exhibitions that showcase contemporary artwork by professional and emerging Philadelphia visual artists. “Emerging” artists include community based art from Philadelphia’s public schools, community nonprofits, and other city agencies, including an annual exhibition highlighting art from City of Philadelphia employees and family members. Art in City Hall has approximately four juried professional exhibitions in hallway display cases and four to five community exhibitions along the fifth floor north corridor each year. In FY11, a particularly notable exhibition featured art by Philadelphia inmates and ex-offenders. Currently, on the fifth floor of City Hall, BuildaBridge, a community non-profit providing assistance for families in transition, will present: My Home Is In My Heart: An Artistic Inquiry of Place, Home and Belonging by Philadelphia’s Children and in May, The Village of Arts and Humanities will celebrate its 25th anniversary with an exhibition of individual and collaborative art projects in photography, textiles and graphic design.

With the opening of our office in June of 2010, we also opened The Art Gallery in City Hall. Expanding upon the Art in City Hall program, the Office now has a comprehensive “exhibitions program,” providing even more opportunities for artists, arts organizations and community groups. To date we have had four shows in the gallery including an annual student exhibition recognizing the importance of arts education from the School District of Philadelphia. Our exhibitions that coincide with major events such as DesignPhiladelphia and the upcoming Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts send a message that City Hall is an active partner in the city-wide initiatives that are putting Philadelphia on the national and international map as a major arts destination and a world class city.

Currently there are eleven Percent for Art projects in various stages of development. These include a LED video project for the Race Street Connector on the Delaware waterfront, as well as two projects at the Philadelphia International Airport, and two at neighborhood recreation centers. Through a competitive process and with funding from the William Penn Foundation, the Office commissioned the internationally renowned artists group Futurefarmers for a project called “Soil Kitchen”, a temporary public art project timed to coincide with the 2011 National Brownfields Conference at the Convention Center. Located at 2nd and Girard, the project incorporates community involvement, naturally generated energy, local foods, the creative reuse of a Brownfield site and Brownfield mapping.

The Office played a facilitating role in major arts and cultural events such as DesignPhiladelphia, Philagrafika, Art in the Open and Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts; and in representing the creative community interests in major efforts such as Philadelphia Plan 2035, the Philadelphia Zoning Code and the Dilworth Plaza renovations.

FY12 Initiatives

The Office expects to launch several new initiatives in FY12. Under the new moniker, Creative Philadelphia, we will launch a quarterly event series that highlights topical issues that are relevant to a spectrum of artists, cultural organizations and creative businesses and provides networking opportunities for the creative community. We will release a formal creative economy strategy and specific policy and program recommendations driven by our recent Town Hall meeting and continued stakeholder engagement strategy. We will also launch our new website www.phila.gov/arts, which will streamline the services that the City provides to artists, arts organizations and creative businesses.

We will launch phase two of our Creative Assets Mapping Database Project. The results of this project will be the creation of a creative asset database, new research regarding creative and neighborhood development, and new local and national policy and investment recommendations.

We are working to secure private funds for four sculpture conservation projects - two on the Parkway and two in Fairmount Park. We will also work to restore and reinstall El Gran Teatro de la Luna, one of only three public sculptures in existence by the famed Puerto Rican artist Rafael Ferrer. Now 76 years old and the subject of a major retrospective at El Museo del Barrio in New York, the artist will work with a conservator and others to return this piece to the community. The coordination of a new permanent home for the Dilworth Memorial is also underway, due to the changes planned for Dilworth Plaza, including a new major public art component by the artist Janet Echelman. Based on the interest and anticipated success of Soil Kitchen, the Office will continue with a temporary public art project for FY12 and hopes to incorporate temporary art into Philadelphia’s public art strategy.

Our exhibition programs will continue to provide opportunities for emerging and professional artists, arts institutions, and community organizations that utilize the arts to improve the quality of life for our citizens. FY12 exhibitions will include the Philadelphia School District show; the annual employees show; the Mural Arts Program Winter Exhibition; and in coordination with the Recreation Department, the Senior Camp Exhibition - artwork from a network of Philadelphia senior centers.

In addition to the exhibitions programs at City Hall, in the Winter of FY12 the Office will introduce expanded cultural opportunities in City Hall with a performing, literary and media arts program that will bring music concerts, dance performances, spoken word and film screenings to the City Hall Courtyard in the warmer months and in the Mayor’s Reception Room and Conversation Hall in the colder months.

For a copy of the full testimony, click on this link.

Philadelphia Swings Into Spring with Jazz

2011-03-30T12:13:00.003-04:00

Philadelphia will celebrate national Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) in April, for the first time in many years. This national celebration, sponsored by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and also promoted by the United States Conference of Mayors, is now in its 10th anniversary year.

Recognizing this quintessentially American art form is especially appropriate for Philadelphia, which has an extraordinary legacy of leadership in jazz. Beginning with Ethel Waters, and extending to John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang, Stan Getz, the Heath Brothers, Dizzie Gillespie, Sun Ra, McCoy Tyner, Grover Washington Jr, Stanley Clarke, Philadelphia has an illustrious roster of jazz greats who were either born here or lived and worked here for a significant portion of their life. Despite the demise of many of the City's historic jazz clubs, the City still has a vital, thriving jazz scene, with many venues and a strong and deep array of renowned working musicians. There is a nice succinct history of jazz in Philadelphia on the "Music of Philadelphia" page of Wikipedia.

A few months ago I organized a group of leaders in the Philadelphia jazz scene to discuss how to better support and promote this great art form. This followed a meeting with some members of the Clef Club's staff and board about how to revive its fortunes. I am grateful to Warren Oree and Gaciella D'Amelio of Lifeline Music for getting me started down this path. Working together, and with the Office of the City Representative, my colleagues in City government, we have organized a special promotion of Jazz Appreciation Month in Philadelphia.

This celebration was announced earlier this week right outside City Hall, on a chilly but sunny morning. With musical accompaniment from Warren Oree and the Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble, we announced a Citywide celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month in April, A new logo has been created (shared above), and banners have been designed that will hang in the City Hall portals, and have also been produced in poster size.

L-R: Charles Truxon, Gregory Jones, Melanie Johnson (City Representative), Gary Steuer, Warren Oree; showing off the new Jazz Appreciation Month banner designs. Warren, Charles and Gregory are the Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble.

In addition to the banners in City Hall, and the logo that will be used throughout the jazz community, we have also created a website: http://creativephl.org/jazz that has information on how to celebrate jazz, including a complete list of the Coalition members, downloadable versions of the logo, and a special Jazz Month event listings site, organized with the help with our friends at the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance and their Philly Fun Guide listings site. That special jazz listings site can be directly accessed here.

So with April beginning Friday, make your plans now for how to make jazz a part of your life this month, how you can support the art of jazz. And if you are not in Philadelphia, there are opportunities to support and experience jazz wherever you live. Here is a link to a great resource on the Smithsonian's site: it is called "112 ways to celebrate jazz".

As an aside, I have a somewhat personal connection to jazz, having been a major appreciator of the art form pretty much my entire adult life. In college at SUNY Purchase I was President of the student group charged with concert promotion and produced a jazz festival featuring the likes of Bill Evans, Elvin Jones and Betty Carter. Later, while Managing Director at the Vineyard Theatre in New York, we produced a concert series called Vintage Jazz at the Vineyard that highlighted jazz music from the 20's 30's and 40's, and featured many of the musicians from that era who were still around and playing, often paired with young proteges. That concert series was recorded and transformed into nationally broadcast radio programs. (Sadly, these radio shows, of which I think there were about 30, seem to have been lost to the mists of time. I never had the masters, and have been unable to track them down to make sure they are archived somewhere - it is a great loss, if in fact the masters are gone; most of these artists have now passed on.) Also while at the Vineyard I produced Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, a musical about the last days of Billie Holiday, that went on from its Off Broadway run to be produced all over the country. Growing up in NY, I sort of lived at clubs like the Village Vanguard, Sweet Basil, and The Blue Note. And more recently, my wife worked at Jazz at Lincoln Center for several years, during which I was a regular at their programs, including the extraordinary Essentially Ellington national high school jazz band competition.

Let's end with images of the two banners that will be "swinging" in the City Hall portals during the month of April!

Art-Reach Program Uses Art to Fight Violence - Funded by City $

2011-03-21T11:40:00.000-04:00


Art-Reach students and staff in Art Gallery at City Hall with artist Ben Volta

The past year the Philadelphia Cultural Fund (the vehicle through which the City distributes funding through a competitive peer process) for the first time ever allocated a portion of the funding to go into a new "Arts for Youth" project grant program. This new grant program, which I encouraged, allowed a group of exemplary projects using the arts to address critical challenges facing our youth to be supported. Given that the process for the next round of grants for this year will be launched soon (at a significantly reduced funding level, due to budget cuts), and that City Council is now holding budget hearings, it seemed like an opportune time to highlight one of the projects supported in 2010

Art-Reach is an organization devoted to "enriching lives by connecting underserved audiences to cultural experiences so that they may benefit from and enjoy the transformative power of the arts." Teens from the Martin Luther King Recreation Center in North Philadelphia and Wissahickon Boys and Girls Club in Germantown spent 12 weeks last fall working with professional silk screen artists to create original T-shirts with an anti-violence theme. They visited a hospital ER where they saw the devastating effects of gunshot wounds, and that led them to explore designs around the theme of the human heart (the literal, anatomical human heart, not the cartoon Valentine's Day version). Last week a group of the teens visited me at City Hall to present me with a T-shirt. They were accompanied by artist Benjamin Volta, who worked with them on this project, Michael Norris, Executive Director of Art-Reach, and other staff from the participating organizations.

It was a great opportunity for me to see this grant program in action, to meet the kids, and also to talk to them a bit about what I - and the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy - do. The kids also got to see our new show at the Art Gallery at City Hall, and learn a little but about the history of City Hall. In the photos above we are standing in front of a large work of art created by the kids and Ben Volta. One of the things I especially like about this program is that the winning designs have been mass-produced and are now on sale at the Villa stores at 1231 North Broad Street, and 5700 Germantown Avenue, or online at http://artreach.bigcartel.com. The shirts are $10 each and all the proceeds go to teen programs at these two centers. So this not just an arts program, not just an anti-violence program, but also an entrepreneurship and micro-enterprise program; the work of these students will generate business revenue that will go back into programs serving youth. The kids are also learning that art has value, and that designs can actually be sold in the marketplace. Would love to have more resources to better support programs like these. Very inspiring - this is why I do what I do...

Philadelphia Population Reverses 50 Year Decline - How Are the Arts Involved?

2011-03-14T11:41:00.000-04:00

The new Census numbers for Philadelphia are in, and the city managed to actually record a population increase, the first in 50 years. And while the increase was tiny - 8,456 residents, which represents a .6% increase to 1,536,006, the reversal of the decades-long decline is huge. Many older industrial cities are shrinking in population - Chicago, Baltimore - so this increase is especially notable. It is also notable because it confirms that Philadelphia has recaptured the "fifth largest American city" spot from Phoenix, which had passed Philly for a few years. (Click here for sample of press coverage.)

There are two big phenomena that jump out as you look at the detailed numbers, by neighborhood and by ethnicity. Clearly, the City is becoming much more diverse, and immigration, especially among Latino and Asian populations are a major contributor to the growth of the City. Philadelphia was a "majority minority" city in 2000 and that trend continues in 2010. The percentage of the population that is Asian has increased almost 50%, from 4.4% to 6.3%. And the Hispanic population had a similar scale increase, from 8.5% to 12.3%. The Black population remained somewhat steady and the White population shrank from 42.5% to 36.9%.

In terms of neighborhoods, there are enormous differences from neighborhood to neighborhood. Center City East saw a 25% increase. Large double-digit increases were also recorded in Center City West, Fishtown/Northern Liberties and Bella Vista. The diversity make-up has also seen huge variations by neighborhood. In my neighborhood, Bella Vista, for example, the Hispanic population is up 170%.

Virtually all the neighborhoods that have seen huge population increases during this ten year period have also seen large increases in the number of arts organizations and artists living and operating in them. This is not an accident. Arts and culture are definitely part of the mix of elements fostering the population and economic resurgence of these neighborhoods, along with retail, restaurants and residential real estate development. Looked at by neighborhood, the population gain has largely been a Center City phenomenon, and there are many reasons for this - the great work by Center City District and Paul Levy; the impact of the cultural investments made by the City over the past couple of decades; the support those cultural investments have had from major foundations and individual philanthropists (Pew, William Penn, Lenfest, etc.); the growth of a vibrant Philly culinary scene; the real estate tax abatement program that helped spur development of new residential condominiums. According to Center City District over the past ten years the number of arts organizations in Center City has grown from 314 to 415. Only NYC and DC have more downtown arts groups. The growth of cultural vibrancy in Center City has clearly been a factor in attracting more residents - and more residents attracts more retail and more restaurants.

From The Philadelphia Daily News, John Snyder, Staff Artist

Many of the City's poorest neighborhoods, however, were population losers, some by as much as 10%. The challenge going forward is how to help make these "shrinking" neighborhoods, many of which are filled with empty lots, abandoned buildings and declining commercial corridors, into good places to live and work. What role can the arts, creative economy and design play in solving this problem? Is there something that can be done proactively, while recognizing that great things can also happen organically (bad things can also happen organically, though...)? The new Philly Rising Collaborative program, initiated recently by the City, is an attempt to address some of these challenged neighborhoods in a holistic and strategic way. The arts have been one element of this program's approach. The first commercial area to be targeted, for example, Market Street between 7th and 12th Streets, will include a program of free outdoor musical performances as a way to create a more welcoming streetscape. The North Philadelphia effort has involved a partnership with the Village of Arts and Humanities.

The connection between the changing demographics of the City and the arts should be obvious. Our "traditional" (i.e. not community-based, not culturally-specific) arts groups MUST find a way to connect with this growing component of the population if they are to survive and thrive. African American, Latino and Asian-American audiences (and donors!) must be engaged - this is 63% of the market in the City. Our audiences should be diverse not just when we do special "outreach" performances but for our day-to-day offerings and special events.Beyond the imperative to build audiences and supporters more representative of the larger community, the arts also have a role to play in efforts (like Philly Rising) that are seeking to revitalize neighborhoods.

These new Census population numbers are certainly cause for celebration - both because of the vote of confidence they represent for Philadelphia, and the demonstration of the role of creative vitality in how people choose where to live. But they are also another alert that we must redouble their efforts to ensure that our arts groups better serve the full spectrum of our increasingly diverse City.

Melding Architectural and Natural Beauty

2011-03-10T15:17:00.000-05:00

Great story and slide show on the Fast Company Design Website about a $400 million, 18-year (so far) initiative to commission young (mostly) Norwegian architects to create extraordinary structures in some of Norway's most spectacular and wild natural settings - fjords, rivers, forests. These structures are not huge - They are modest (in scale, not design) walkways, observation platforms, rest houses. These are beautiful examples of how human intervention and structures can meld brilliantly with the landscape, and also how design and architecture can become a driver of tourism, and in ways that don't have to involve constructing enormous "architectural destination" buildings. So while it may seem like a lot of money, it has funded 120 sites and they are only halfway through the program. You can check out the slide show here, but I've included an image to provide a flavor of the program (the image is actually not from the slide show at Fast Company but from the Norwegian tourism website). This sure makes me way want to visit these places in Norway!

I can imagine something like this even in an urban setting like the Wissahickon area of Fairmount Park, along the Delaware or Schuykill, or some of the wilder areas of the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. Jody Pinto's Fingerspan in the Wissahickon (commissioned by the Fairmount Park Art Association) and the Morris Arboretum's new "Out on a Limb" Canopy Walk come closest to this in Philadelphia. Here is a picture of the Canopy Walk, which was designed by Metcalfe Architecture & Design, and recently won a 2010 Architectural Excellence Award from AIA Philadelphia :

Belated comments on Arts Supply/Demand issue; Soil Kitchen Project Coming Up!

2011-03-07T12:10:00.002-05:00

First off, must apologize for dropping off the face of the earth on my blog for a month or more. It's just been unbelievably busy and I have not found the time to write. The "New Posting" box has been open on my computer for weeks, as has the similar page for Huffington Post.

I had intended to dive in on the debate provoked by NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman on the supply/demand issue (New York Times article is here; Rocco's blog is here; sample blog response from Linda Essig's Creative Infrastructure here ). But now it seems rather anticlimactic. I will say, in brief (OK, I am not so brief), that I think the debate sparked by Rocco is a very healthy one. It is crystal clear if you look at the Americans for the Arts National Arts Index and other research that the number of nonprofit arts groups has been rising dramatically for the past decade or more, while at the same time the "market share" of philanthropy going to the arts has been declining, and the portion of arts participation that consists of traditional cultural attendance (buying tickets to theatre/music/dance/opera; going to a museum) has been flat at best. I have been saying for YEARS (my colleagues in NY can attest to this - I organized a Forum on the subject about ten years ago) that we as a field must look at the fact that the marketplace does not work well in determining whether supply meets demand in terms of number of arts groups.

It is very hard for arts groups to die - administrators want to keep their jobs, board members don't want to let the ship go down under their watch and are emotionally invested, long-time funders tend to keep supporting weak organizations in hopes that they will turn around and because of their historical commitment. In the corporate world "shareholder value" drives everything - for the most part a merger or bankruptcy happens if the marketplace demands it. Executives and stakeholders in a company being acquired are rewarded/(bribed?) with golden parachutes, stock options, etc. No equivalent to this exists in the arts, so arts groups tend to hang on long after they have lost their "juice," unlike restaurants - also creative endeavors - that come and go all the time and the public is still being served with an array of dining options. And the "barriers to entry" are relatively modest in the arts - VLA can help you get incorporated, you don't need to start out with a building or infrastructure. And virtually every existing organization measures its success by growth. Our nonprofit arts industry - still relatively young compared to other parts of the world - has now been around long enough that it takes a lot of money and a lot of audience to feed that beast. Think of the scale today of the Met Museum, MoMA, Art Institute of Chicago, Kimmel Center, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Millennium Park cultural programs, etc. Many of these organizations have substantially increased in scale over the last ten years - some did not even exist ten years ago. And that does not count the THOUSANDS of new organizations formed in the past ten years. Something has gotta give: either we find a way to drive demand - to make the arts a more compelling experience/cause for audiences and donors, or we are likely to see a wave of reorganizations, mergers, bankruptcy and/or outright dissolution. Funders, board and policy leaders need to think about these issues and figure out how we ensure the survival of the groups making the best work and doing the best job of serving their community. Rocco's comments had a lot of folks protesting that he was somehow saying there was a ceiling of art need that we have somehow reached - that there is not a need for more art. Of course, that is not the case - there is always the need for more (good!) art. But I do not believe we have a perfect system for making and delivering the best art to the public, and for inspiring and engaging the public in that art. That is where the work is needed.

Now that I have that off my chest, on to some exciting and inspiring art! The City of Philadelphia Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy has been working on a major new temporary public art installation called Soil Kitchen, April 1-6, 2011, by the artist collective known as FutureFarmers, led by Amy Franceschini. This is the first time the City has commissioned a major temporary public art project, due largely to the fact that our public art program is funded by "percent for art" funds that are not flexible, because they are capital funds that MUST be spent on permanent art. This project was made possible by the support of the William Penn Foundation.

Here is some background on the project: Soil Kitchen is a temporary, windmill-powered architectural intervention and multi-use space where citizens can enjoy free soup in exchange for soil samples from their neighborhood. Placed across the street from the Don Quixote monument at 2nd Street and Girard Avenue in North Philadelphia, Soil Kitchen’s windmill pays homage to the famous windmill scene in Cervantes', Don Quixote. Rather than being “adversarial giants” as they were in the novel, the windmill here will be a functioning symbol of self-reliance. The windmill also serves as a sculptural invitation to imagine a potential green energy future and to participate in the material exchange of soil for soup - literally taking matters into one’s own hands. This exchange provides an entry point for further dialogue and action available in the space through workshops, events and informal exchange. Soil Kitchen provides sustenance, re-established value of natural resources through a trade economy, and tools to inform and respond to possible contaminants in the soil.

Soil Kitchen will coincide with the E.P.A.’s National Brownfields Conference. Soil Kitchen gathers soil and creates a Philadelphia Brownfields Map and Soil Archive. In addition to serving soup and testing soil, the building will be a hub for exchange and learning; free workshops including wind turbine construction, urban agriculture, soil remediation, composting, lectures by soil scientists and cooking lessons.

Executing this project required many partnerships, both with City agencies, and with property owners and nonprofit agencies. Many public programs are planned during the course of the project, and I urge you to check it out! Remember, April 1-6 - go to the project website to get more information and see the schedule of events.

Mayor Nutter Honored by US Conference of Mayors and Americans for the Arts

2011-01-25T16:59:00.001-05:00

L to R, the Honorees and Presenters: Bob Lynch (President, Americans for the Arts), Anna Deavere Smith, Tom Cochran (CEO-USCM), Mayor Elizabeth Kautz (Burnsville, MN), Mayor James Brainard (Carmel, IN), Herbie Hancock, Rocco Landesman (Chairman, NEA), Mayor Michael Nutter (Philadelphia, PA), Mayor Mitch Landrieu (New Orleans, LA)

At the 79th annual winter meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM), awards for artists and public officials were presented by USCM in partnership with Americans for the Arts. These awards have been presented each year since 1997. Theatre artist Anna Deavere Smith was presented with the National Artist Advocate Award, and jazz great Herbie Hancock received the Legendary Artist Award.

Public Leadership in the Arts awards were presented to New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, Carmel IN Mayor James Brainard (small city category) and Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia (large city category). The press release on the awards can be found here.

This event is So important every year, as it provides a focus for efforts to inform and educate mayors about the critical role the arts play in their local economies and livability, Not only do they hear from folks like Bob Lynch, CEO from Americans for the Arts, Tom Cochran, CEO of United States Conference of Mayors, and Rocco Landesman, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, but they hear from their PEERS. They hear leading mayors like Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans, a relatively newly-elected mayor who served previously as Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana and led a state creative economy effort. And they hear from the honorees, folks like Governor Bill Richardson, who as a presidential candidate issued the first arts platform of any candidate, paving the way for arts platforms to be an important element of many of the campaigns. Mayor James Brainard demonstrated that the arts are not just for big cities, telling how the arts have helped transform the downtown of his city of Carmel IN, and how campaign opponents have unsuccessfully tried to use his arts support against him.

L-R: Tom Kaiden, Gary Steuer, Mayor Nutter, Mitch Swain

And of course, there was Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter (my boss) speaking passionately about the fact that "great cities support great art," that the arts are not only critical to our economy, and to tourism, but also to education, to neighborhood revitalization and livability. He acknowledged the tough economy has made it hard to provide the significantly increased cultural support he had planned to implement, but vowed to stay the course, to see cultural investment as economic investment in our City, and do all he can to move towards restoration of any cuts as economic realities improve. We did have a little Philadelphia/Pennsylvania posse in the house: in addition to me, and Desiree Peterkin-Bell and Tumar Alexander from the Mayor's staff, we also had Tom Kaiden, CEO of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance and Mich Swain, CEO of the Pittsburgh Arts Council and Chairman of Citizens for the Arts in Pennsylvania. His award was presented by National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman, who commented how Philadelphia was a model for the rest of the country in demonstrating the role the arts can play in revitalizing communities. He cited projects like the Crane Arts Building and Mural Arts, as well as the City's CDBG-R-funded creative economy workforce grants. He also cited the Mayor's re-opening of its arts and culture office and making its leadership cabinet level, and cited the Mayor as "one of my heroes". He encouraged everyone in the room to get on Amtrak and come visit! (Check out his account of the event on his blog which is linked above.)

The Mayor got to spend some time with Herbie Hancock and Anna Deavere Smith, two extraordinary artists who were also being honored. In addition to his musical accomplishments, Hancock has been a tireless music advocate and educator. In 2009 he performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Lang Lang at the Mann Center (I was there - great music, great venue, great evening!). And Anna Deavere Smith also had some Philadelphia connections. She is bringing her newest show Let Me Down Easy to Philadelphia Theatre Company in a couple of months, and performed excerpts of it at an Arts and Public Health conference at Penn last year (I was there for that talk, and strongly urge my "Philly Phriends" to catch her show at PTC!). She also graduated from what is now Arcadia University, adding a little extra Philly-area roots (though she hails from Baltimore).

The program also included a moving tribute to the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of John F. Kennedy, featuring Caroline Kennedy (above) and Nancy Pelosi, as well as a video that featured archival footage and interviews with mayors from across the country on how Kennedy had influenced their public service.

In sum, a moving and rewarding event! Great way to start the year!

Creative Vitality in Philadelphia - Telling the Story: World Cafe Live and WXPN

2010-12-22T09:18:00.000-05:00

As many of my readers will know, yesterday we released a new study "Creative Vitality in Philadelphia," that looks at the health of our creative sector - for-profit creative businesses, nonprofit arts and culture groups, and individual artists and creative workers. This research uses something called the Creative Vitality Index, or CVI, that has been developed by a group called the Western States Arts Federation. Because the data is national, aggregating an array of different sources of information, it provides a great vehicle for measuring our creative sector's vitality over time, and also to benchmark ourselves against the nation and other communities. You can access a PDF of the full report here.

The big "take-away" number from the report is that Philadelphia's CVI rating is 1.7, a full 70% higher than the national benchmark of 1.0. The region performs somewhat more modestly - at 1.1 ranking the region 16th out of the top 50 metro areas, though in terms of growth the Philly region has the fifth highest growth rate of the three years covered in the study (06-08). The CVI rating of our nonprofit arts activity is an astounding 500% higher than the national benchmark.

But an important part of the report is also a collection of case studies - the stories of the artists and businesses that make our creative sector sing. And that is a perfect segue to a teaser I would like to share from one of the case studies. This is the story of the brilliant partnership between World Cafe Live and WXPN - in effect the perfect exemplification of the creative economy intersection of for-profit creative business, nonprofit arts and individual artists.

In 1998, when music lover and former real estate lawyer Hal Real first approached WXPN/88.5 FM about joining forces and creating a live music venue, he was hoping to fulfill his dream to “radically change the landscape for contemporary music artists and audiences.” Real was a big fan of David Dye’s widely acclaimed World Cafe show, an eclectic blend of new music, live performances and interviews featuring local and national acts that is broadcast on XPN and heard on 200 stations nationwide. His idea was to create World Cafe Live, a for-profit music venue for grownups that was the physical extension of the experience World Cafe listeners had in their living rooms. At that time, WXPN, which is University of Pennsylvania owned and operated and had been broadcasting since the 1970s from a closet-like studio papered with vinyl records for soundproofing inside a run-down house on Penn’s campus (its support staff worked in another building several blocks away), had outgrown its space and was in need of a new home...

To read the rest of the World Cafe Live/WXPN profile go here. And as a reminder, you can download the full Philly CVI report here. In addition, we invite you to share your own creative industry story at our special website, where you can also sign up to attend a Creative Vitality town hall on January 27th, as well as to stay connected with us through Facebook and Twitter. We'll be selecting and sharing some of the profiles we receive in future reports, as well as online, so don't miss this opportunity to show off the amazing creative work you or your organization does everyday. (Only one submission per business/organization/artist, please.)

Who are the Millennials, why do we need them, and how do we engage them?

2010-12-15T18:55:00.000-05:00

Patricia Martin, a really sharp writer and consultant who follows consumer trends, marketing and sponsorship, and has a special interest in arts and culture, has just come out with a new study called Tipping the Culture: How engaging Millennials will change things. It is actually available as a free download by clicking on the link above.

The study was commissioned by Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, and funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation as part of its support for Nonprofit Finance Fund's "Leading for the Future Initiative."

Better understanding this new generational cohort (defined in this report as being between 15 and 31 years old) - now entering our workforce, our audiences, and our customer base, and in HUGE numbers that dwarf the size of the older Gen X group - is critical to the future of our arts organizations. The study takes a close and revealing look at this generation, helping us develop effective strategies to engage them. Notice I did NOT say "market to them" because if there is one thing this generations hates it is being "marketed to." The study also looks at examples from the corporate sector of firms that have successfully been able to build sales and brands that resonate with this generation. Some examples from the arts sector are included too, including a bit of Philly inclusion.

Here are some of the big take-aways for me:

Reaching and engaging Millennials is critical, yet "for a performing arts presenter, it is especially vexing because the very conventions of the experience you offer can conflict with [their] mind-set." What this means is that most performing arts experiences basically require audience to arrive at a set time, sit in a seat and engage in an essentially passive cultural experience. Clapping only at appropriate times.
Even given the resistance of Millennials to these passive cultural experiences - they prefer to CREATE or self-curate their cultural experiences - the research DOES find that under the right circumstances Millennials WILL "abide by the rituals associated with live performance...many do not expect or want to text or tweet. And if the situation calls for it, they'll dress up a bit for the experience. They study proposes three key insights:

The brand is no longer at the center of the universe, the user is. To succeed in reaching Millennnials, you essentially have to turn your brand over to them. They need to own it and shape it. This is really exciting, and also really scary for marketers used to obsessively controlling the integrity of their brand.
Have something meaningful to say. Millennials are moved by REAL content. They want authentic experiences. Artificiality and phoniness turns them off.
Help them belong to the brand. We need to provide vehicles that give them the capacity to belong to the brand and share it - providing comments and review on the web site, sharing photos of the experiences, facilitating social interactions through the arts experiencing, posting videos, etc.
And finally (and related to the above) they respond really powerfully to opportunities to actually be a part of creating the content; they want to actively participate. The roll-out of the Ford Fiesta is cited as one example, which was done almost entirely through blogging and other viral marketing techniques targeting Millennials - engaging Millennials.

This is just a little taste - download and read the entire report yourself. For those that have been following this issue, this study may not be new news, but it reinforces many key phenomena. It also provides some great insights into how some corporations and nonprofit arts groups have been finding strategies that work. Some of the Philly examples cited? Bartram's Garden and its work with the artist Mark Dion that through blogging allowed the audience to follow the creative process of a work coming together. New Paradise Laboratories and director Whit MacLaughlin's production of Fatebook which took place in part online and involved significant interactive social media.

The thing that is uniquely challenging about this issue is that to engage Millennials is not a question of "spin" - of choosing the right lists, designing the brochure the right way, pitching stories to the right media. It is in fact about changing the user experience, changing the relationship to the "customer", and - yes - even about changing the art itself. That can be scary, but putting your head in the sand and doing things the same old way seems a formula for slow steady demise.

A Presidential Re-Quote - President Obama: "The arts are a necessary part of our lives"

2010-12-10T10:06:00.000-05:00

This was posted on the blog The Playgoer, December 7, 2010 and was included today in Tom Cott's useful "You've Cott Mail" e-newsletter (archive of past e-mails is here, where you can also click a link to sign up). Couldn't resist sharing!

Being here with tonight's honorees, reflecting on their contributions, I'm reminded of a Supreme Court opinion by the great Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. In a case argued before the Court in 1926, the majority ruled that the state of New York couldn't regulate the price of theater tickets, because, in the opinion of the majority, the theater was not a public necessity. They argued, in effect, that the experience of attending the theater was superfluous. And this is what Justice Holmes had to say: 'To many people the superfluous is necessary.' The theater is necessary. Dance is necessary. Song is necessary. The arts are necessary -- they are a necessary part of our lives.

-President Barack Obama, saluting this year's Kennedy Center Honorees.

Will New York Lose It's Primacy as a Place for Artists? Can Philly Gain?

2010-11-15T17:41:00.000-05:00

There was a story in yesterday's Crain's New York Business called Artists Fleeing the City about the fact that the economic downturn, combined with the high cost of living in NYC, was beginning to drive artists out of the City. Here is a key quote from the article:

Though there are no official numbers, a survey of 1,000 artists conducted in 2009 by the New York Foundation for the Arts found that more than 43% expected their annual income to drop by 26% to 50% over the next six months, and 11% believed they would have to leave New York within six months. Even more troubling, cultural boosters say, is that for the first time, artists fresh out of art schools around the country are choosing to live in nascent artist communities in regional cities like Detroit and Cleveland—which are dangling incentives to attract this group—and bypassing New York altogether.

Of course, many arts advocates and policy folks in NY are trying to figure out how to prevent this from happening. It is clear that much of New York's cultural energy - and economic activity - ultimately flows from the work of individual artists, and much would be lost if they start leaving the city, and are not replaced by a fresh new stream of young artists.

Now this is both good news and bad news for Philadelphia. Back to the article in 2005 calling Philadelphia the "sixth borough" (or actually, the "next" borough) Philadelphia has been known for being a place that has started to attract many artists who might otherwise be settling in Brooklyn, or Long Island City, or Hunts Point. Philadelphia has a truly vibrant arts scene, combined with a large stock of very affordable housing, and many old industrial buildings perfect for conversion to studios, lofts and creative manufacturing or service businesses (web design, advertising, product design, furniture manufacturing, etc.). It is happening all over our city from Crane Arts to Globe Dye Works to 2424 Studios, just to name a few. We also are frankly just 90 minutes away from NY, so meeting with dealers, or agents, or collectors is a breeze. On the performing arts side there is a large enough critical mass of theatre and dance companies and music clubs and presenters, that performing artists are finding they can also actually make a life for themselves here. The significant number of arts training colleges and universities also offer great teaching opportunities to fill out the multi-stream income that most artists need to survive. And, of course, the many arts schools also churn out a great local creative workforce, many of whoch decide when done with their training they want to stay here.

So, while not explicitly mentioned in this new article, Philadelphia is one of those places NY artists can - and do - move to. If that stream increases, we welcome it! Come on down! We've still got LOTS of room and affordable space. Now here's the cautionary "canary in the coal mine" problem - MANY other cities around the country are creating very concrete strategies to build their cultural and creative economies - and making SPECIFIC and in some cases substantial investments in attracting these workers and businesses. Cities and States are investing their business development dollars on this sector, even in these tough times. Philadelphia's creative vibrancy has largely happened without a substantial set of incentives and policies. Government policies and dollars certainly had a major role in the Avenue of the Arts, but much of the vibrancy in this sector is now spread throughout hundreds - thousands - of small creative businesses (for profit and nonprofit) that are driving this sector. And these smaller businesses are largely operating without specific governmental encouragement or invcentives. Perhaps this has helped them - I certainly now champion the medical adage of "first, do no harm" that one of the best things I can do is try to remove barriers or impediments to success and stay out of the way.

But this sector is increasingly attracted by these incentives - cultural/creative districts, subsidized live-work space for artists, developer or zoning incentives for creative businesses. If Philadelphia does not create a formal and strategic approach to strengthening our creative business climate and attracting new creative businesses and creative workers, will we risk an article like this one appearing about us a few years from now?

I think we have a great competitive advantage now, and I want Philadelphia to keep that momentum. With TEDxPhilly taking place this week, and with the imminent release of a new Creative Vitality Index study by the Office of Arts Culture and the Creative Economy, this is a good time to think about how we move forward. The creation of my Office a couple of years ago was a great first step, and we have been able to make many things happen - now what? Look forward to the conversation!

A Random Act of Culture at Macy's in Philadelphia

2010-11-01T18:38:00.002-04:00

This past Saturday at Noon the Opera Company of Philadelphia mounted a surprise performance of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah (with a lot of help from many other choruses and ensembles) in the women's shoe department at Macy's Center City, accompanied by the extraordinary Wanamaker Organ. There were over 600 participating singers! This performance was made possible by the Knight Foundation as part of their national "Random Acts of Culture" program, and coincided with the launch of the new Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia.

Given the scale of this undertaking it was perhaps not as much of a complete surprise as many similar arts flash mobs have been. The singers perhaps even outnumbered the shoppers surprised by the "spontaneous" performance. Yet it still worked. The performance coincided with the regularly scheduled Noon organ concert, the performers were dressed in ordinary street clothes, often accompanied by children or partners. The regular patrons knew SOMETHING was going on, but really were totally unprepared for the immersive experience of being surrounded by this great piece of vocal music, with the thunderous accompaniment of the Wanamaker Organ.

A digression on the organ, since coincidentally the same week I joined a University of the Arts class led by its teacher, artist Billy Blaise Dufala (who works as an artist with his brother Steven as the Dufala Brothers), for a thorough (and thoroughly fascinating) "backstage" tour of the organ. It consists of nearly 30,000 (!) pipes. The Wanamaker Organ - the largest of its kind in the world - began its life as a 10,000 pipe organ built for the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. Philadelphia department store magnate John Wanaker bought it for his new Philadelphia store across from City Hall and over the years continued to add to it. Having now seen it up close, crawling through its nooks and crannies, watched the caretakers of this beast lovingly restoring its immensely complex workings, it is truly not just an extraordinary piece of machinery, but a massive work of art/craft. It is also amazing how completely it is integrated into the fabric of what is now Macy's. Pop behind a nondescript door in women's lingerie and - voila! - you are in a world of 100-year-old handmade pipes and machinery. It is a National Historic Landmark, and another of the many "hidden" Philadelphia treasures that need to be better known and supported. Bravo to Macy's for supporting and celebrating this enormous asset in its store, and to the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ for restoring and managing it.

But back to the Messiah Flash Mob. There was great coverage of the event in the Philadelphia Inquirer, and I am sure a You Tube video will appear soon. For now, you can go to this area of OCP's website for more information and still photographs. This event builds on the enormous success of the Opera Company's staging of Traviata in Reading Terminal Market in April of this year, a YouTube video that is up to NEARLY 3 MILLION views! Here is a link to the video. [And after this was originally posted, OCP posted the "official" video to YouTube. The video is included in the OCP web page linked to above, but here it is below:]

These cultural interventions - which Knight is now investing in - are one of the great new developments in the arts, I think. This is another performing arts variation of the growing interest in sophisticated visual arts interventions that run the gamut from "street art" to temporary art projects that find their way into your everyday life, so you experience art without having to make a conscious decision to have "an arts experience." I wrote about this phenomena a few times over the past year, beginning in late 2009, here, here and here.

Light Drift and Philadelphia Underground Videos

2010-10-18T11:18:00.001-04:00

J. Meejin Yoon's Light Drift: October 15-17, 2010 from Philebrity on Vimeo.

One of the great installations as part of DesignPhiladelphia was "Light Drift" by artist Meejin Yoon, presented by the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. Only able to be viewed at night, and only up for three days this past weekend, it was one of those "happenings" that are both great art, and great community celebrations. If you missed it, here is a video that captures a little of the magic.

Opening on October 25th in the Art Gallery of City Hall will be a salute to some of the DesignPhiladelphia installations that the City was involved in, directly or indirectly, including Light Drift. It will also include material related to the Aurora Robson be like water installation at the Skybox (that runs through November 7th), the Virtual Public Art Project exhibit with Breadboard, Philadelphia Underground, curated by Marianne Bernstein, and FABLASTIC, by Multicultural Youth eXchange (MYX) and Minima. So if you missed any of these or would like to see some of the background to how they were created, visit City Hall! As I have written here before I believe DesignPhiladelphia is a great creative economy asset for Philadelphia - these are just a handful of the many DP exhibitions and installations that took place over the past couple of weeks.

Here is another great video by klipcollective of Philadelphia Underground:

The Philadelphia Underground from klipcollective on Vimeo.

DesignPhiladelphia - "be like water" (says Bruce Lee)

2010-09-23T18:08:00.001-04:00

Aurora Robson - "Up Drop" (detail)

One of the great cultural assets of Philadelphia is the now six-year-old DesignPhiladelphia. This major annual celebration of all things design is now housed at University of the Arts, and each year in the month of Ocotber (this year, the 7th through the 17th) brings together scores of exhibitions, installations, symposia and unclassifiable "happenings around the filed of design - furniture design, product design, sustainable design, fashion design, architecture, landscape architecture, etc. It is definitely a big tent, and plays to the wealth of talent that Philadelphia has in these areas. It also serves as a vehicle for bringing in artists and designers from outside the region to enrich the dialogue. It is the largest celebration of its kind and brings together the work this year of over 450 designers.

One of the exciting installations this year is "be like water" - a site specific installation by the artist Aurora Robson, curated by Eileen Tognini. This huge project will take place in the Skybox of 2424 Studios at 2424 East York Street in Fishtown. It opens on October 15th and runs through November 7th. The Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy was involved in helping to make this installation a reality, as were several private supporters. It seems that water is a theme of a few of the DesignPhiladelphia projects we are involved in, so today's blog entry is an invitation to "wade in" and give you a taste of some of these projects.

The Skybox

This monumentally scaled installation is made from thousands of recycled plastic bottles and will stretch over 108' long.

"My work is largely about transforming something negative into something positive, recognizing and exploring potential. be like water is an installation comprised of bottles and caps that would otherwise be burdensome on the environment. Instead, I have transformed them to create what I hope is suggestive of an uplifting waterfall of light and form," says Aurora Robson. The title of the work - be like water - comes from a quote by Bruce Lee, the martial arts icon: "Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water...you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend."

Aurora Robson - The Great Indoors - Rice Gallery, Houston

In conjunction with the show, invited schools, including Philadelphia public, charter, private and a community school have been engaged in collecting plastic bottle caps. Plastic bottle caps are especially problematic as they do not get recycled, and end up in landfills and oceans — likely to be ingested by birds and fish due to their opacity and bright colors. In a joint effort to raise environmental awareness, bottle caps will be collected and sorted by students, and then displayed at the event. Robson will then deliver all of the bottle caps to Aveda, located in Babylon, NY, one of the only places in the country that recycles caps.

The use of familiar, ordinary and recycled materials, considered unconventional by classical standards of materials to create art, has long been a personal interest of Eileen's. "It's my goal to introduce an artist's work whose use of unexpected materials may expand the definition of 'what is design of art,' moreover to use design and art to show how waste by-products can be brilliantly re-imagined so materials don't end up in the waste stream."

Robson is a 2009 recipient of the Pollock Krasner Grant and the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Sculpture, and a 2010 recipient of an Arthur Levine Foundation Grant. She was the subject of a major profile last year in Art in America magazine. She has exhibited internationally and has works in major public, corporate and private collections worldwide. Robson is in the process of forming an international alliance of like-minded artists, designers and architects called Project Vortex, creating global opportunity for artists to join forces with Project Kaisei and the Ocean Conservancy to help eliminate the plastic vortexes in our oceans.

Urban Studio - Rainwater Collection Kit for Urban Row Houses

There are many other exciting DesignPhiladelphia projects, including several others that the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy and other City agencies are involved in. In an earlier blog entry I reported on the Virtual Public Art Project, a partnership with Breadboard at the Science Center. The Art Gallery in City Hall will also be featuring an exhibit called Visual Voice: Neighborhood Led Design, by the design collaborative Urban Studio. It runs October 7 - November 12th, 2010, with an opening reception and discussion on October 14th, 4-7 PM. This illustration is from an Urban Studio project that looked at how rainwater collection could be implemented in our urban row house environment.

And the Mural Arts Program will be presenting Light Drift by the artist Meijin Yoon, an installation on the banks of the Schuykill River between Market and Chestnut Streets. This installation opens October 15th at 6:30 PM and will be up for public viewing for three consecutive evenings, Ocrober 15-17, 6:30 PM - 1 AM (as a light installation it requires dusk or darkness for the full impact). Glowing orbs will start on the Schuykill banks and extent out into the river. The orbs on shore respond to human touch by changing color and activating changing colors and patterns in the water orbs. Very cool!

Meijin Yoon - preliminary rendering for Light Drift, Schuykill Rover, Mural Arts Program

So, "be like water" in October and flow your way to be like water at the Skybox in 2424 Studios in Fishtown, Light Drift in Schuykill Banks Park, and Visual Voice at the City Hall Art Gallery. And while you are at it, don't forget to download the app for the Virtual Public Art Project and be prepared to view art that is "out of this world" at and around City Hall and the Science Center area. Not to mention the MANY other DesignPhiladelphia exhibitions and conversations - including many other projects that the Office has been involved in, directly and indirectly - such as The Philadelphia Underground, a video installation, conceived and curated by artist Marianne Bernstein in the Broad Street Concourse. Ricardo Rivera of the Klip Collective is producing it, and there are eight artists (including Ricardo) whose work will be featured. Opening night party is Saturday, Oct.9th from 7-10pm in Dilworth Plaza. For more info on The Philadelphia Underground project see this piece on ArtBlog. And, finally, FABLASTIC, weavings created by young people from MYX:Multicultural Youth Exchange using plastic bags.

Apologies for the run-on blog entry, but there is so much to talk about!

Celebrating Student Artists

2010-09-21T18:04:00.000-04:00

Artist: Lung Ung, CAPA, 11th Grade, Teacher: John Fanti

The exhibition currently mounted in The Art Gallery at City Hall is "A Plus Art - An Annual Celebration of Student Art." This exhibition is a selection of some of the best art from students in Philadelphia’s public schools. Each year, The School District of Philadelphia organizes an exhibition of approximately 1,500 works of art at the School District Administration Building on North Broad St. Working in partnership with the District’s Office of Comprehensive Arts Education, we have chosen works that highlight our children’s artistic achievement in what we hope will be an annual exhibition in City Hall.

This exhibition is also a testament to the many dedicated art teachers in the School District, as well as the arts administrators who emphatically believe that a quality arts education is an important part of a child’s critical development. Dr. Dennis Creedon, the Director of Comprehensive Arts Education, and Tessie Varthas, Content Specialist-Art Education were instrumental in the organization of this exhibition. Despite the many challenges our students must often overcome, it is our shared responsibility to nurture their talents and provide them with an opportunity to shine. For some students, the arts gives them a sense of unlimited possibilities. Each of the students in this exhibit will be honored with a Mayoral Certificate of Excellence.

When I was a young public school student in New York City MANY years ago, I exhibited in a similar show of the best work by public school students. I still remember the pride and optimism it gave me as a young artist. I am honored to now be able to pass on that experience to this very talented group of students, and I wish them great success.

Group Project, Central High School

In mounting this show we had to think about the function of this relatively new gallery space. Some in the arts community have indicated a preference for a focus on only the work of professional artists. Others have pushed for a focus on community-based art - by students, seniors, and others that do not normally get the benefit of gallery exhibition of their work. This debate has also swirled around the possibility of an art gallery exhibition space at the new expanded Convention Center - in the end a tentative decision was made there to have a tri-part focus: K-12 student art; art by the students at our many art schools, such as PAFA, UArts, Moore and Tyler; and work by professional artists. At the Art Gallery at City Hall we have decided to serve the role the arts play in our civic life, and the many forms that can take. We will sometimes highlight student art and hope this show can become an annual event. We will tie into such citywide festivals as Design Philadelphia (our next show!) and the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts next year, and we will sometimes serve as an extension space for the Art in City Hall exhibition program. We will be eclectic, we will always seek partnerships in our exhibitions, and always strive for the highest quality. I believe providing a showcase for the work of the best of our young student artists is a perfect use for this new gallery space. I also had the pleasure of welcoming students on the first day of class at CAPA, our School District specialized arts high school - and many CAPA students are represented in this show.

I am remiss in not having written about this show earlier, so I hope that all my Philadelphia readers that may not have seen the show yet will come see it before it ends in a few days.

Here are the details:

The Art Gallery At City Hall
"A-Plus Art" August 9 - October 1
A selection from the 2009-2010 School District exhibition.
Room 116, East Portal Market St. Entrance.
10 am - 4 pm weekdays

Virtual Public Art Comes to Philadelphia

2010-09-01T17:36:00.000-04:00

In a few weeks DesignPhiladelphia 2010 comes to town, and there are an array of really cool projects that are part of it that my Office has been working on. I thought over the next couple of weeks it would be fun to begin to preview some of this exciting work. First up: Virtual Public Art.

What is Virtual Public Art you say? Well whip out your smart phone and get ready for some mind-bending public art that exists only in "virtual space" but that is also part of the real space we live in. The first city-wide virtual art exhibit is coming to Philadelphia October 7, 2010. Breadboard; NextFab Studio; and Virtual Public Art Project(VPAP) are collaborating with the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, and DesignPhiladelphia2010 to host the first VPAP exhibit in Philadelphia as part of Design Philadelphia 2010. The VPAP Philadelphia project will include an informative multimedia exhibit at Breadboard’s Esther Klein Gallery (3600 Market Street) that introduces the Philadelphia community to the technology behind Augmented Reality and virtual art, and to recent VPAP projects in other cities around the world.

The image above is from a piece called Cargo, created by VPAP developer Christian Meinhardt. These structures could never exist in the "real world" being composed of hovering cargo containers that defy the laws of gravity. Yet this art was "installed" in various locations around the world damaged by human intervention, evoking the "cargo cults" created among native populations by American intervention in WWII. As an aside, can't help noting the connection to Mike Daisey's The Last Cargo Cult, a theatre piece presented as part of last year's Live Arts Festival. Below is a video that gives a sense of how this works: a 30' tall sculpture virtually installed in Prospect Park in NYC.

VPAP Philadelphia will also locate eight unique virtual artworks (created by Philadelphia artists) at various locations around Philadelphia’s City Hall location and the University City Science Center campus. These works will be viewable through the camera on any smart phone equipped with free downloaded VPAP application software. Breadboard is a new University City Science Center program that promotes art and design at the intersection of science and technology. VPAP is a new organization that is literally pushing the boundaries of public space and art via free Augmented Reality platforms easily accessible through smart phone applications. DesignPhiladelphia is the nation's largest celebration of its kind, a city-wide initiative showcasing the role that design has played historically in Philadelphia, and unites the creative disciplines – from architecture to interior design, fashion to product design, multi-media to graphic design.

Philadelphia has an incredibly strong cultural sector, as well as a long tradition of design and technology innovation. This program brings those strengths together in a very exciting way. I have been working with the Breadboard folks on an array of projects that unite science, art, design and technology in extraordinary ways that both serve our community and shine national and international light on what we’re doing here. Very cool stuff... I have also been meeting with the folks from the Vincent Michael Gallery in Northern Liberties, and they are also developing a technology for virtual public art. Look forward to collaborating with them as well!

VPAP uses emergent Augmented Reality platforms to create virtual art in public spaces by merging computer generated imagery with physical, real-world locations. The finished projects be viewed using the iPhone 3GS and Android phones. Just imagine the potential: A massive sculpture could be installed in the City Hall courtyard (or even replace William Penn on the Tower). The Liberty Bell could melt and reassemble itself right before your eyes (on your phone at least). Art can interject itself where the laws of physics or historic preservation would otherwise make it impossible.

Breadboard will also sponsor a suite of supporting workshops and events at NextFab Studio as part of DesignPhiladelphia 2010. These workshops will generate opportunities for Philadelphia artists and individuals to gain more in-depth understanding about virtual art and Augmented Reality and/or work on content to submit digital art work for consideration in the upcoming VPAP exhibit.

Artists and individuals interested in submitting work for the VPAP Philadelphia exhibit may contact bbprograms@sciencecenter.org

VPAP Public Events and Timeline:

September 1, 6:00-8:00 pm at NextFab Studio (3711 Market Street, Philadelphia)Public talk and demonstration with Chris Manzione, founder of the Virtual Public Art Project. This event will include a Smartphone walking tour to view temporary VPAP virtual content geo-tagged along the Science Center’s Market Street corridor.

September 18, 10:00 am-4:00 pm at NextFab Studio (3711 Market Street, Philadelphia)Special all-day VPAP Workshop: an Augmented Reality workshop where individuals can work one on one with VPAP personnel and learn how to create virtual content that can be viewed using smart phone applications. This event will also serve as a primer for individuals wishing to submit content for consideration in the VPAP Philadelphia exhibit.

September 18, 12:00 -1:00 pm at NextFab Studio (3711 Market Street, Philadelphia) Special presentation by Christian Meinhardt (VPAP software developer): Practical applications and how to guide for AR enthusiasts

October 7 at City Hall and Science Center locations VPAP Philadelphia launches virtual art exhibit (in collaboration with start of DesignPhiladelphia’s sixth year). Virtual artwork created by Philadelphia artists will be viewable through free smart phone applications at City Hall and Science Center locations.

October 15, 5:00-8:00pm at Breadboard’s Esther Klein Gallery (3600 Market Street, Philadelphia) Opening Reception for The Virtual Public Art Project: an indoor multi-media exhibit that introduces the public to VPAP and the technology behind virtual art. (The EKG exhibit will open in September but the public reception is October 15.)

Inside/Outside - Art by Prison Inmates and Ex-Offenders

2010-08-17T17:58:00.000-04:00

Leon Jesse James, "Space Modulator", acrylic on board. SCI Graterford

The Art in City Hall program of the City of Philadelphia has just opened a new exhibition, INSIDE/OUTSIDE - Art by Prison Inmates and Ex-Offenders. This is a wonderful, powerful, and thought-provoking new show and I encourage everyone to see it. It is open until October 29th, on the secod and fourth floors of City Hall. More information is available here. The show involves participating artists from SCI Graterford, The Philadelphia Prison System, Art for Justice, Snyderman-Works Galleries, Connection Training Services, and the Mural Arts Program's Youth Violence Reduction Partnership Guild Program, as well as local ex-offenders.

Thomas Schilk, "Beetle", melted plastic spoons, paint.

When I came to my position in 2008 as Chief Cultural Officer, one of the appeals of the position was the fact that the administration of Mayor Michael Nutter viewed the arts as being integral to virtually all aspects of how we build the best possible Philadelphia for our citizens and visitors. Art is not only a vehicle for attracting tourists, or providing a rich, rewarding environment for our citizens, but also a tool that can be used to heal, to educate, to bring people together, to help us better understand ourselves, and one another. This show highlights an especially powerful value of art - helping prisoners to express themselves, and hopefully provide a measure of rehabilitation as well as self-exploration and self-expression. In addition to prisoners, there is also a role the arts can play with ex-offenders, helping them onto a path that can better integrate them with society, with their community. For some, the most talented, the arts can even provide a valuable skill that can help create an income for them as they leave incarceration.

The artists and arts programs featured in this exhibition paint a rich picture of the incredible power of the arts, and the talent that can than lie within our most troubled, challenged populations. This is not easy stuff. Sometimes art can help prisoners express their anguish, their pain, their anger. Art can be a tool for telling their stories, and it can also be a vehicle for finding peace and solace. Ultimately we all wish for fewer people in prison, less gun violence, less criminal behavior. Art can play a role at both ends of this issue; in helping young people express themselves, find their inner value and see the possibilities for them outside a life of crime, and also helping those that have gone down that path of crime to find a way back, and sometimes to understand the impact their actions have had on the lives of others.

This issue of the role of the arts in the lives of prisoners and ex-offenders, is so rich and so complex, there is no way it can be fully explored in one exhibition or one blog post. Recently, a documentary film was made called Concrete, Steel and Paint, that explored the issues around an effort by the restorative justive program of Mural Arts to use mural making as a way to bring together and create some healing between prisoners and victims of crime and their families and advocates. I think the movie powerfully conveys the strong emotions that can surface around these issues.(The film is featured as part of this exhibition.)

I was also able to recently visit the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, an extraordinary unique museum. While any attempt to but it into a "box" is doomed to fail, the museum celebrates the work of "outsider" artists, and many of the works in the collection were made by prisoners or by artists who had spent many years - even decades - incarcerated. This puts "prisoner art" in a different context, with other self-taught and nonprofessional artists.And this exhibition can be viewed from that perspective as well.

The origins of this show are interesting. Several months ago, the Mayor visited Graterford prison and was given paintings by many of the inmates who were active in their art program. When he returned he asked me if these could be displayed somewhere in City Hall. Rather than simply exhibit a few disconnected works, it seemed like an opportunity to tell a larger story. I met with the Art in City Hall advisory committee, and with Tu Huynh who directs the program, and a plan was developed to create a full Art in City Hall exhibition working with an array of partners.

The Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, and the Art in City Hall program are proud to have been able to assemble this exhibition that brings art, justice and community together, and that hopefully will raise awareness of the critical role the arts can play in criminal justice and public safety.

Coburn and McCain - Giving the Arts a Starring Role Again

2010-08-05T10:26:00.000-04:00

Posted this yesterday to the Huffington Post, where I now blog as well, and wanted to make sure followers of my own blog also had the opportunity to read it. Apologies for those getting notified twice!

Senators Tom Coburn and John McCain have issued their third list of what they present as misuse of stimulus dollars: Summertime Blues, "100 stimulus projects that give taxpayers the blues." Once again they have given arts projects a starring role. Jared Bernstein already wrote a piece about this on the Huffington Post.

Their previous lists included such activities as jazz festivals and Shakespeare theatres, and here in Philadelphia, a couple of theatre companies. The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance spoke out about the inclusion of local arts groups here. I also wrote about it on this blog.

This new list includes, by my count, ten arts-related projects among the 100 they cite. Of particular note is that they include (sharing #98) the Creative Industry Workforce Grant program operated by my Office, in partnership with our Commerce Department, funded through "Community Development Block Grant - Recovery (CDBG-R)" money. A total of $500,000 was granted to eight projects. All grantees were carefully chosen through a rigorous and highly competitive process that looked at both short-term construction jobs (these were all capital projects) to provide an immediate stimulus effect, and longer term generation of low and moderate income jobs through creative industry activity. Funded projects were a mix of for-profit creative industry development and non-profit arts projects. Here are some examples:

$60,000 for the creation of artist studio and creative business incubator space to help ex-offenders with creative talents develop micro-enterprises and employable skills.
$50,000 towards the construction of a new 12,000 square foot affordable performance, visual and media arts space combined with mixed-use residential and commercial space.
$40,000 towards the creation of artist-in-residence space in a recycling plant that will allow artists to work with materials diverted from the recycling and landfill stream and educate the public about recycling.

All these projects employ construction workers in the short term, and artists, creative industry workers, and support staff as an outgrowth of the construction creating new businesses and jobs. In addition to the Recovery mandate, the CDBG program mandate required us to also ensure we were assisting low and moderate income people and communities.

All of these people employed as a result of this investment spend money, buy groceries, pay rent, make car payments, just like any other citizen. Does their economic activity somehow not count? Is the tax that they pay somehow different from a department store (or a defense contractor)?

As I said in my earlier post, I do not doubt that there are many poorly executed stimulus funded projects that are not working as intended. I think some that is unavoidable given the very nature of distributing huge sums of money quickly, in a decentralized way, combined with enormous red tape and demand for immediate results. And I don't doubt that perhaps some of them might be arts projects. It is clear, however, that in compiling this report arts projects could "do no right" as far as the authors were concerned. An insect museum in Raleigh NC makes the list because they have too few visitors to justify being funded, while a glass museum in Tacoma makes the list because their visitorship appears to be healthy and they therefore do not merit support.

What I can argue with is the clear intent to single out arts (and historic preservation) projects. And I can certainly object to the characterization of Philadelphia's Creative Industry Workforce grant program as meriting inclusion in the McCain-Coburn report. It may not be perfect, but it was a modest, innovative effort to foster creative businesses and jobs, and help neighborhoods in need of investment. Isn't that something we should be doing?

Making the Ordinary Extraordinary

2010-08-02T15:17:00.000-04:00

A number of recent articles and threads of exploration have gotten me thinking about the importance of the role of the arts and design in transforming our everyday life. I think we are moving toward an era where the traditional enjoyment of art (performing or visual) in a passive way in a facility/space constructed expressly for that purpose will not die, but will find itself joined (perhaps surpassed) by art that subversively injects itself into our everyday life - you don't make the choice to participate. It chooses you - it is an intervention that is unexpected. This can be disturbing, delightful, inspiring, sometimes all at the same time. I have written before about the "arts flash mob"phenomenon and its vial arts equivalent, here, and here, and here.

Here are a few of the items that have inspired me to think about this more deeply. Paul Goldberger reviews in the current New Yorker the new Herzog and deMeuron building in Miami. What is this new structure by this great international architecture team? A parking garage! That most ubiquitous of urban structures that is generally accepted as truly deadening to the built environment. Yet H&dM make it a thing of beauty - light, airy, modern, a work of art. So now that most ordinary act of parking your car in an urban garage can in a sense immerse you in an artistic experience. Similarly, one of the new initiatives of the Mural Arts Program is to cover almost the entire exterior of the large (ugly, traditional) parking garage at Philadelphia International Airport in a mural called "How Philly Moves."

If you look at the schedule of the Live Arts-Philly Fringe Festival you will also find that much of the work is breaking the boundaries of "traditional art", not just in form and content, but in location and the very relationship between the art and the audience. The Maine Center for Creativity has initiated a project called Art All Around, that will involve painting the entire surface 8 huge oil storage tanks (plus the tops of 8 more), so now that classic American experience of driving by "tank farms" (think New Jersey Turnpike near Newark Airport) can be transformed into a startling encounter with art. The French artist JR has transformed favelas in Rio De Janeiro, and other poor communities around the world with his photography-based art. There is now an effort underway by the artist team Haas&Hahn, with the Firmeza Foundation to literally transform an entire favela into a work of art. If successful, the poorest most disenfranchised Brazilians will be literally living within one massive work of art. It may not put food on their tables, but it will bring beauty into their lives and attract international attention to their living conditions. In Chicago you have "Art on Track" that since 2008 has annually transformed an entire 8-car Chicago Transit Authority train into a rolling art gallery.

I think a number of factors are driving this phenomenon and will continue to fuel it. One is the democratization of art. New generations of artists and audiences don't want to be elitist, to limit their work or their cultural experience to an ivory tower. or a price point that leaves out a huge section of the population. Another is the growing interest in interactive work, in the process of creation, especially among younger people. And finally I think those that are in the business of making and presenting art are desperate to reach a broad audience and find it increasingly difficult to reach them just in the theatre or in the museum. So they seek ways to put their art in the street, in train stations, in sports stadiums, along the highway, in supermarkets. I for one think this is a healthy trend. This is not just about Web 2.0 and new technology; this is about a whole new approach to the relationship between art and audience. This is about making our everyday life more arts-infused.

Animated Street Art from BLU

2010-07-20T15:16:00.000-04:00

Couldn't resist sharing this new video from the graffiti/street artist from Italy, BLU. In this video he uses stop-motion animation techniques to transform street painting into an extraordinary animated film called Big Bang - Big Boom. I think this is especially interesting as it blends multiple art forms - street art, performance art (it is clear that many people had to have watched the creation of this as a work in progress) and eventually a film. When all of this is free, how does the artist make money? For one, he sells prints, drawings and books via his Web site. This is all part of the convergence going on now: "outsider" artists are now "inside". Renegade street artists are now at the Tate Modern (as was BLU) and are selling coffee table books. Finding the line between "vandalism" and "art" is increasingly difficult. We ran into this in a small way recently with the Philagrafika art fair here in Philadelphia. A participating artist wanted to wheat-paste "broadsides" throughout the historic district on lamposts, benches, etc., as a way of introducing a populist, public art component to this festival of print-making in all its forms. Yet to the City and the local Business Improvement District, this was defacing public property. In the end we found a compromise - the flyers were not wheat-pasted, but tied on with string, which the folks who do the cleaning agreed to leave up. In the old days, the artist would have just wheat-pasted without asking, and the City would have just removed the "vandalism." And graffiti artist Steve Powers has now done A Love Letter For You with the Mural Arts Program, which was originally formed to fight graffiti artists like Powers. This was a brilliant project and another great example of the transformation that has been taking place for many years.

Is There a Creativity Crisis?

2010-07-13T17:14:00.001-04:00

An article recently appeared in Newsweek called "The Creativity Crisis" that reported on some really disturbing new research. A test was developed back in 1957, the Torrance test, that is designed to measure creativity in a quantitative way as we also measure IQ. The Torrance test has shown a remarkable correlation between children demonstrating creativity and creative accomplishments in life - the high performers on the Torrance test go on to become inventors, college presidents, authors, diplomats, entrepreneurs, etc. The correlation to lifetime creativity is three times higher for childhood creativity than childhood IQ.

And now - as anyone who reads this blog or follows the news knows - creativity is more highly valued than ever. It is seen as the leading edge of innovation and increasingly critical to global business success. A recent IBM poll of 1500 CEOs found creativity to be the #1 "leadership competency" of the future.

Here is the rub - the data shows that "intelligence" as measured by IQ scores has consistently risen every year, as enriched environments have led to higher scores. In contrast, these new findings show that since 1990 creativity scores have consistently edged DOWNWARDS. And the decline among the youngest - K-6 - has been the steepest. A likely culprit identified is the hours spent in front of the TV and playing video games rather than being engaged in creative activities. Another possible cause is the almost complete lack of creative development in our schools.Nurturing creativity has become a global focus, with countries such as Britain making it a key national agenda for their school system. Even China, notoriously focused on rote learning, has done a 180, and is now trying to infuse their educational system with a focus on creativity. So what are we doing? Focusing on standardized testing and curriculum more than ever!

Another interesting twist to this research is debunking the idea that creativity is exclusive domain of the arts. While there is certainly a connection between creativity and the arts, creativity can be infused into math, science, virtually all academic areas. And the arts can be taught in such a deadly manner that it kills rather than nurtures creativity.

There is also some interesting exploration of the "right brain-left brain" phenomenon that debunks the idea that creativity is somehow handled only by the right brain. Creativity requires BOTH divergent and convergent thinking, dual activation of right and left brain.

The consensus is that creativity CAN be taught - not overnight - but that techniques do exist that if consistently applied, real improvement can be achieved in work and school.

The decline in creativity scores is alarming, but what do we do? What we need are coalitions that bring together the advocates for arts education with similar groups looking to foster science learning, math, engineering and entrepreneurship. Creativity is not an arts issue - it is an education issue and ultimately about creativity economic opportunity for our young people. A few years ago I sat at a table at a gala dinner with someone from the National Inventor's Hall of Fame, and we realized how much our missions and constituencies had in common - he noted that virtually all of their board members were creative people - musicians, writers, sculptors, who were also applying their creativity to inventions. Ironically, this Newsweek article profiles the new National Inventors Hall of Fame public middle school in Akron. With a fifth grad curriculum focused on creativity and experiential learning, in its first year the school has the third best scores in the city, despite an enrollment that has 42% of its students living in poverty.

But not all the news is bad. The recent Americans for the Arts National Arts Index study showed a modest rise in personal creation, one of the few bright spots in what was a mostly gloomy report. And NAAM, the international association of music merchants seems to be seeing steady increases in sales of musical instruments. The low cost of entry for personal creation and distribution has led to an explosion in development of iPhone apps, YouTube videos, DIY indy music production, self-published books, blogs, etc. How do reconcile these trends? Is the Torrance test perhaps no longer measuring the right things? Or is it the "canary in the coal mine," pointing out a nascent trend that will only become more serious as those K-6 kids grow into adults?

The Greatest Sacrifice Arts Workers Make for the Arts

2010-07-06T15:33:00.000-04:00

With all the financial challenges arts workers are facing these days - struggling to balance the budgets of their organizations, or dealing with salary and benefit cuts on compensation that was modest to begin with - it is easy to view the sacrifices people make to work in this field as being entirely financial.

Not to minimize the financial sacrifices - they ARE significant - but I would argue they are probably no more significant than a wide array of professions where people choose to devote themselves to the pursuit of "making the world a better place". This includes early childhood workers, teachers, social workers, the whole world of NGOs working in challenged communities, both domestically and abroad. And the sacrifices all these workers make are also not just financial. We all work long hours, and often under trying and unglamorous circumstances (though to outsiders arts work can seem glamorous).

No, I think the more significant - and unique - sacrifice arts workers make is that we lose the capacity for full, innocent and glorious enjoyment of the very art that our passion for drove us to make our life's work in the first place. What do I mean by this? Think about your earliest experiences with the arts, your first encounter with Matisse, or Chuck Close; your first time in the audience for Sondheim, or Verdi; that time you first saw Baryshnikov on stage, or Judith Jamison. Remember that childlike joy - even if you were not a child - that total immersion in the art where the whole world disappeared and you were unaware of time, of the person chewing gum next to you? Now tell, me when was the last time you felt that? Sure, you are still passionate about the art form or all art forms, you still go to museums, or opera, or theatre, but something has been lost. Admit it.

You watch the other people in the museum, or audience members in the house, and a part of you is jealous of them, jealous of the fact that they can spend a day of doing SOMETHING ELSE - trading stocks, managing a supermarket, teaching 5th grade science - and come into the arts experience and be able to give themselves over to it, over and over, for their entire life.

And if you are honest, if you are a museum professional, you know every museum experience is now clouded by your inability to hold back that piece of your brain that is evaluating the exhibition installation, the lighting, the security guards, the signage, the curatorial decisions. And if you are a theatre professional, you are assessing the box office customer service, the curtain speech, the blocking, the casting. Fill in the blanks for your art form of choice. If you do this for long enough, that piece of your brain is almost impossible to shut off; only the most truly transcendent arts experience is capable of silencing it, and even then maybe not entirely. Sadly, as one whose work crosses over into all art forms, this affliction haunts virtually EVERY cultural experience for me.

I am reminded of this phenomenon whenever I encounter any of those most passionate arts attenders and patrons - every community is filled with them. You know who I am talking about, that couple, perhaps in their fifties or sixties, who are not wealthy, but comfortable enough that they support many organizations in town at a reasonable - albeit modest - level. You see them at almost every opening night, or exhibition opening. They are passionate and knowledgeable about the arts, or maybe just the one or two art forms that really thrill them. They make their money doing something else, and derive great joy not just from experiencing the arts, but also from using their resources to help enable the arts. Perhaps sometimes their enthusiasm or eagerness seems a little naive or even annoying to you as a professional.

Well, I must admit, I increasingly wonder if I would not have been happier going into business or some other profession, and channeling my passion for the arts to being an avid attender/participant, a patron, a board member. I pine for the lost innocence of the cultural experience unsullied by the incessant yap of my "arts manager" brain. I feel like, relatively speaking, I have been able to make a difference in this profession, and am still energized about my work every day (and for that I am most grateful), but I wonder sometimes if the sacrifice has been too great. Do you?

I talked about this issue to a group of several hundred arts managers in NYC quite a few years ago, and of all the talks I have given over the years on a wide range of topics, this topic seemed to strike a powerful and painful chord. It has repeatedly come up since then in conversations with colleagues, so I thought it was time to write about it here.

New NEA study on technology use and the arts

2010-06-30T09:39:00.000-04:00

A new study has just been issued by the National Endowment for the Arts called Audience 2.0: How Technology Influences Arts Participation. There are a few things of special note about this research:

1) The findings: People who participate in the arts through electronic media are nearly THREE times more likely to attend live arts events as non media participants (59% vs. 21%). They also attend TWICE as many live arts events on average - 6/year vs. 3/year. In other words, active participation in the digital media world does not compete with attendance at live arts activities, it may encourage it. I say "may" because this study once again raises the issue of causation vs. correlation. Certainly there seems to be a correlation between high consumption of art in digital form, and higher consumption of live arts. It could be that people that are passionate about art now seek it out in all formats, NOT that their digital consumption is somehow driving them to participate in live arts at a higher level. I think one can certainly draw the conclusion from this research that digital arts engagement is NOT sapping live arts participation. In other words, if live arts participation is declining, don't blame it on iTunes and YouTube... There are many other interesting findings related to age, rural vs. urban, education levels, etc - strongly encourage reading the full report, which leads me to:

2) The format: For the first time this NEA report is ONLY being issued online in an electronic format that actually includes multimedia content as part of the report, as well as a video greeting from NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman and commentary from Sunil Iyengar, the NEA's Director of Resrearch and Analysis.

Ultimately the message of the report is that arts groups need not view this new digital world where many people consume (and/or make) their art in digital form as a threat. It is only a threat if you do not embrace it. I think it is gratifying that not only is the NEA providing us with this report, but also in a sense modeling behavior in the format by which it is being issued.

PS. Thanks to Tom Cott and his great "You've Cott Mail" e-newsletter for first alerting me to this!

A Blog Entry About Blogging About the Arts

2010-06-28T17:01:00.001-04:00

So as many of my readers will now, I spent the last few days at the Americans for the Arts convention in Baltimore (along with many of you!). I spoke at a session on arts blogging, along with Graham Dunstan who oversees the Americans for the Arts ArtsBlog, Barry Hessenius of Barry's Blog, and Chad Bauman of Arts-Marketing. The session was also attended by such widely-read arts bloggers as Andrew Taylor and Ian David Moss. [That's Graham, Chad, me and Barry in the photo - "the arts bloggers posse". I added the photo to this entry after I first posted it, when I discovered this photo on the Americans for the Arts Flicker site.]

I also attended a session on utilizing new social media (like Twitter, blogs and Facebook) that featured Brian Reich, whose company is little m media. His mother, an Americans for the Arts board member who I am friendly with calls him "the next Dan Pink." Now while this may be to some extent parental bias, I wouldn't rule it out. Brian is a great presenter and writer with really insightful and refreshing perspectives on social media. I think the arts community ignores his advice at its peril.He is blunt and irreverent and not afraid to puncture our illusions - I think we need that. I can't begin to capture Brian in this entry - read his book, hear him speak if you get the chance, follow him.

So, needless to say, the whole issue of blogging is very much on my mind - Why did I started this blog, and why do I do it? How do I choose what to write about? How often do I wrote? Is it too infrequent - quality versus quantity? How to get people to actually read it, and when I do, how to know that they are - or even WHO they are?

This blog is really a hybrid - I write about stuff my Office is doing as way of shamelessly using the blog as a communications tool to share our work, locally and nationally. I also use it as a tool to sometimes share information on interesting work some of our local Philadelphia arts groups are doing - again, both to spread the work locally, as well as to let readers not in Philadelphia know about projects I think are notable. BUT, I also use the blog as a way to write about arts/creative economy issues that are bouncing around my head and need to be let out or they will drive me crazy, or to share interesting arts/creativity studies or stories from around the country or around the world. I try to balance the personal and professional.

One issue talked about in the blogging session was the issue of frequency - the importance of blogging when something is really important to you, rather than forcing yourself to stick to a schedule of, for example. two entries a week. Seemed to be no consensus on this. Quality definitely more important than quantity, yet Barry sees a value in people knowing that, say, every Monday morning they will get a blog entry. Some talked about seeing a marked increase in readership when their blog entries went over a certain threshold, say two entries a week.

Another issue was how people read blogs now, and the challenge of building readership and attention. It seems that commenting on blogs is really waning, so blogs are much less the interactive forum some thought they might be. Also, with the proliferation of blogs out there, most people don't regularly go directly to the blog sites to read them. People are subscribing to get the blog entries via email, people are subscribing for RSS feeds, and people are getting the blog updates via Facebook and Twitter. Essentially because of information overload the blog entries need to be "pushed" in front of people.

The issue was also raised of whether bloggers are journalists, and there were a couple of interesting perspectives on this. Someone from the PR side said she divided bloggers into three categories (if I am remembering them correctly): those that do fall in a journalist-like category, those that are respected thought or opinion leaders, and the third category for the ranters and the wackos. Someone else, who had a long career on the journalism side, said most recognized bloggers seem to her to be like newspaper columnists, but without the control of oversight of editors. I suppose there is some truth in that. I, for one, have had the capacity to write about things that interest me for a good part of my career - starting with Theatre Times, a newspaper that used to be published by ART/NY that I founded and served as Executive Editor of, and that I often wrote for; the Arts & Business Quarterly of the national Arts & Business Council that began as a print publication and shifted to digital, and then through the many Americans for the Arts vehicles - newsletters, ArtsBlog, etc.

For me, blogging is just an extension of the first-person sort of writing I have been doing throughout my career on other platforms. But even though this blog has a linkage to my job, I do feel like I am now truly writing for myself. If NOBODY read it I would still write, because it has become a form of journal-keeping ("Dear Diary, today I had an interesting policy discussion about international cultural exchange...it was neato") that often helps me vent, helps me organize my thinking, whether it is read or not. Also, frankly after about 15 years of working at the national and international level on cultural policy, arts management and creative economy issues, the Blog gives me the vehicle for continuing to participate in those debates and perhaps bring that dialogue to a Philadelphia audience.

So, in the interest of helping me - and others (I will share the input I get via email, but feel free to use the relatively under-utilized COMMENT feature for your answers; if you are going to comment, please comment on the blog directly and not on Facebook so we can keep them all in one place), please let me know...

Do you feel that the frequency of my blog entries is about right, too infrequent, (or even too frequent - maybe you just want me to shut up!)?
What do you think about the balance between personal and professional? Is it OK that I do both in one blog?
What do you think about the local vs. national balance? Are you a reader from outside Philly, in which case do you mind the more locally-directed entries? Or are you a local Philly reader, in which case do you mind the non-Philly-centric entries?
Do you like it better when I embed links and visual content like photos and video clips?
How do you get to the blog? Do you hear about new entries via Feedburner subscription, Facebook, Twitter, word of mouth, Google alerts, other? If you end up getting multiple notices, because we are connected on multiple platforms, does it annoy you? {NOTE: I just recently added a simple e-mail subscription link at the top on the right side of the page - if you want to get updates via email, please sign up!)
What other arts-related blogs do you read that I should know about that are NOT already on my "recommended blogs list" on my site?
Any other advice or guidance?

Thanks!

Arts and Sports

2010-06-16T15:22:00.000-04:00

Going back to my childhood as an aspiring (at the time) artist, but also someone who was a bit of a jock/gym rat, there always seem to be a disconnect between the two worlds - the artist and the jock. This was the stereotype, that for the most part seemed to hold true in practice. I went to LaGuardia High School of the Arts in New York, and even though we had school teams, athletics was never really celebrated or encouraged. I played on the tennis team and don't think we ever had a single spectator from our school. Even though I was an avid basketball player, I am not even sure if we had a basketball team - if we did I certainly never heard about it or attended a game.

When I got to college - the State University of New York at Purchase, which was primarily an arts conservatory with music, dance, theatre, film and visual arts programs - there were NO intercollegiate sports programs. The school was just getting started, so perhaps we can cut them some slack, but aside from building a state-of-the-art gymnasium (that became the practice site for the Knicks), nobody had given any thought to their "artsy" students actually caring about sports. A group of us basketball players lobbied for and successfully created a certified Division III basketball program. Even though it was very low-level by NCAA standards, playing college ball was a great experience for me, and we actually had many of those"artsy" types in the stands cheering us on for the home games. Basketball and sports have been a part of my life ever since.

Since then, I have thought often of this seeming disconnect between the two worlds, when stories run about football players taking ballet to improve their grace, or of Bernie Williams and his guitar skill, or Kareem Abdul Jabbar and his jazz scholarship. I have also though of this connection when we cite the fact that more people attend arts events than sporting events. I also remember an article a few years ago by a newspaper editor (in San Diego?) responding to arts groups moaning about how little ink they get compared to sports, given the attendance stats. He noted that sports teams provide pretty much open access to the process - reporters cover spring training, they interview players in the locker room after every game, and as a result the public gets excited not just by what happens on the field, on the court, but also by the human dimension, the back-story, to quote Wide World of Sports, "the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat." So, he asked, how often are reporters allowed backstage before the show, or afterwards, to help the public really understand how a work of art happens? The answer, rarely, if ever. We like the process to be a mystery, magic, we like to preserve "the fourth wall." Of course these are generalizations, but there is an undercurrent of hard truth here.

Two things made me think of this issue today. First, a great article in the Wall Street Journal about the growing trend of sports programs at arts colleges that traditionally never had them - Arts and Varsity Letters - The Painter as Pitcher. Second, the jocks vs. glee club theme of the wildly successful TV program Glee. Now, while the jocks still hate the glee clubbers, and the teasing and harassment is ever-present, the star football player is in fact the star male lead, and the star cheerleaders have also crossed over. The barriers seem to have broken down - the stereotype is being intentionally undercut.

Is there something in the air now? Can we finally get rid of this foolish assumption that artists and jocks are somehow on opposite sides of a great social chasm? And how do those of us working in arts advocacy, policy and funding turn this into broader popular support for the arts? Can we do a better job of engaging our wildly popular sports superstars as spokespersons, or even philanthropists?

Supporting Effective Arts Education Programs

2010-06-15T14:37:00.001-04:00

Philadelphia has traditionally (at least for the last couple of decades) provided all its grant funding of the arts through the Philadelphia Cultural Fund - an independent 501c3 funded by the City - as general operating support. This year, the Cultural Fund's Board agreed to allocate a portion of its grant funds - $350,000 out of $3.2 million - to for the first time make project support grants, specifically grants for arts programming targeted to Philadelphia's youth. Today we announced the first recipients of this new project grants program – the Youth Arts Enrichment Grants – created to support projects that use the arts to enrich the lives of young people both in and outside of school. The inaugural round of grants, totaling $357,700, was awarded to nine youth-focused organizations. [Photo at left from a ceramics class at West Park Cultural Center, one of the grantees] The extra $7,700 available for grant-making was made possible by City employees who made payroll contributions to the Philadelphia Cultural Fund as part of our Employee Combined Campaign - another first this year! All grantees were evaluated on the following criteria:

Providing high quality arts instruction, training and participatory experiences that serve those young people most in need, who are unlikely to have access to cultural enrichment;
Providing consistent programming that directly impacts the reduction of youth violence, truancy and drop out rates, while increasing the number of graduations and college-bound students;
Encouraging arts and cultural programming as an alternative activity for youth in after-school, weekend and summer programs.

“The Youth Arts Enrichment Grants go to the heart of what’s needed across our city and region – the opportunity to provide exposure and knowledge of arts and culture to those who will benefit most – our youth,” said Mayor Nutter. “It’s just this kind of experience that has the capacity to change lives. And as the next generation, it’s that exposure and knowledge which will ultimately give Philadelphia the greatest payback – enabling underserved young people to follow their dream and keep our cultural community vital, thriving and exciting.”

The nine inaugural Youth Arts Enrichment Grants recipients were chosen from a pool of 82 applicants, all of whom were required to have been a 2010 recipient of PCF general operating support and have a budget in excess of $50,000. As with PCF’s established annual grants, a dedicated panel of peers reviewed all applications. In addition to the Cultural Fund Grants Committee and PCF board members who offered to serve, the Youth Arts Enrichment Grants panel also included four guest panelists who are noted experts in Arts Education.

From my perspective, this grant program represents an important attempt to provide significant support to some of our most exemplary programs working with the City's youth population. We know that quality arts experiences and training can make a profound difference in the lives of our young people. In a City that - like many other communities - is struggling with teen violence, truancy, too-high dropout rates, relatively low percentages of kids going onto and graduating from college, ethnic tensions among our youth, etc., making this extra investment in arts groups doing this vital work is really an investment in the future of our City; especially now when so many of these programs are threatened by declining private and public support. In addition, while general support grants remain important and the vast majority of City funding, these grants also provide some specific tangible outcomes in terms of impact that is hard to quanity with the widely distributed general support grants. This is why these grants were intentionally kept of fairly significant size - up to $50,000 each - to make sure that this funding can truly make a difference in support of these worthy programs.

Following is a list of all grantees

2010 PREMIERE YOUTH ARTS ENRICHMENT GRANT RECIPIENTS

Art-Reach, Inc.
Grant amount: $50,000

Project: “Anti-Violence T-shirt Project.” The theme of the project, speaking out against violence, empowers teens to address the type of violence most affecting their lives in 3 phases. Phase I – teens discuss their feeling about violence and develop their ideas about violence prevention; Phase II – students use the art of silk screening to illustrate their message by creating anti-violence designs and slogans; Phase III – develops teens entrepreneurial skills, by teaching them about sales and marketing, selling their t-shirts at a local retail store.

Asian Arts Initiative
Grant amount: $36,023

Project: Expansion of Youth Arts Workshop Programming with a Drop-in Style Youth Lounge. The Youth Lounge offers a range of activities – from open studio, to movie discussions and resume-writing – providing a safe, constructive space for all youth.

BuildaBridge International
Grant amount: $50,000

Project: Discovery after-school in-shelter program and Artology summer out-of-shelter program. Discovery is designed as an after-school and evening arts education program that brings meaningful art education to homeless children who have little access to such opportunities. Artology is a multi-disciplinary art and science summer camp that serves 4th – 8th graders, 25-50% of whom are homeless and 90% of whom are from low-income households.

The Clay Studio
Grant amount: $50,000

Project: Claymobile Outreach Program. Professionally trained arts educators take everything required for a ceramics class to a partner location, and transport student work back to the Claymobile’s support center for firing.

InterAct, Inc.
Grant amount: $25,000

Project: Expansion of drama program with De LaSalle in Towne (DELSIT), a year-round, community-based day treatment program for delinquent male youth. The program will support a youth-comprised theatre program called the DELSIT Drama Crew. Activities include: Acting; Playwriting; field trips to the Young Voices High School Monologue Festival; Guest artist performances of monologues and scenes by local professionals; and two student-written and performed productions.

Kulu Mele African American Dance Ensemble
Grant amount: $29,204

Project: Expansion of Omo Kulu Mele (the children of Kulu Mele), a youth development and arts education program. Participants develop skills in dance, music and performance and to build their own creative and leadership abilities. The program incorporates traditional African values and principles as a foundation to establish and build character, unity, self efficiency, a positive self identity, and cultural awareness.

Philadelphia Arts in Education Partnership
Grant amount: $50,000

Project: An out-of-school time program to integrate the arts with emergent literacy skill building and reinforcement for children ages 5 to 8. The program will provide professional development for artists, parents and caregivers to learn age appropriate methodologies and arts project content development with this student population. The program will then support and conduct action research through artist residencies conducted in underserved neighborhoods through the Philadelphia Free Library system.

Taller Puertorriqueño, Inc.
Grant amount: $36,023

Project: Ongoing support of Taller’s Cultural Awareness Program, which serves ages 5-15. The theme for the coming year will be exploring “Growing Green: Art and Nature” to focus on learning how to be green in our community, art center, homes and with ourselves.

West Park Cultural Center
Grant amount: $31,450

Project: Arts for Literacy. A program utilizing the performing arts as a tool to engage and stimulate learning for a youth population that comes from underserved and impoverished communities and who demonstrate a disconnect with their studies.

New Resources on Business and the Arts

2010-06-14T15:03:00.001-04:00

In 2005 a special issue of the Journal of Business Strategy was published on arts-based learning for business (Vol. 26, No.5), co-edited by Ted Buswick and Harvey Seifter. Ted is head of the BCG History program at Boston Consulting Group, and also Executive-in-Residence for Leadership and the Arts in the Graduate School of Management at Clark University. Harvey is CEO of Seifter Associates and has done extensive work in the area of arts-based learning for business. Now, about five years later, a second special arts-themed issue of JBS has been released, with the same co-editors.

The Journal normally is available only by subscription, but now for a limited time this issue is available for free. Click on this link to the issue. When you enter the site use the following log-in information to get your free download of the content: Username: JBS2010; Password: emerald

In their "Editor's Note" Buswick and Seifter comment on how the past few years have seem a dramatic rise in the credibility and widespread application of arts-based learning in business, as well as a growing recognition in the business community that business competitiveness is increasingly fueled by creativity and innovation. They also note the disturbing trend of the last 18 months as the economy has been in turmoil, that resources for arts-based learning programs have become much scarcer. Nonprofits like Americans for the Arts have had to scale back on such programs that were expensive but not generating sufficient revenue, and businesses have been trimming training budgets, especially those - like arts-based training - targeting the longer-term benefits of creativity as opposed to shorter-term skills focused training programs.

The issue is filled with many valuable articles. In the interests of space I will only single out one: a succinct overview of arts-based learning in business by Nick Nissley, who is the Executive Director of Leadership Development at the Banff Centre in Banff Canada. This article alone really provides a great introduction to the issue and creates an excellent platform for the essays that follow.

Finally, for those in or near Philadelphia, don't miss "Cultivating a Creative Workforce" being presented by Arts & Business Council of Greater Philadelphia on June 24th. This is a rare and special opportunity to hear Robert Redford (yes, THAT Bob Redford) talk about cultivating a culture of risk-taking, collaboration and creativity to achieve business success. Redford will be interviewed by Bob Lynch, CEO of Americans for the Arts. Registration information here. 8:30 breakfast, followed by program at 9-10:30 at Philadelphia Theatre Company. Here is a great article about Redford and business creativity from INC magazine a few years ago.

New Home for Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy

2010-06-02T13:32:00.001-04:00

The City of Philadelphia Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy has been challenged since its (re)establishment in late 2008 with the fact that it was (re)built by bringing together some of the programs and staff that had been housed in the Office of Arts and Culture when in last existed before being closed. This meant we ended up with staff in four different offices spread over two different buildings.

We have also been addressing how to enliven City Hall itself with more cultural activity. Two ideas emerged: 1) create a new office space large enough to accommodate all current staff and some interns and maybe a little bit of growth (a guy can dream can't he?) and put it right on the first floor of City Hall where it can be visible and accessible to the public. 2) create a new art gallery space in City Hall, ideally on the first floor where it can be accessed without having to clear security. One of the issues the Art in City Hall program has always had to address is the lack of truly appropriate exhibition space. The enclosed, lit display cases have provided the best solution possible on the second and fourth floor, and the hanging system on the fifth floor allows art to be hung in the hallways but without ideal lighting or the flexibility of a gallery space

Thanks to the support of PNC Arts Alive, the Block Family Foundation, InterfaceFLOR and others, we have been able to combine these two ideas into one exciting new space, located in Room 116, right on the first floor of City Hall near the Visitor Center by the East Portal. This new space includes consolidated office space, as well as the creation of a new gallery space called The Art Gallery at City Hall. If you click on the link it will take you to a Web page that describes the gallery and the first exhibition, "On the Rise", a partnership between InLiquid, Center for Emerging Visual Artists and Philadelphia Sculptors. This show features the work of 12 emerging Philadelphia artists, four each from the three organizations. The show opens to the public on June 17th - come by and visit! Our neighbors include the City Hall Tour office and orientation classroom, and the Mayor's Office of Education.

This gallery space, while modest. provides an important new cultural addition to City Hall, and to the cultural community. The intention is to use it as a vehicle to partner with cultural organizations and others to bring a diverse array of programming into City Hall. A special effort will be made to use the space as an opportunity to tie City Hall into other Citywide arts festivals and programs such as Design Philadelphia and the 2011 Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts.

In the future we will be looking to also program more cultural activity - including spoken word, music, lectures, etc. in the Mayor's Reception Room and Conversation Hall, our two formal public spaces in City Hall, and when the interior courtyard restoration is completed (probably not for a couple of years) we will be looking to program that space with performing arts activity, as well as more public art installations. We also hope to explore how more cultural programming can be added to other City office buildings, including MSB and One Parkway.

What Poetry Brings to Business

2010-05-20T17:40:00.000-04:00

In my previous work at Arts & Business Council and Americans for the Arts, I worked with Ted Buswick of the Boston Consulting Group, where he worked with his colleagues in BCG's consulting group on the role poetry can play in business strategy development. Ted has now co-authored a new book, What Poetry Brings to Business. The lead author is Clare Morgan, director of the graduate creative writing program at the University of Oxford. Kirsten Lange of BCG's Munich office, also contributed.The book is published by the University of Michigan Press.

This book is a fascinating read and offers "ways in which reading and thinking about poetry can offer businesspeople new strategies for reflection on their companies, their daily tasks, and their work environments." The poets whose work is cited range from the expected - Dana Gioia, past Chairman of the NEA and a former corporate executive - to the perhaps surprising such as Keats and Yeats.

The Foreword is by John Barr, President of the Poetry Foundation, a published poet, and an investment banker and corporate executive. Barr notes that while poetry is clearly known as a creative art, business also is a creative art, that a new company, a new business solution requires an idea, and that an idea is an act of the imagination. Coincidentally a new study just came out in Fast Company this week noting that the #1 leadership quality cited as essential to today's CEO is creativity. And I was also reminded of Andy Warhol's quote, which I actually have framed in my office: "Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art."

Eastern State Penitentiary Announces 2010 Season with Viral Video

2010-05-06T15:57:00.000-04:00

Eastern State Penitentiary (ESP) has just released this video promoting its 2010 season, posted it to YouTube and is encouraging people to share it as widely as possible. Everyone is going digital, multimedia and viral in their marketing, and this is a good thing.

Figured I would use this occasion as a platform for talking a bit about trends in use of social media for marketing, and about the unique cultural/historical entity that is ESP.

Just in the last couple of weeks we have ESP announcing their new season via YouTube, and the Opera Company of Philadelphia staging an operatic "flash mob" in Reading Terminal Market - very cool - you can view it below:

And also the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia did a "Casting Couch" promotion where they set up a bright red couch in various locations around the City and interviewed "real folks" about their experience with theatre, taped the interviews and posted them to their Web site and to YouTube. See one of the sessions below, but there are many more:

All of this highlights how increasingly important digital content is to promoting cultural activity. There is also the growth of live cultural interaction that surprises us and interrupts our daily life. The Opera's flash mob is very much in the tradition of the "Grocery Store Musical" by ImprovEverywhere I blogged about a few months ago. The "Casting Couch" project created opportunities for "real people" to sit on a couch (in such locations as Love Park and Reading Terminal Market) with an interviewer and talk about the difference theatre has made in their life, what sort of "drama" they are dealing with personally. The hope is that this creates fun media opportunities, produces digital content that can be repurposed on the Web and as PSAs, and also delivers the message that theatre is for all of us. I think we are just at the beginning of how arts groups will be using digital content on their Web sites, in YouTube, on iPhone apps, and in media formats yet to be invented. These new media are not competitive with the arts, but offer new platforms to both engage and inform our audiences and for making our art.

I have to use the release of the Eastern State video to remark on what a unique and wonderful institution this place is. I had no idea it even existed until my move to Philadelphia a couple of years ago.Eastern State Penitentiary is a massive fortress-like prison that looms over Philadelphia from the Fairmount neighborhood. It was the first institution of its kind in the world and visiting it is a great way to learn about the entire history of modern prison incarceration and rehabilitation. Given the huge role the legal system, prisons and law enforcement plays in our lives, in our society, in our municipal budgets, I think that being better educated about the history and issues is essential to civic responsibility. I won't even begin to go into the many fascinating aspects of its design, construction and history - you will go there and learn for yourself (if you have not been already). The enormous facility was abandoned for decades and is preserved and interpreted as a stabilized ruin. It is also used as a setting for site-specific contemporary art installations. Great audio guide tours (narrated by Steve Buscemi, as well as tours with live guides.

Fundred Comes to Philadelphia

2010-04-24T19:36:00.000-04:00

LtoR: Mel Chin, Gary Steuer, Christina Roberts, the volunteer "ribbon cutter," Peter Palermo. Photo by J_Bussman

Last Sunday was the opening of Mel Chin’s Uncommon Wealth by the People of Philadelphia at The Fabric Workshop and Museum. Unfortunately I don't think this project has gotten as much media attention as it should because it frankly is hard to explain in an easy sentence or two, or "sound bite."

Mel Chin is an artist whose work often incorporates a social or civic engagement aspect. This Philadelphia project - Uncommon Wealth - is part of a national initiative, the Fundred Dollar Bill Project, itself a spin-off of the project Operation Paydirt. Complicated enough yet? I first heard about this project not long after Hurricane Katrina when I met Mel in New Orleans at a museum exhibition opening - the project was just begin to take shape in his imagination. Mel was seeking a way to use art to address the enormous calamity of New Orleans. He learned of the many children sickened by contaminated soil, which he initially assumed was caused by the flooding. What he learned was that the dangerous levels of lead contamination in soil within the city of New Orleans predated Katrina. Through further research he learned that scientific methods existed to actually neutralize the lead in the soil - much easier than replacing all the soil in the City. I won't even begin to try and explain the science of it - for that you'll have to contact Mel. He also learned this problem of lead contaminated soil was epidemic in many cities across the country (Philadelphia in fact is one of the worst, because of its age, industrial heritage, and profusion of old row houses and commercial structures almost all of which are filled with lead paint, that enters the soil when the buildings are demolished). The estimated cost of this effort for New Orleans was $300,000,000. The strategy he developed was to have children (eventually expanded to anyone to anyone who wanted to participate; as Mel puts it there is an age cut-off of 125 years old) literally make mock hundred dollar bills, equal to the $300 million needed.

A Fundred Dollar Bill is a blank template of a United States One Hundred Dollar Bill. In cities across the nation, Fundreds are being drawn by children in classrooms, art students, professional artists, senior citizens - anybody who wants to participate. Mel has created a custom armored car - the Sous Terre - with a specially uniformed driver who is literally traveling the nation picking up the Fundreds (I should note the armored truck is powered by used vegetable oil, which is collected from schools along the way). On Sunday he made his stop in Philadelphia. The goal is to collect three million Fundreds—the equivalent of the cash needed to clean all dangerous soil in New Orleans—and then to present it to Congress with the request that the Fundreds be traded for real federal funding for the project in an equal amount. It is Mel's hope that this effort will not only help New Orleans but raise awareness and funds to help other cities - like Philadelphia - grappling with this serious public health challenge.

In Philadelphia the special Fundred installation is in The New Temporary Contemporary at the Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) - this is what opened last Sunday. The installation (behind a fabricated "vault" door) houses a "minting station" where visitors can draw their Fundreds and then display them on the gallery walls. At the opening I joined Mel, as well as Peter Palermo, Director of the City of Philadelphia Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, and Christina Roberts of FWM to officially open the gallery to the public. Scores of people showed up to participate - including my parents, who happened to be in town. It was great to have Peter there, to talk persuasively about the specific challenge of lead-contaminated soil right here in Philadelphia, and what parents can do to ensure their children are not affected. There are some great photos here.

As people draw their Fundreds they are being tacked to the walls and the goal is to fill the walls with these bills. Even the "minting station" is a work of art that plays off of Philadelphia history. It is hand-made by Mel to evoke an 18th Century writing desk. The legs of the long table are now uncarved but during the course of the installation he intends to carve them to replicate classic Philadelphia furniture in the PMA collection. The FWM will also fabricate a decorative "shipping pallet" on which the entire three million Fundreds will be stacked and presented to Congress.

So, if you are in Philadelphia, find your way over to FWM to make your Fundred and be a part of this project. If you are in another city, find out how to participate in your own town. You can also go to the Fundred web site itself and print out a template and send it in. This project represents a way in which art can help educate, inspire and galvanize people to address a critical community health challenge. The project is now at $31 million in Fundreds - only a bit more than 10% of the way there. the original goal was to present the $ in DC in July, but it now looks like the Fundred creation time will be extended to make sure the goal is reached. Help make the goal!

Council Testimony on the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy

2010-04-22T12:33:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I had the opportunity to testify before the Philadelphia City Council about the 2011 proposed budget for the Office of Arts, Culture and the Create Economy. This was actually the first time the Office has been invited to present its own testimony to City Council. In past years (before the Office was shut and then reopened) it was included as part of the testimony of Commerce/City Representative, the department within which the Office was housed. While testimony is not necessarily the most fun part of doing one's job, it is a very important part of the process, and in the case of our work here, a great opportunity to tell the story of what the Office has accomplished this past year. We were grateful to have this opportunity to speak directly to Council and answer their questions. As the testimony is a public record, and may be of interest to the public, I thought it might be helpful to share some highlights here, focusing on the 2010 accomplishments and 2011 plans.

FISCAL YEAR 2011 OPERATING BUDGET TESTIMONY

(excerpts)

GARY STEUER, CHIEF CULTURAL OFFICER

OFFICE OF ARTS, CULTURE AND THE CREATIVE ECONOMY

PRESENTED BEFORE CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE

April 21, 2010

Good afternoon President Verna and members of City Council, I am Gary Steuer and I am the Chief Cultural Officer and Director of the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy. I am here today to present testimony on the Office of Arts Culture and the Creative Economy’s proposed Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2011. I am also joined by Deputy Cultural Officer, Moira Baylson.

I am delighted to be here today on this very special occasion, as it marks the first time in City history that the City’s Arts Office is providing official budget testimony before City Council. I am honored to have the opportunity to report on the Office’s accomplishments over the past year, and to explain how our Office plans to use and leverage City funds in Fiscal Year 2011.

The Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy adopted its own budget last year, in Fiscal 2010, after consolidating programs and services from multiple departments.

The Mission of the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy is to improve access to the arts for both residents and visitors; expand arts education for young people; oversee all the City’s arts programs; support the growth and development of the City’s arts, culture, and creative economy sector, by promoting public and private investment in the creative economy sector; coordinate with relevant City agencies to unify the City’s arts efforts; and serve as a liaison between the City’s many cultural institutions. The Office’s focus extends beyond the city’s nonprofit arts sector, to its individual artists, design industries, music clubs and other entertainment ventures, all of which help make Philadelphia a vibrant and thriving place to live and work.

FY10 Accomplishments
Re-established in October 2008, the Office has successfully consolidated the Public Art Program, Art in City Hall, the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, and cultural development and creative economy efforts into one office. We are very near to completing an office renovation in Room 116 in City Hall, where all seven staff members will relocate. Housed in this space will include our administrative offices, as well as The Art Gallery in City Hall, a public space that will serve both as an exhibition space and a space to highlight arts and culture events in Philadelphia – a true extension of what is happening in the City. Approximately $30,000 of private funding was raised for the renovations in this space from the generosity of PNC Bank, an individual donation, and InterfaceFlors. Every effort was made to make the space as environmentally friendly as possible, in keeping with the goals of Greenworks Philadelphia.

In Fiscal Year 2010, with leadership from the Mayor’s Cultural Advisory Council, a diverse group of cultural, creative business and philanthropic leaders, we engaged in a Strategic Planning process for the Office. The Strategic Plan includes strategies for communications, funding, administration, public art and programs. We expect to share the final plan with the Mayor and City Council in June of 2010.

Of the Office’s 2010 budget of roughly $3.9 million, 87% of the funding went out in the form of grants to the cultural community. The Office’s modest administrative costs, approximately a half million dollars, is mostly spent on personnel. Very few of the programs and initiatives operating out of the Office are funded with General Fund dollars. The Office has and is committed to, leveraging the City’s investment in the arts with other public and private sources.

In Fiscal Year 2010, the Philadelphia Cultural Fund will distribute $3.05 million to 238 Philadelphia cultural organizations. Additionally, the Fund, in partnership with the Office, created a new grant program in 2010 called the Youth Enrichment Program. The program will distribute $350,000 in grants to existing cultural fund recipients who have exemplary youth arts programs.

We also just recently announced a new partnership with Ovation, a premier arts and entertainment television station that will yield $500,000 in media sponsorship opportunities for Philadelphia cultural organizations.

The Office was involved with two American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Initiatives in Fiscal Year 2010. With the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, we jointly applied for and received $250,000 in NEA Recovery funding for the retention of jobs in the Arts. We distributed grants of $15,000 and $25,000 to ten diverse Philadelphia arts organizations.

Through a partnership with the Office of Housing and Community Development and the Department of Commerce, we created a $500,000 grant program for the creative sector from the City’s $14 million allocation of CDBG Recovery funds. In March, Creative Industry Workforce Grants ranging from $20,000 to $100,000 were awarded to eight creative businesses for the construction or renovation of affordable artist workspaces, performance spaces and creative multi-tenant spaces. These grants for capital improvements will stimulate temporary construction jobs. Projects were selected based on their ability to serve low and moderate-income neighborhoods and to create permanent jobs. This exciting new program is already serving as a national model for the use of CDBG funds for the arts and creative sectors.

With a collection of over 1,000 pieces, the Public Art Program commissions new works of permanent public art through the City’s Percent for Art Ordinance (established in 1959), and oversees the preservation and maintenance of the City's public art collection. Currently there are eight Percent for Art Projects in various stages of development. These include site-specific paintings for the Philadelphia Youth Study Center in West Philadelphia and hand-carved polished granite seating elements for the Venice Island Recreation Center in Manayunk. Just completed and to be dedicated tomorrow (4/22), is the restoration, stabilization and regilding of the 120-year-old Fairmount Park landmark Joan of Arc statue at 25th Street and Kelly Drive. This project was funded by City capital dollars and a grant from the French Heritage Society. Recommendations from the recently-completed study, "Philadelphia Public Art: The Full Spectrum" include collaboratively promoting the City’s Public Art Program with other related public and private organizations in Philadelphia, in order to maximize impact and leverage limited resources. In response, the Office in partnership with Mural Arts will soon be offering new public trolley tours that include both Murals and the City’s Public Art collection.

Another major accomplishment of the Office was identifying a permanent home for Red Groom’s Philadelphia Cornucopia at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Planned as a temporary piece inspired by the City’s tri-centennial, this large-scale “sculpto-pictorama” was commissioned by the Institute for Contemporary Art in 1982, and was exhibited in several other locations around the city before it became part of the Civic Center Museum’s collection. The City became the custodian of this monumental artwork and has been storing the piece since the Museum’s closing in the 1990s. An agreement has been reached with PAFA, where it will undergo restoration and will ultimately be exhibited once more.

Since 1992, Art In City Hall has presented exhibitions that showcase contemporary artwork by professional and emerging Philadelphia visual artists.Encompassing a variety of mediums, techniques, and subjects, this program strives to link visual artists with the larger community by providing the public with a greater knowledge and appreciation of their artistic achievements. “Emerging” artists include community-based art from Philadelphia’s public schools, community nonprofits, and other city agencies, including an annual exhibition highlighting art from City of Philadelphia employees and family members.

Art in City Hall has approximately eight shows a year and features many partnerships. For example, last year, Fairmount Park and Moore College of Art and Design teamed up to present a juried exhibition inspired by five historic homes in Fairmount Park. We also collaborated with the Health Federation of Philadelphia for a student poster contest in celebration of National Health Center Week. Through May 21, in celebration of National Developmental Disabilities Month, an exhibition by The Arc of Philadelphia/Philadelphia Developmental Disabilities Corps features artists with disabilities. The Art in City Hall program is supported by an independent Art Advisory Council made up of arts professionals and private citizens. Support for the entire exhibitions budget for Art in City Hall is made of private donations.

FY11 Initiatives
We anticipate an official opening of the Art Gallery in City Hall in late spring, to be accompanied by an announcement of the six planned exhibitions for the new space. We will also be working on undertaking a branding and marketing initiative of the Office and its programs, including consolidating existing websites into one official website that can better connect the City programs and services to the cultural community and the public.

This summer the Office will release a report—funded by the William Penn Foundation—on the health and vitality of the Creative Economy with a new tool called the Creative Vitality Index (CVI) The CVI is a framework for conceptualizing the elements of the City’s creative economy and is an advanced tool for tracking change within the creative sector. The findings in this index will help guide the development of new programs and enhance current programs both within the Office and throughout the city, which serve and add capacity to the creative sector.

We also plan to launch an annual version of the Creative Industry Workforce Grant program (previously funded through the Recovery CDBG), as part of the City’s Consolidated Plan and will provide the details of this program with our partners, the Office of Housing and Community Development and the Department of Commerce at the Consolidated Plan hearing.

This summer, the Art in City Hall Program, with the Mural Arts Program, will bring art by professional self-taught artists from SCI Graterford, the Philadelphia Prison System and ex-offenders to City Hall. Also planned for 2011 is a School District Student Exhibition, collaboration with Fresh Artists, a nonprofit working to raise funds for school arts supplies.

A Percent for Art project incorporating artist-designed streetscapes will occur on the Delaware Waterfront, between 2nd Street and the new Race Street Pier Park, enhancing access and visibility to the riverfront. Additionally, Engine 38, a new fire station planned for the Tacony neighborhood’s Disston Park and the Philadelphia Water Department’s planned 61st Street Maintenance facility will both feature “green artwork,” and themes of environmental sustainability and ecological restoration, furthering our efforts to becoming the “greenest city in America.” With private funding from the William Penn Foundation, we will also launch a Temporary Public Art Program, which will bring public art to Philadelphia’s underserved neighborhoods.

FY11 Budget Details and Explanation
[Note: Aside from some technical budget adjustments, which were explained in this area of the testimony, all major funding categories within the proposed 2011 Office of Arts Culture and the Creative Economy budget remain level, including the $3.2 million for the Philadelphia Cultural Fund. The official testimony also included as attachments a detailed list of Percent for Art projects, Art in City Hall exhibitions and Philadelphia Cultural Fund 2010 grantees]

Last Post on Arts Advocacy Day 2010 - I promise!

2010-04-21T16:24:00.001-04:00

L-R: Gary Steuer, Chief Cultural Officer of the City of Philadelphia; Michael Norris of Arts-Reach; Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutte; Julie Hawkins of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance (GPCA); Moira Baylson, Deputy Cultural Officer,;John McInerney, GPCA

Had to post this photo of some of the Philly crew who were in DC cheering on the Mayor at his testimony. Also, in case anyone missed it, here is the link to the video of the testimony by the Mayor and others, such as General Nolan Bivens, Bob Lynch, and Jeff Daniels.

More from Arts Advocacy Day - Arts and National Security

2010-04-14T18:23:00.001-04:00

Since the testimony of retired Brigadier General Nolen Bivens was - as reported earlier - a new addition to the usual array of perspectives presented in support of the arts, here is a link to his full written testimony. His testimony also got extensive coverage in the LA Times. I think it is well worth reading.

He presented three policy areas in which he notes that his "experience in the military has shown that support for arts and culture can improve our national security needs, provide a pathway to stronger cultural diplomacy and quality of life for our wounded warriors and veterans transitioning into a civilian life." These are clustered under three headings: 1) Asymmetrical Warfare Requires Creative Solutions and Innovative Thinking. 2) Cultural Diplomacy is a Key Security Strategy, and 3) Arts Help Support Wounded Warriors and Veterans Transition to Civilian Life.

As Subcommittee chair Jim Moran noted, a small share of our massive military budget would go a long way if directed towards these arts programs. Of course, one statistic that is often bandied about is that the combined budgets of all the military marching bands and other arts programs exceeds that of the National Endowment for the Arts.(Don't have exact numbers on this - anyone with the facts, feel free to comment!)

It would be great not to have to continually make these arguments that the value of the arts is because it helps address one social or political problem or another - I can hear the groaning and the eye-rolling out there: "Great, now we have to add national security to economic impact, community revitalization, education and workforce development, crime reduction, etc. Can't we just get funded for making art?" The reality is that we need all the arrows in our quiver. Many WILL fund you just to make your art. Some will WANT to fund you just to make your art but need other arguments to help make the case to their boards or give them political "cover." Still others could care less about the art, but might STILL be supporters and advocates if they believe we affect something else they believe is important. We need to be building the biggest tent of supporters possible, and I for one welcome our military leaders into it...

Arts Advocacy Day Wrap-up; Mayor's Testimony

2010-04-13T18:24:00.001-04:00

Arts Advocacy Day, organized as always by Americans for the Arts with many co-sponsoring organizations, featured a compelling talk by Mayor Joe Reilly of Charleston on the role of design and beauty in "city-making" using his own city as a case study for how dogged attention to quality design, architecture, green space, waterfront development and cultural assets can transform a city. It was (I gather) pretty much a talk he has been working on and updating for years as part of the Mayor's Institute on City Design, a partnership between the NEA and the US Conference of Mayors. The fact that he has given the talk in different versions many times before did not make it any less compelling. Fascinating to see from a Philadelphia perspective, as so many of the challenges Charleston faced were so similar, albeit on a smaller scale. Many neighborhoods filled with beautiful historic homes now abandoned and decaying to the point of public danger. A downtown with large stretches of under-utilized property, parking garages that break up the streetscape and become an urban eyesore, a waterfront that is unavailable for public use , surrounded by highways or old industrial sites. Nice that Mayor Reilly also gave a big shout-out to Mayor Nutter, to a big round of applause.

After the usual "pep rally" Congressional Arts Kickoff breakfast (much of which I missed) we moved over to the hearing room in the Rayburn building. Nancy Pelosi received the 2010 Public Leadership in the Arts Award from Americans for the Arts at the Kickoff, and apparently offered praise for Mayor Nutter, even though we were stuck in traffic and not there yet. Rocco Landesman delivered the National Endowment for the Arts official testimony. This was followed by testimony from Bob Lynch of Americans for the Arts, actor Kyle MacLachlan, actor Jeff Daniels, Terri Aldrich, Executive Director of the Minot ND Area Council on the Arts, Charles Segars, CEO of Ovation, and Brig. General Nolen Bivens (ret.). And of course, Mayor Michael Nutter.

It was the usual well-orchestrated diverse group of testifiers - a business perspective, public sector perspective, artists talking about how the NEA-funded arts groups fueled their growth, and someone delivering the message that the arts are for rural communities too - a nice contrast to the Mayor's more urban-focused testimony, and important to garner support from legislators representing largely rural districts. General Bivens offered a less-often heard case, that arts and culture are key to our international diplomacy and even military national security issues.

There was a nice big contingent from Philadelphia, Including Julie Hawkins, John McInerney and Tom Kaiden, Michael Norris, a big contingent of arts administration students from Drexel, and many others (apologies for anyone I have missed by name). For me, having Americans for the Arts roots, this gathering is always a great opportunity to re-connect with AFTA friends, New York arts folks, and colleagues from all over the country. It was great to see so many wonderful friends - and to try and lure as many of them as possible to visit - or even relocate to - Philadelphia!

Since I am not sure the Mayor's testimony is yet posted anywhere, with apologies for producing a very long blog entry, here is the Mayor's written testimony. I think this was a great opportunity to make a case for the value of the NEA, while also telling the story of the important role the arts are playing in Philadelphia - transforming neighborhoods, stimulating our economy, making Philadelphia an ever more appealing place to live, work and play.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Written Testimony in Support of FY11 Appropriations for the

National Endowment for the Arts

Submitted by the Honorable Michael A. Nutter

Mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment & Related Agencies

Arts Build Communities

April 13, 2010

Mr. Chairman and Members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee, thank you for providing me this opportunity to testify before you today. My name is Michael Nutter and I am Mayor of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I am delighted to be here on Arts Advocacy Day representing the United States Conference of Mayors and cities across the country. I am here to ask the Subcommittee to approve a budget of $180 million for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for the creation, preservation, and presentation of the arts in America.

Philadelphia is a city of neighborhoods and I can assure you that in each of our communities, you can feel the presence of the arts. The arts anchor our neighborhoods. They are an integral part of our civic identity, a vital part of the fabric of Philadelphia community life, a key ingredient in the education and enrichment of our children, as well as a major segment of our economy.

As Mayor, it is my job to ensure that Philadelphia becomes a safer, smarter and healthier city, one in which all residents have real opportunities for education, housing, employment and a good quality of life. My goals for Philadelphia include:

1. Economic Recovery and Jobs

Philadelphia grows as a green city

2. Enhancing Public Safety

Philadelphia becomes the safest large city in the country

3. Investing in Youth and Protecting the Most Vulnerable

Philadelphia’s youth and vulnerable populations have the opportunity to thrive

4. Reforming Government

Reforming city government to work better and cost less

Within each of these four goals, there has been a role for the arts. Today I want to demonstrate the importance of the arts by discussing recent initiatives in Philadelphia, ways we are transforming communities through the arts, the importance of the arts to our economy, and the impact of NEA funding in Philadelphia.

The Arts in Philadelphia

Shortly after taking office in 2008, I showed my commitment to the arts by reestablishing the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy and by creating the position of Chief Cultural Officer. The Chief Cultural Officer is a member of my cabinet, giving the arts a prominent role in my administration. The Office gives the public a single point of contact for the arts and creative industries, and an enthusiastic partner in creative problem solving. As a city, we seek to employ the arts to strengthen City services and improve the lives of Philadelphians.

In my first term as Mayor, I increased the allocation to the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, the City’s arts grantmaking body, from $2.2 million to $3.2 million. Despite significant fiscal challenges, I have kept my promise to maintain the Fund at this level. Even in tough times, cultural organizations can be a catalyst to population growth, workforce development and a strong economy. Furthermore, I established the Mayor’s Cultural Advisory Council, an esteemed group of cultural, creative business and philanthropic leaders who are an incredible resource to me and to this newly created office. The Council’s role is to make sure we are truly addressing the needs of the arts community and the public.

In addition to supporting and nurturing the arts community in Philadelphia, I am also finding creative ways the arts can help us achieve our larger visionary goals. I applaud NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman for his commitment to working across agencies at the federal level. Philadelphia leaders also see the value in this and we have been looking to the arts as a tool to strengthen programs and services across departments: particularly in the areas of health, housing, prisons, planning and economic development, transportation, and education. Just last Friday our Streets Department organized an event to promote “Unlitter Us” – a movement to clean up Philadelphia, and it featured the talents of spoken word poets and musicians.

Transforming Communities in Philadelphia

Through its nationally known Mural Arts Program, the City continues to address a number of social issues such as public safety, education and youth development. Mural Arts works with the court system, prisoner re-entry programs and other groups to build healthy and sustainable communities using community based public art projects. Each year the Mural Arts Program works with over 100 communities and employs more than 300 artists, revitalizing open spaces, and re-mediating blight with colorful and innovative public art projects. To date, this program is responsible for approximately 2,800 murals in the City of Philadelphia. The Mural Arts Program is a recipient of NEA funding.

Arts Education is critical to the success of our education goals. This year, the City’s Philadelphia Cultural Fund launched a new program, The Youth Arts Enrichment Program, to foster youth engagement in the arts. The program will distribute $350,000 in grants to exemplary arts education programs. Additionally, through a newly created organization, Arts Rising, there is a commitment to improving and expanding equitable access to arts education for all children in the Greater Philadelphia region.

Several weeks ago, I announced the recipients of the Creative Industry Workforce Grants, a new and groundbreaking program funded through the Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This program is a partnership between Philadelphia’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy and the Philadelphia Department of Commerce. Eight creative businesses received a total of $500,000 in grants ranging from $20,000 to $100,000 for the construction or renovation of affordable artist workspaces, performance spaces and creative multi-tenant spaces. These grants for capital improvements will stimulate temporary construction jobs. Businesses were selected based on their ability to serve low and moderate-income neighborhoods and to create permanent jobs. This exciting new program is already serving as a national model for the use of CDBG funds for the arts and creative sectors.

Arts and Economic Impact

Arts organizations employ our residents, and attract and retain residents, job seekers and businesses. On a regional basis, about 1,300 non-profit arts organizations put on more than 50,000 events annually. The regional non-profit cultural sector generates $1.3 billion in annual expenditures, 40,000 jobs and $158.5 million in State and local taxes (Source: Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, 2008 Portfolio Report).

Philadelphians love the arts, so it is not surprising that 83% of Philadelphia area residents attended an arts or cultural event in the last year. Attendees spend an average of $37.32 per person in addition to the ticket price. Visits to arts organizations total 15 million per year (Portfolio Report). Arts and cultural organizations also attract regional and international visitors. Tourists whose patronize local arts and culture spend an average of $166 more than other tourists, a 36% increase in dollars spent (Source: Travel Industry Association)

Philadelphia Organizations Supported by the NEA

The NEA supports Philadelphia arts organizations through its four programs: Access to Artistic Excellence, Challenge America: Reaching Every Community, Federal/State Partnerships, and Learning in the Arts. Philadelphia organizations can also receive NEA funding through our state arts agency, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts; our regional arts agency, the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation; and through the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, the designated Local Arts Agency authorized to re-grant federal funds. This year, Philadelphia organizations also received funding through a $50 million allocation to the NEA from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Many of Philadelphia’s acclaimed museums, historic sites, theaters, dance companies, music organizations, universities and arts education organizations are the recipients of NEA funding. This funding supports the creation of new visual and performance artworks, it fosters collaborations between organizations, supports education programming, funds research and marketing efforts, the creation of public art, and free and low cost access to museums and theaters. In the case of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, NEA funding saved jobs.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is one of the largest museums in the country with a remarkable collection, exhilarating exhibition program and exemplary arts education program. The Museum’s free and low cost programs are accessible to all Philadelphians and are made possible with NEA funding. The internationally acclaimed Philadelphia Orchestra produces Arts in the Park, a series of performances in Fairmount Park’s Mann Center for Performing Arts, as well as free neighborhood concerts in Philadelphia. Both organizations are funded by the NEA.

The Kimmel Center and its many diverse resident companies, located in the heart of our downtown arts district, are also funded by the NEA. Resident company Philadelphia Dance Company (Philadanco) hosted the 22nd Annual International Conference of Blacks in Dance, in partnership with the University of the Arts in Philadelphia with a grant from the NEA. The conference brought together dance professionals from across the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean to network, strategize, and share their artistic experiences. Philadelphia just closed its first international print and contemporary art festival, Philagraphika 2010, one of the largest events of its kind in the United States, with 300 artists and 80 venues participating. This four month-long festival, which will now be a triennial event, was also supported by the NEA.

Funding from the NEA’s Recovery allocation was distributed in a number of ways: directly through the NEA, through the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation and locally in Philadelphia. This funding helped to strengthen many Philadelphia organizations and artists, enabling them to continue their work while providing direct and ancillary economic benefits to our region.

There has been some criticism about the use of Recovery funding for arts organizations. As a Mayor who feels strongly that the arts are not only a key element of our economy, but also a catalyst for other important areas of economic growth, I want to reiterate my support for organizations and initiatives funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Philadelphia organizations such as Pig Iron Theater Company and Spiral Q Puppet Theater are award winning, highly regarded and successful businesses that are important members of Philadelphia’s economy. These organizations received grants directly through the NEA for purpose of job retention to save jobs. Arts jobs are jobs too!

The City’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy also partnered with the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance to distribute $225,000 to organizations as job retention grants. Ten organizations received grants and ten jobs were saved as a result. There has been overwhelming support from Philadelphia's civic leaders and residents for these investments in the arts. The Recovery funding provided by the NEA was spent efficiently and made an immediate impact in Philadelphia. There is no question in my mind that this was money well spent. I believe that annual funding from the NEA is essential to strengthening and transforming our communities.

Mayors’ Institute on City Design

This year marks the 25th Anniversary of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, a program of the United States Conference of Mayors, the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Architectural Foundation. We are also excited about the NEA’s grant program, the MICD25 that will provide up to $250,000 to cities using the arts at the center of a plan to create and sustain a livable community.

Today Philadelphia is seeking to reclaim its waterfronts for the public’s use. I am proud to say that we are moving ahead with the Central Delaware River Master Planning process, which we hope will be a model for open space and parks with innovative design and public art elements. Furthermore, the Philadelphia City Planning Commission is preparing the city’s first comprehensive plan in 50 years for release in early 2011. Philadelphia 2035: The Comprehensive Plan envisions a bright, sustainable future for Philadelphia, with goals, objectives, and measurable actions related to housing, arts and culture, open space and transit-oriented development.

Philadelphia is focused on identifying the new and appropriate uses for old industrial sites throughout our City neighborhoods. A non-profit lender in our community, the Reinvestment Fund, led by Jeremy Nowak, and the University of the Pennsylvania’s Social Impact for the Arts project, have been national leaders in documenting the role the arts can play in reclaiming and stabilizing neighborhoods. On his recent visit to Philadelphia, NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman visited the Crane Arts Building, a 120,000 multi-tenant arts facility in a former plumbing supplies building, and called Philadelphia “a leader” in reshaping our post-industrial communities into arts communities. Honored by this statement, we are also challenged – now we must continue our forward progress in this area. We look to our federal partner, the NEA as not just a funder, but also as a policy maker in recognizing how these and other initiatives can impact the health and vitality of cities nationwide. Through my work with the U.S. Conference of Mayors, I know that other Mayors who lead cities of all shapes and sizes share my support for the NEA.

Conclusion

The NEA is at work in Philadelphia and in many other communities across our nation. Its programs have tremendous impact in our citizens' lives and on our local economy. The NEA is critical to the continued development of American cities as centers of arts and culture and to fostering artistic excellence for generations to come.

“An advanced civilization must not limit its efforts to science and technology alone, but must give full value and support to the other great branches of scholarly and cultural activity in order to achieve a better understanding of the past, a better analysis of the present, and a better view of the future.” This Congressional declaration is a founding purpose of the NEA. I steadfastly ask you, members of the Subcommittee, to take this statement to heart and to think about the importance of the arts and the impact that NEA funding has as a tool for transformation in every one of our nation’s communities.

Thank you for this opportunity to testify before you today.

Mayor Nutter to Testify Before Congress at Arts Advocacy Day

2010-04-08T17:34:00.000-04:00

As part of its Arts Advocacy Day activities on April 12th and 13th, 2010, Americans for the Arts has organized witnesses to give official testimony at an arts hearing on April 13th at 10:30 AM, hosted by newly appointed chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior Rep. James P. Moran (D-VA). Witnesses at the “Arts in Service of Communities” hearing include actor Kyle MacLachlan, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, Ovation CEO Charles Segars, Brig. Gen. Nolen V. Bivens, and North Dakota arts leader Terri Aldrich.

Americans for the Arts, in conjunction with the Congressional Arts Caucus and 86 national co-sponsors, celebrates Arts Advocacy Day 2010 in which more than 400 grassroots arts supporters from across the United States take to Capitol Hill to advocate for pro-arts legislation. The evening of April 12th features the Nancy Hanks Lecture at The Kennedy Center, who this year will be Mayor Joseph Riley of Charleston, SC.

This is a fantastic opportunity for the arts sector of Philadelphia, to have our Mayor be selected to speak about the value of the arts to communities, to cities. Though he will speaking for - and to - the entire nation, he will of course highlight our robust cultural sector as critical to our local economy, our neighborhoods, our people. There are great examples of how federal support - from the NEA and other agencies - has made an important difference in Philadelphia.

I expect we will have a nice Philadelphia cheering section for Mayor Nutter in DC! I will post his testimony after the hearing. The press release is here.

"Discover Philadelphia" Ovation Partnership Announced

2010-04-08T12:26:00.000-04:00

Today, April 8th, at 10:30 at City Hall we announced a new partnership between the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, Ovation, and Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, to make $500,000 of donated media available to promote Philadelphia's cultural assets. More information on this program, dubbed "Discover Philadelphia" is available here.

Ovation is the nation's only arts-focused cable channel, with a reach of 40 million households nationwide. Thanks to Comcast-Xfinity, Ovation is just being added to the Philadelphia region's channel line-up. To celebrate this, to give back to Philadelphia's cultural sector and tell its story nationally, Ovation is making this gift of airtime and production services.

So what exactly is happening? We will be given airtime for an array of what are called "interstitials" - short pieces of content aired in between other programs. For these segments arts groups are being asked to submit whatever raw content, known as "B roll" they may have. All of this content will be reviewed and a selection of them chosen to be clustered into a series of different interstitials highlighting various aspects of Philadelphia's cultural assets. These spots will be produced by Ovation as part of their gift. Here is an example of a similar spot from Ovation's work in Chicago.

In addition, we are asking any groups that have an existing public service advertisement of 30 seconds to submit this content as well. Again, a committee will review the submissions and select some PSAs that will be granted donated airtime. The number or broadcasts per spot will depend on how many spots are selected for this component of the donation. The $500,000 value of the gift is divided equally between the two programs.

Applications are due Monday May 6th. Both the interstitials and organizational PSAs are expected to begin airing in July 2010.

In addition to this donated air-time, Philadelphia's arts groups are also being encouraged to participate in Ovation's online community, creating profiles and uploading content.

Creative Industry Workforce Grants announced

2010-03-31T13:40:00.000-04:00

In the interest of getting something up on my blog right away, following is the entire press release issued at the press conference and awards ceremony just held at City Hall. Very exciting announcement of new grants to support creative industry jobs and neighborhood revitalization in Philadelphia. Thanks to the Mayor, City Council, the panelists, and to all the City colleagues who helped make this possible.

MAYOR NUTTER ANNOUNCES CREATIVE INDUSTRY WORKFORCE GRANTS

Philadelphia, March 31, 2010— Today Mayor Michael A. Nutter awarded $500,000 in Creative Industry Workforce Grants to eight arts-related organizations. The awards ranged from $20,000 to $100,000 each. This funding will be used for specific capital projects that will yield both temporary jobs (including construction, installation, architectural and engineering jobs) and permanent jobs in the creative sector. Funding for the Creative Industry Workforce Grant program comes from the Community Development Block Grant program of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA). Created through a partnership of the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy and the Department of Commerce, the goal of the unique program is to nurture and develop the creative sector while fostering neighborhood development, business attraction and job creation.

“These grants are all about providing more jobs for Philadelphians. This funding will not only offer new construction opportunities, but will deliver lasting jobs in the creative economy,” said Mayor Nutter. “These awards will support distinctive, cultural programming in diverse neighborhoods in the years to come.”

The Creative Industry Workforce Grant program was open to the nonprofit arts and culture community as well as for-profit arts, entertainment and creative businesses. These awards reinforce the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy’s larger strategy to nurture and develop this sector by providing specific programs and resources to the creative industries. This grant program also intersects with the Commerce Department’s business services, neighborhood development, business attraction and job creation efforts.

"This is a very exciting - and ground-breaking - program for the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, and for the City of Philadelphia.   By investing Community Development Block Grant funds in capital projects that help foster our creative enterprises and generate jobs in our low and moderate income communities, we help support both this important industry and also nurture healthy neighborhoods," said Chief Cultural Officer Gary Steuer.

In order to qualify for the grants, applicants needed to demonstrate that their project could start within three months from the award date. The projects also must have met federal CDBG eligibility including but not limited to serving low to moderate income customers creating low to moderate income jobs, or being located in a low to moderate income neighborhood. Eligible applicants included nonprofit arts and cultural organizations, community development corporations, for-profit creative businesses, microenterprises and others. The award winners were selected by a five-person panel comprised of Chief Cultural Officer Gary Steuer, Commerce Department’s Chief Operating Officer Kevin Dow, Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds-Brown, President of the Reinvestment Fund Jeremy Nowak, and CEO of The Burd Group Nancy Burd.

###

CREATIVE INDUSTRY WORKFORCE GRANT RECIPIENTS

Connection Training Services - $60,000
2243 W. Allegheny Street (North Philadelphia)
Creation of the North Philadelphia Creative Arts Center and Gallery at the Allegheny Business Center, an arts incubator for ex-offenders

Crane Old School, LP - $100,000
1425 N. 2nd Street (Kensington)
$1.7 million conversion of an historic school into multi-tenant artist and commercial arts space, including the new Pig Iron Theater School

Octo Enterprises Incorporated - $100,000
2214-14 Alter Street (Point Breeze)
Industrial building renovation and expansion for new artist workspace

Olney Cultural Collaborative - $20,000
An initiative of the North 5th Revitalization Project, a program of the Korean
Community Development Services Center (Olney)
Office renovation for neighborhood cultural programming initiative

Revolution Recovery         - $40,000
7333 Milnor Street (Northeast)
Artist workspace and office space at recycling facility for a new artist in residency program.

Underground Arts at the Wolf Building - $50,000
340 N. 12th Street Associates, LP (Callowhill)
Creation of a Multi-disciplinary Arts Venue

Vox Populi - $30,000
319 N. 11th Street (Callowhill)
Creation of multi-disciplinary performance venue and additional artist studios

2215 East Tioga Street Gallery & Studios        - $100,000
2215 East Tioga Street (Kensington)
Rehabilitation to create an art gallery and sculpture garden

Doing Well and Doing Good by Doing Art

2010-03-25T11:12:00.000-04:00

Doing Well and Doing Good by Doing Art is a new arts education study just recently released and summarized well by the Arts Education Partnership in their AEPWire publication. Seems to be a problem on their Web site now - maybe too many people trying to access the study! - so I would suggest also going to their Facebook page for more info.

The study, by James S. Catterall, is essentially a continuation of the research he (along with some colleagues) contributed to the landmark "Champions of Change" study, released in 1999. This new study looks at 12,000 young people who were studied as high school students in that earlier study. Ten additional years of data have now been gathered to follow these young people through the age of 26. The bottom line is that arts learning is found to be strongly connected to both general academic success and "pro-social outcomes."

Most significant about this study for me is that it attempts to look specifically at the impact an "arts rich" learning environment has on socio-economic-status (SES) challenged students. An example - 37.1% of those studied from arts-rich high schools went on to earn a BA, compared with only 17.3% of those who went to arts-poor schools. Similarly dramatic results were seen for English Language Learners.

The study finds significant advantages for arts-engaged low‐SES students in college going, college grades, and types of employment, e.g. jobs with a future—and strong advantages in volunteerism and political participation.

All research is imperfect, and I am sure one could find holes in this as well, but it seems to me to be pretty powerful and persuasive stuff. If policy makers need proof that investing in arts learning must be an important component of efforts to ensure our most challenged young people have a chance at success in life and as citizens, they need look no further than this research.

Thanks to Eric Booth for passing this along to me!

Musings on The Barnes

2010-03-17T11:54:00.001-04:00

A few months ago (in October of 2009) I wrote about the Barnes move and included two videos of Tod Williams and Billie Tsien describing the new building on the Parkway. The new movie, The Art of the Steal, which I have now seen, motivates me to share some thoughts on the issue.

One important point of clarification. This was a "done deal" by the time I came to town, and by the time Mayor Nutter took office, so I cannot speak with any knowledge about things that took place before my arrival. What I can share are my reactions to the movie, and my involvement in this debate for the past 18 months.

First, as has been widely reported, the movie is distinctly one-sided. Because it was clear that the filmmakers and producer had a point of view that opposed the move, all the leading players on the other side of the issue - with the exception of Governor Rendell - refused to participate. Nobody viewing the movie should be under the illusion that they are getting a balanced representation of the issues and facts.

A few points to note, responding to some of the points made in the film and related articles and blogs:

If Dr. Barnes's commitment was to education and the use of the collection to educate people about art - especially the underserved - isn't there a great value to being located in a facility that is much more easily accessible to exactly those people the institution was intended to serve? The current Merion location is in a wealthy community and difficult to access by public transportation. I don't think it is a coincidence that I don't believe a single teacher or student interviewed in the film is a person of color - ironic given Barnes' relationship to Lincoln, a historically Black college. and the prominence of Julian Bond and Richard Glanton as interview subjects in the movie.
If Dr. Barnes was committed to the artworks being exhibited in precise orientation to one another, in rooms of specific dimensions, that desire is fulfilled by the new building which maintains the exact same arrangement of art in rooms of the same dimension, with windows and doors in exactly the same locations, and even with view through the windows onto a bucolic landscape being replicated. The prohibition on lending work or removing it other than for conservation, will also be maintained.
Because the intimate dimensions of the rooms will be preserved, there will still need to be limitations on the volume of visitors that can be accommodated per hour, but because the new building will be open many more hours than the Merion site, and because the new temporary exhibition spaces will spread people out through a larger complex, many more people will be able to access the Barnes collection than are now able to.
The new building will create gallery space for temporary exhibitions, which the current building lacks. As Barnes was an avid collector of what was THEN contemporary art, who knows what work he would have continued to collect had he not died so suddenly? How might the work on display changed had he lived another twenty years? Temporary exhibition space will allow for fascinating curatorial exploration of the Barnes collection, mounting of exhibits that might illuminate the context of the man, the art and the times, exhibition of contemporary art that might put help us view the collection in light of artists who are the "Cezannes of today" as the PMA's Cezanne and beyond show did so brilliantly.
The current building and gardens will be maintained as part of the The Barnes Foundation and will be accessible as a horticultural and study center.
There is also information disseminated that seems to imply the City is investing significant funding into the new building. In fact the City is putting no capital money into the project, and has made no commitments to providing operating funding. Once it is operating in the City, the Barnes can apply to the Philadelphia Cultural Fund like any other cultural group. All the City did was make the land available. Trying to place a value on the land were it sold for commercial development is inappropriate, as given the prominence of this site on the Parkway the site would ONLY have been utilized for public benefit.
Yes, the Barnes may need to increase the fundraising needed to program and operate the new facility, and one could argue this does add an additional stress on the funding environment in the arts sector in the City. On the other hand, I do believe a rising tide raises all ships, and the excitement of the new Barnes on the Parkway, I believe will attract more donors to the marketplace, and encourage them to increase their philanthropy rather than dividing up a static pie more thinly.

Would a solution to the problem of limited access at the existing site be the creation of a visitor orientation center on the Parkway that could shuttle visitors to the Merion Barnes and back? Perhaps, if this had been suggested many, many years ago, when plans for the move were first put into place, and such a solution could have garnered support form the funders of the move. But the time is long past for this debate. Ground is broken, the building and landscape is fully designed - which I for one believe is stunning, construction is well underway, and the building is going to open.

Isn't it time to come together and figure out how the legacy of this quirky, ecccentric, brilliant collector, Dr, Albert Barnes, can best be honored and celebrated in the context of the Barnes on the Parkway?

An Arts Event from Another Planet?

2010-03-12T11:33:00.000-05:00

One of the events in Philadelphia that I knew pretty well before arriving here in 2008 was the Arts & Business Council of Greater Philadelphia's annual awards luncheon. I had attended the event several times as the national CEO of the Arts & Business Council Inc., now part of Americans for the Arts. I can personally attest that there is no event like this in the entire country, bringing together so many arts leaders with so many business leaders, celebrating business support for the arts, business voluntarism, and the role the arts play in building a healthy community in which people want to live, work and play. The event attracts as many as 1,700 people. Most other cities - even cities much larger - are lucky if they can get 400 or 500 people at similar events.

The theme this year is "Planet Art" - every such event must have its theme, hence the title of this blog posting. I think this year is a time when perhaps more than ever we need opportunities to come together and celebrate these values. The thing I have always liked about the event is the way it brings together a broad cross-section of the arts sector - all disciplines, all sizes, so many different communities represented; as well as bringing together so many different types of business - small, medium, large. And not just the CEO's but the employees who are serving on boards, volunteering through VLA and BVA, etc.

I think if we want more businesses and business leaders to value the arts we need to recognize and celebrate those businesses and individuals that already get it, and use events like this as a vehicle for shoring up the support we have, and making new friends for the arts.

The Americans for the Arts ARTSblog Private Sector Salon

2010-03-11T12:26:00.000-05:00

The Americans for the Arts ARTSblog is now featuring a Private Sector Salon blogathon featuring contributions from twenty diverse guest bloggers opining on an array of issues related to the private sector and the arts. I am one of those contributors and thought I would share with my followers that this Salon is now going on. I encourage you to visit the Salon and read the many thoughtful and provocative posts. You are also invited to join in the dialogue by posting comments.

Rocco comes to Philly

2010-03-03T18:37:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a jam-packed day, with NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman's whirlwind visit to the City of Brotherly Live and Sisterly Affection. The visit was documented in an article in today's Philadelphia Inquirer. It was great to be cited as "a model arts city." After a morning meeting with the staff of The Reinvestment Fund, Rocco and the rest of the NEA visitors, which also included Deputy Chair Joan Shigekawa, our little band went on a quick tour of the City's cultural sites, but with a special emphasis on the role of the arts in neighborhood transformation. Rocco has been a big fan of the work done by Jeremy Nowak and the Reinvestment Fund in partnership with Mark Stern and his Social Impact of the Arts groip at University of Pennsylvania. In fact that work was funded by The Rockefeller Foundation when Joan was there before moving to NEA. We drove by Painted Bride and had a stop at Asian Arts Initiative before ending up at Crane Arts for a tour and a group conversation with about 25 invited arts and civic leaders. Despite his crazy budget-address-week schedule the Mayor was even able to stop by for a bit, which was a great emblem of the kind of importance he places on the arts and creative industry in the City.

The lively conversation touched on many issues, such as: The role of the City in fostering cultural revitalization of communities. How to avoid the gentrification which so often follows. Whether to invest in communities where there are naturally developing clusters of activity, or focus on neighborhoods where there is a virtual absence arts of activity. How to engage the many areas of local, state and federal budgets that are not arts-specific but should be investing in the arts as part of achieving their goals (transportation, HUD, commerce, etc.). This is something Landesman has been really working on at the national level, and I hear he has been making real headway building dialogue with Cabinet members that should lead to some concrete initiatives.

Then we had more touring - a stop at the site of the future home of Taller Puertoriquenno, a quick visit to Please Touch, and then ending with a stop at the public-private partnership of World Cafe Live with WXPN. Throughout Landesman was truly engaged, attentive and curious. Very impressive! And of course along the entire trip we saw MANY murals and Jane Golden was along to give a little background on each of them. And we learned in the course of conversation that Rocco's grandfather was actually a muralist who emigrated to St. Louis from Europe to paint murals here.

The day ended with a panel discussion put together by University of Pennsylvania at the University Museum. The panel conversation was preceded by a tribute to Peggy Amsterdam by David Thornburgh of the Fels Institute of Government at Penn, and a keyonte address by Rocco. The diverse panel featured the directors of Ballet Austin and the National Council on Traditional Artsl, Mark Stern from Penn, Greg Rowe from Pew, and musician Donald Harrison. The panel was moderated by Nick Spitzer, host and producer of the NPR program "American Routes."

I think a big take-away of the day was that here in Philadelphia people often see the glass as half empty. We are acutely aware of what we are not doing, what we could do better: the neighborhoods that have not yet benefited from having a vital cultural infusion, the usual tug between supporting our cultural jewels and supporting emerging arts, and community-based arts, the challenge of better supporting the entrepreneurial creative community, the need to support the culture of our immigrant populations. (just to name a few...) It is refreshing and gratifying to be reminded that viewed objectively from the outside, we have been doing a lot really well and need to be proud of that. This is what drew me to Philadelphia in the first place. It was great to see that Rocco looks at Philly through the same eyes that I do, and really likes what he sees.

Listening to music does not make you smarter - playing it does

2010-03-03T11:40:00.001-05:00

The LA Times had an interesting article by Melissa Healy in their Health section on March 1 about the impact of music on the brain.It basically repeats recent research that debunks the so-called "Mozart effect" that listening to music somehow strengthens or improves brain function. "The Mozart effect? That's just crap," says Glenn Schellenberg, a psychologist at the University of Toronto who conducts research on the effect of music and musical instruction.

She then goes on to discuss other research that does seem to show that the PRACTICE of music does have a demonstrable effect on the brain. Here is link to an article from the Dana Foundation (a leader in this research) that reports on new research from Boston. This also is in keeping with research on aging that shows the practice of an art form - playing an instrument, learning a dance - increases brain plasticity, delaying or diminishing the deterioration of brain function.A monograph supported by MetLife Foundation can be found here that goes into this area in some depth.

I guess since I don't play an instrument - just listen to music fairly obsessively - I will have to make do with my unimproved brain. Listening to music will help dull the pain of not benefiting from the brain-sharpening effect of playing music.

But it is important to not use the diminished support for the Mozart effect as an excuse to find less value in arts education and arts participation. Arts experiences for all people, young and old (not just the practice of art or music or dance) have a host of other measurable beneficial effects on learning and wellness. To quote the conclusion of the LA Times article:

In the end, music listening may come in a distant second to learning in a brain-building contest. But one thing we know beyond a doubt is that it brings pleasure — and few psychologists scoff at the power of that. It promotes well-being. It enhances attention. It protects against the depredation of age. It can even ease pain. "Music is one of those things out there that people enjoy," says Robert Zatorre, a neuropsychologist at McGill University who researches music's effects. "That's already a lot!"

JumpStart Public Art at IgnitePhilly 4

2010-02-18T18:54:00.000-05:00

I gave this talk at IgnitePhilly4 last October, but I think it only went onto You Tube relatively recently (or at least I just saw it was posted) so I am sharing it. Unfortunately the video includes a minute or two of technical problems with the PowerPoint slides, though it does offer the opportunity to watch my error in mentioning (while I was vamping so they could fix the projector) that I was a New Yorker who grew up a Mets fan - even though I mended my ways after moving to Philly: you will hear loud booing!

It provides a pretty good quick overview of the public art assets of Philadelphia as well of some of the challenges. Quite a challenge speaking for only five minutes with 20 slides auto-advancing every 15 seconds! If you haven't spoken at or attended an Ignite event I highly recommend it!

Keep Arts in Schools

2010-02-12T17:34:00.000-05:00

There has been much attention recently on the growing challenge to arts education programs and funding in our schools, given the current fiscal challenges that we face. Richard Kessler has addressed it in his Arts Journal blog, recently with Jane Remer as a guest blogger, and I have also seen many tweets and blog entries from all around the country about school districts cutting their arts programs in response to the need to manage challenges budgets and focus on the "core" academic areas.

Perhaps it is appropriate then that recently I was interviewed for the Ford Foundation supported Web site "KeepArtsIinSchools.Org," which is part of their Integrating the Arts and Education Reform Initiative. The interview was just posted and can be both read and listened to here. The web site is basically designed to provide tools for arts advocates, for parents, for policy makers. It is a great resource, with lots of useful tools - highly recommended.

It was a great opportunity to talk about support for arts education in Philadelphia, and some of the great programs and efforts we have going on here, from what the School District is doing, to ArtsRising. I also spoke about how best to make the arts education case to policy decision-makers.

We need to be more effective and vigilant than ever in today's challenging municipal, state and federal budget climate, about making the case for arts education, not as a frill, but as an essential component of how we build engaged citizens, and a 21st Century workforce.

The Cloud Culture Equation

2010-02-03T17:18:00.000-05:00

There is a fascinating post on Edge, the Web site of the Edge Foundation. I found my way to them through a tweet about an article they published by Charles Leadbeater on the impact cloud computing will have on creativity. I know Leadbeater's work from my time in Private Sector affairs at Americans for the Arts, and before that the national Arts & Business Council. He is an internationally renowned expert on creativity and innovation. First off, I have to say, I was fascinated by Edge itself, a dense collection of provocative content from a global array of great minds; also quirky, eccentric, ideosycratic. It has been around since 1988, on the web since 1997 - how could I have missed it? Glad I stumbled onto it - it is now bookmarked!

He analyzes the growing emergence of "cloud computing" - computing where the information is stored remotely and everyone can access their data from anywhere, using an array of different platforms - and provides a useful metaphor - dividing up the different types of digital clouds, just as we classify different varieties of natural clouds.

He then looks at the issue of creativity and how it will be impacted by the trend. He says:

Culture is our ever-evolving store of images, texts and ideas through which we make sense and add meaning to our world. Our culture, in the broadest sense, helps us to frame and shape our identity, to say who we are, where and when we come from. Culture is not something we choose but find ourselves belonging to; it shapes what matters to us, and how we see the world. A culture that is alive is never entirely closed. As culture is vital to what matters to us and explaining who we are, so giving other people access to what we count as our culture is a vital way for us to understand one another, what we share and what makes us special.

If culture provides much of our sense of identity, then creativity helps to give us our sense of agency: who we want to be, what mark we want to leave. Culture gives us roots; creativity a sense of growth and possibility. Creativity gives us a way to add to and remake our cultural stock: it allows us to escape being entirely defined by our traditions.

I was totally entranced by these two paragraphs, so clearly delineating a definition of two words - "culture" and "creativity" that we tend to toss off without thought about their distinctions and relationship.

He then posits that the vast increase in access to the raw material of creation - images, text, video, information - combined with vastly enhanced access to whatever is created, combined with the huge growth in the "pro-am" movement and increased interest in participation in creation, not just passive consumption of art, will result in an explosion of creativity. Here is his equation:

The Cloud Culture Equation

More cultural heritage stored in digital form.
+
More accessible to more people.
+
People better equipped with more tools to add creatively to the collection.
=
Exponential growth in mass cultural expression
=
Cloud Culture.

Cloud computing will be like a giant machine for making clouds of culture.
But all is not sunny on the horizon. He then goes on to explain the dark lining in this cloud (or maybe I should have said "storm clouds are gathering" - too many temptations in the cloud metapor!):

Cloud culture should be a rare and delicate mix: more decentralised, plural and collaborative; less hierarchical, proprietary and money driven; the boundaries between amateur and professional, consumer and producer, grassroots and mainstream are breached, if not erased. Open source software communities and collaborative science, based on shared data sources and open access journals, point the way for what will be possible in other areas.

Yet for all its promise that is no more than a possibility. Indeed the emergence of this new communication based power, vested in forms of mass collaboration in civil society, is already provoking a fierce struggle, as governments and companies, try to wrest control over the cloud away from citizens.

He identifies several threats to the :utopian" vision of cloud culture: totalarian regimes, as suggested above, that can use the cloud to retain their control over culture and power; copyright owners, who prevent free and open use of content for too long a period of time (though he is not advocating blanket elimination of copyright protection), and finally, the threat of the new media commercial interests (Google, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) who will try to control the cloud for their own profit, not public benefit. Again, he is not vilifying these interests, just cautioning that we need to be vigilant to ensure that the true potential of the cloud culture for a new kind of global, cross-cultural creativity revolution. I end with Leadbeater's closing words:

However there is still untold potential for us to enrich our own cultures, understand one another's cultures more fully and to enjoy greater freedom of cultural expression. That possibility, a new kind of global cultural commons, will only be kept open if we resist the threats to it from governments and companies, new and old, seeking to control cloud culture for their own ends. The new kinds of cultural relations the web seems to offer will only come about through thousands of struggles as citizens try to hold onto the possibility that at last it could be our culture not someone else's.

A Busy Morning! - PIFA and How Philly Moves

2010-02-02T15:13:00.000-05:00

Two big announcements this morning:

Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA) - launched with an extraordinary $10 million gift from the late Leonore Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation, this festival will take place April 7 through May 1, 2011. It will involve innovative collaborations among scores of Philadelphia's arts organizations and artists, as well as international artists and arts organizations. The theme will be "Paris 1910-1920," drawing parallels between the artistic ferment that took place in the early 20th Century in Paris, and the artistic energy that is now flowing in Philadelphia. The programming principles will be: Collaboration, Creativity and Innovation. Programming details to be announced in early April, but there were some "teasers" - a first-ever collaboration between the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Pennsylvania Ballet, the Roots in performance with "a French chanteusse," and circus artists performing in the grand airy space of the Kimmel Center, as well as outside. To demonstrate the sort of "mash-ups" that will be encouraged, there was a performance by members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, accompanied by two prominent local DJs.

How Philly Moves - is a major new 50,000 sf mural project announced today at City Hall. This project - which will cover a roughly half-mile stretch of parking garage at the Philadelphia Airport - is an initiative of the Mural Arts Program and the artist is photographer JJ Tiziou. Tiziou is photographing a wide array of dancers in Philadelphia in action, and these photographs will then form the basis of the mural, which will be executed by 35 artists and individuals in Mural Arts' workforce and re-entry programs. Kudos to Rina Cutler, Deputy Mayor for Transportation and Utilities for initiating this project and supporting it, and thanks as well to the Airport and the Parking Authority, as well as the other sponsors Bank of America and US Airways. Of course, congrats to the Mural Arts staff and Jane Golden, who seem to never sleep they have so much going on!

NEA Mayors' Institute on City Design - 25th Anniversary Initiative

2010-01-25T18:56:00.000-05:00

The NEA has operated the Mayor's Institute on City Design since 1986. This year they are celebrating the program's 25th anniversary (which is actually next year but they wanted to fund projects that happen during the anniversary year) with a new grant program. The program has the snappy but literal title of "25th Anniversary Initiative."

What is great about this initiative is that is open to the cities where a mayor has participated in the Mayors' Institute, at any time over the 25 years. This opens it up to several hundred cities. The guidelines are also very flexible, and could be used to support a wide array of design projects, from planning of arts districts, to promotion of design and the arts as central to a city's livability, to transformation of public sites through cultural activities, to festivals and public art.Grants will range from $25,000-250,000.

And to all those individual arts groups getting excited about this grant program, the applicant must be the City or its designated agency. In effect, only one application per eligible City, that must come from the City itself. We are already brainstorming internally on what we might focus on here in Philadelphia - so many great ideas!

And a special treat for Philadelphia is the fact that right in the front of the guidelines is a quote from our own Jeremy Nowak, President of The Reinvestment Fund, which has been doing so much groundbreaking work on the role of the arts in building community and economic vitality (See "Creativity and Neighborhood Development: Strategies for Community Investment," a collaboration between TRF and Penn's Social Impact of the Arts project, another great asset in this area.)

National Arts Index 2009 - What does it mean for us?

2010-01-21T16:57:00.001-05:00

Yesterday morning Americans for the Arts issued the "National Arts Index 2009," a research project over four years in the making. In it's own words it is designed to be "an annual measure of the vitality of arts and culture in the United States." It takes 76 national-level indicators and consolidates them into an index of the cultural health of the country. 2003 was set as the benchmark year at 100, and the survey covers a ten year period from 1998-2008. The plan is to now update it every year.

The study is motivated by the desire to have a reliable national measure of our culture sector, one that goes beyond just measuring economic impact or attendance figures, but gets at the nuances that go into cultural participation and vitality.

What has already gotten a lot of pick-up in the news media is the "sound bite" version of the study: The 2008 index score is 98.4, a 4.2 point decline from its 2007 score, and down significantly from its high point of 105.5 in 1999. The other broad stroke finding is that demand for the arts increasingly lags supply. Between 1998 and 2008 the number of artists, non-profit arts organizations and arts-related employment steadily grew, while attendance and funding delined.

But embedded in the guts of the 136 page report are lots of findings that deserve attention as well. Arts participation is actally slowly but steadily growing. What is declining is attendance at "mainstream" arts organizations, while at the same time personal creation of art is growing, and the number of community-based and culturally-specific arts groups is growing faster than the rate of the growth in the minority population and faster than the growth of nonprofit arts groups in general (AND, they are actually somewhat healthier financially, contrary to stereotype). Attendance at live popular music is stable - not declining, but not rising. Demand for arts education is also up significantly. The non-profit arts model is struggling, with nonprofit arts organizations steadily - and dramatically - losing market share to other causes; that index has declined from a high of 119.3 in 1999 to 98.9 in 2007. The drop-off in market share for the arts in corporate giving is especially dramatic, from 2.53 in 1999 to .85 in 2007. It is certainly even lower now.

Some statistics that feed into the Index show dramatic (if unsurprising) changes. CD and record store sales have essentially fallen off a cliff, dropping by 50% in the past 5 years. The index for "creative industry" businesses, covering a wide array of types of creative businesses, have grown dramatically, increasing from an index of 1.00 in 2003 to 1.25 in 2008. The number of people with visual and performing arts degrees has grown dramatically, in effect following or feeding the comparable dramatic growth in numbers of nonprofit arts organizations that presumably are employing many of them.

As Arthur Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute said at the press conference where the study was released, the study can be an important policy tool if we are open to the implications. We have adopted an attitude in the arts and funding community that it is a tragedy when an arts group dies. As a result we have frankly artificially kept alive too many arts group for both audience demad and funding capacity. This also makes it difficult for new artist-entrepreneurs that want to enter the market. We need to make it easier to "die with dignity," to create a culture that treats arts groups like restuarants - they come and go, shifting with public taste, quality of product, demographic changes, etc. Put the public still is being served their art, even if their "server" may change over time. We also need to meake it easier for artists to come together, make work for a period of time and disband or move on, without having to form an "institution." We need to figure out how to support and foster not just nonprofit arts and culture organizations, but also new forms of art creation and distribution and art that happens in the for profit realm - digital music, live music clubs, video production, etc. We need to figure out how to better support and celebrate personal practice in the arts - singing, playing music, writing, painting and other forms of visual art creation, faith-based arts, etc.

Also curious about some measures that may or not be in the study. Did it look at digital downloads and file sharing as a measure of cultural participation? NetFlix rentals? Participation in church choirs? Even though live popular music particopation seems flat, I wonder how it breaks down by type of venue - are large arenas slipping while smaller, more intimate clubs are rising? Even though there is a growth in NUMBER of community-based culturallly-specific organizations, is there a growth in attendance/particiopation at these organizations, and is that participation now "lumped in" with the other measures of participation? If so, if you take them out of the measure of nonprofit arts participation, are the numbers in fact even worse?

This long list of what we "need" to do, does not fit easily with our existing systems. Does it change the priority decisions that Americans for the Arts makes on what to advocate for? For example, do we need to put as much energy into fostering a focus in Commerce and SBA on creative businesses, and/or on digital copyright issues, as now goes into advocating for more NEA $? What do we do at the local level? What about grant programs that won't or can't support for-profit arts businesses or non-professional activity. Are we focussing enough on the organizations that serve communities of color?

Somehow the story has to be made into a story of opportunity. Demand for the arts is not necessarily oustripping supply. Demand for the type of art our systems have been focussing on delivering in the way we have been delivering it seems to be slipping, even as the supply of these offerings have risen. People still very much want art to be a part of their lives. It is a critical part of the life of our growing immigrant populations, despite budget challenges it is an increasibly important part of the educational experience. Frankly, even with "traditional" arts groups, sales are actually flat or even up this year for most groups, according to what I am hearing, despite the difficult economy (though price per ticket may be down because people are seeking out cheaper tickets or free events). And there is growing research that shows people consider the arts critical in making choices about where they want to live or visit as leisure travellers.

I think the National Arts Index can be a rich opportunity to engage in a critically important dialogue, and I look forward to Randy Cohen from Americans for the Arts, who oversaw this research, coming to Philadelphia to break down the data and start the conversation going locally.

Interesting article in Next American City - can we be "cultural locavores"

2010-01-15T18:10:00.000-05:00

This Web article from Next American City - Next American City » Daily Report » The Revolution Will be Locally Funded - proposes that there is an arts counterpart to the "locavore" movement. “Could we take the tactics from sustainable food production and apply that to art production?” asks Jeff Hnilicka, cofounder of the Brooklyn organization FEAST, short for Funding Emerging Art with Sustainable Tactics.

I think between organizations like InLiquid and events like IgnitePhilly, and the Philly Fringe Festival there is definitely a movement here in Philly that is very place-based and about making, supporting and promoting local art and creative endeavors. Yet, at the same time there is the struggle to support these enterprises in the face of other competitive pressures. How to deal with art collectors who might dabble a bit buying local art but go to NY galleries and Art Basel to buy their "real" art? What about artists who are nurtured in Philly but as soon as they are able to get NY gallery/dealer representation abandon their local roots? And what about galleries that represent ONLY local artists and don't give Philadelphians a chance to experience artists from around the world, and collectors the opportunity to not HAVE to go to NY to buy work by artists of international stature? And the Fringe Festival now has the companion Live Arts Festival that brings in artists from around the country and the globe (as well as also highlighting some of our most innovative local artists such as Pig Iron Theatre. Is that evolution an abandonment of the local commitment or an exciting expansion that allows our local artists and audiences to experience an infusion of new art and energy?

A lot of questions and no answers but I think this dialogue, this balancing of a commitment to local art and artists while striving to be a world-class cultural center, is a conversation at the heart of where Philadelphia and its arts and creative economy scene are now.

Soul of the Community Report from Knight Foundation

2010-01-12T14:42:00.000-05:00

A very interesting report called Soul of the Community was issued late in 2009 by the Gallup Poll and the Knight Foundation. It can be found at http://www.soulofthecommunity.org.

The study seeks to answer three key questions:

What makes a community a desirable place to live?
What draws people to stake their future in it?
Are communities with more attached residents better off?

The study was launched in 2008, and 28,000 people have been interviewed in 26 communities over two years (including Philadelphia – the five county region). One more year will be included in the study with a final report being issued in 2010. The study found that three main qualities bind people to place:

Special offerings such as entertainment and cultural venues that serve as places to meet – the top factor in 21 of the 26 communities.
Openness – how welcoming a place is to different types of people.
The area’s aesthetics – it’s physical beauty and green spaces

Access to quality education (at all levels, K-12 and higher ed) was also an important factor.

These top three qualities remained consistent over the two year period. Economy eclipsed crime as the top concern in 2008, but neither of these factors was primary in driving the emotional attachment citizens have to their towns and cities. The study also looked at the connection between how passionate and loyal people are to their communities and economic growth. Researchers found a significant connection between the two - the most attached communities had the highest local GDP growth. With other research Gallup has already shown that at the micro level increased employee emotional connection to a company leads directly to improved financial performance of that company. The same holds true for cities.

I think this research can serve as a persuasive new public policy tool in helping decision-makers understand the role that arts and culture play in a community, including open space and parks, architecture and the built environment. Arts groups play a critical role in providing the connective tissue of a community, creating places where people can come together and share communal experiences. The "openness" finding is also in keeping with Richard Florida's correlation between how welcoming a community is to the LGBT community and how successful it is at attracting and retaining creative workers.

Locally, Philadelphia’s aesthetics are seen as a community strength. However resident perceptions of social offerings and openness both showed need for improvement. This is what has in part been driving Knight’s investments in Philadelphia, such as the Benjamin Franklin Parkway improvements to make it into a more pedestrian friendly cultural destination, and investments in making the community more welcoming to local college graduates. The overall community attachment index, even with these weaknesses, was higher than the comparison group of comparably sized cities.

The less than stellar performance in perception of social offerings surprised me, and indicates we have some work to do getting Philadelphia's citizens to recognize the assets available in their community and to take advantage of them. The poor openness showing was less surprising, in that Philadelphia is notoriously insular, a City of neighborhoods filled with families who go back many generations in the City. However - speaking as a relatively new arrival - this is clearly changing. I have found the city to be warmly welcoming. So I think here as well perceptions have not kept pace with reality. The self-image Philadelphians have of their own city tends to be considerably more negative than reality. This was verified in the recent Travel + Leisure magazine poll on American cities, in which Philadelphia was ranked much more highly by visitors than it was by residents.

A Tribute to Peggy Amsterdam

2010-01-04T18:27:00.000-05:00

Last week we lost a great human being, a great local and national arts leader, a great Philadelphia region civic leader. It has made celebrating the holidays and looking forward to the new year a challenge for so many of us.

I cannot claim to have been close personal friends of Peggy's, and after her extraordinarily beautiful memorial service, I especially know that is my loss. But I was a professional colleague and acquaintance of hers for many years, and clearly the nature of my job and hers were intimately intertwined. She was in many ways my professional partner, with the work of the Cultural Alliance complementing and enhancing the work of the City's Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy. A municipal agency cannot really engage in the sort of aggressive advocacy and political action that the Cultural Alliance under Peggy's leadership excelled at. And as many know, Peggy and her team tirelessly fought for the re-opening of the Office after it was closed several years ago in a previous administration.

I probably first got to know Peggy when she was directing Delaware's state arts agency. I was a program director for the New York State Council on the Arts in the late 80's and early 90's and stayed very much connected to the state arts agency world, and later when running the national Arts & Business Council, I was a frequent attender and speaker at the National Assembly of State Arts Agency conferences.

When Arts & Business Council launched the National Arts Marketing Project in the late 90's, the Cultural Alliance - more than any other local arts entity in the nation - took the learnings of this program and transformed them into nationally-recognized and transformative initiatives: the FunGuide, Engage 2020, research. This was not just Peggy, this was also her strong staff, especially Tom Kaiden, but Peggy gave Tom the freedom to innovate, said yes to the right initiatives, and made the money materialize to turn ideas into reality. That's leadership.

When Arts & Business Council merged with Americans for the Arts in 2005 I began to work much more closely with local arts agencies, including Peggy and the Cultural Alliance. And then in the summer of 2008 Americans for the Arts held its annual convention here in Philadelphia, once again offering the opportunity for me to work closely with Peggy, who (once again with her crack team) pulled off one of the most successful conventions ever.

And of course, when I decided to come to Philadelphia to head the newly reopened Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, Peggy was right there to welcome me, advise me, encourage me. She made me feel at home right away. She helped organize a beautiful welcoming reception. With acuity and tact (and humor) she shared perceptions of people, issues, neighborhoods, skeletons in closets, etc.

Since last October, we have consulted with each other on an almost daily basis. I have served on her board, and she has served on the Mayor's Cultural Advisory Council. We have fought the battles of the arts tax and the Plan C "doomsday" budget together; we collaborated on a successful NEA stimulus grant program. And we BOTH served representing Philadelphia on the US Urban Arts Federation. When I attended the 2008 Cultural Alliance annual meeting I was blown away by the attendance of 700 arts leaders - I don't think any other local arts agency in the nation gets a turnout anywhere near this for their annual meeting. It is a visible sign of the community Peggy has helped build here.

She became for me a professional partner, a guide to the ins and outs of Phialdelphia, allowing me to make many fewer "newbie" mistakes than I otherwise would have, both most importantly she became a friend. And like those who knew her longer and more deeply than I did, I suspect over the years we will now not be able to share together, she would have become a deep, lifelong friend, the kind you can truly rely on to be there for you, because that is just the kind of person she was. Losing that opportunity is painful, but I am grateful I have had this past year and a half to work so closely with her.

I think the best tribute we can offer to Peggy would be to successfully create a dedicated regional revenue stream for the arts, a cause she fought for virtually her entire time in Philadelphia. Let's assign ourselves this task, and think of it as building a monument, not the traditional public sculpture (of which we have so many) - but a monument that will ensure the continued growth and survival of our extraordinary regional cultural sector. Now THAT'S a monument Peggy would be proud of - The Amsterdam Fund - I like the sound of it...