One of The Next Mayor's first supporters was the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. When we were just getting started, they heard our ideas and brainstormed with us.
Which is to say two things: 1) The creative community in Philadelphia is supportive of new ideas, even when they are barely half-baked, and
2) The creative community in Philadelphia is extremely politically aware. Or, at least, the associations formed to protect it, including the Cultural Alliance, are. They've been thinking about this mayor's race for years.
That's why the Alliance has commissioned a new report (read the report here, listen to WHYY's coverage here and read the Daily News coverge of it here) on the health of the city's cultural community. This report is mixed, at best. Sure, we have a deep, sophisticated cultural base -- but, the report points out clearly, there is poor coordination of the city's cultural goals with its other goals, including economic development and even fighting crime.
Other cities do a far better job of aligning arts goals with the city's other goals, with more corporate support for the arts (in places like Charlotte) and more voice in city hall (in places like Chicago.)
It's important to note here that the report isn't just talking about funding (though arts groups are always, on some level, worried about funding.) It's more subtle than that -- it's talking about allowing arts to have a voice when big decisions about the city's future -- it's about schools and arts education, even development and the one percent for art program, are being made.
Anyway. In what can only be a response to the RAND Corp. report, both Fattah and Brady are scheduled to release arts policy announcements today.
We'll see if their suggestions answer some of the concerns of the report -- and of the arts community as a whole in Philadelphia.