No, not Artemis Ward, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli* , "Arts" refers to arts and culture.
I just got around to opening my copy of the Arts and Culture Advocate, newsletter of the Greater Philadelphia Culture Alliance. It's been sitting on my desk for a few days and the pile finally shrunk down enough so that I could get to it. On page 5, they have an entire section devoted to providing arts enthusiasts with a number of hard hitting questions for the candidates in the event that they have a chance to question the candidates at a forum, a fundraiser, or in line at Starbucks.
Rather than re-type the questions here, I refer you to this handy flyer that GPCA has prepared in an effort to get arts and cultural issues a fair amount of play during the campaign.
So far, their strategy seems to be working since two of the candidate (Brady and Fattah) have already released their own plans for building and supporting arts and cultural institutions. Dwight Evans touched on the performing arts a little while ago with his idea (shared by this blogger) to make Philadelphia into "the Hollywood of the East."
It's unfortunate that neither Brady's nor Fattah's plan has even a whiff of the ambition and vision that more progressive mayors with a better idea of how to lead a regional economy have used to support the arts. Denver, for example, got together with the other counties in its region to establish the Scientific and Culture Facilities District funded by a regionwide .01% sales tax paid by everyone in the region. This tax creates a dedicated funding stream that is then redistributed to arts and cultural institutions throughout the entire region.
I have no idea how much money a similar plan would generate in this region. but I do know one thing - the way intraregional relations are now, there's about as much chance of such a thing passing as there is for the Phillies to win at least 20 games in April. Then again... real leaders can make the impossible, possible.
*Two Fonzie references in one day? Must be a Friday.