Today, we're focusing on the arts economy in Philly, because the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance is debuting a new report that shows cultural organizations and their audiences spend an estimated -- gulp -- $1.3 billion each year, mostly locally.
This is part of the Philadelphia cultural commuity's well-planned effort to catch the attention of City Hall, as represented by the next guy to run it. Arts groups would like to see an Office of Arts and Culture restored to Philly goverment, and a whole lot more attention paid to their efforts generally. Both major party candidates will attend a cultural alliance event tonight to pay their respects.
Now, all economic impact reports must be taken with a grain of salt. But I think the effort to increase the attention paid to Philly's arts community is a very important one, and not just because of the big numbers that will be flashed today. (Here's another: The arts return $158 million in taxes to the local economy.)
Fact is, Philly has something that very few places have: An arts scene that is big, exciting, non-exclusive and growing organically. Philadelphia can call itself home to both the Opera Company of Philadelphia and Space 1026. I can get tickets to the ballet that are cheap enough to take my daughter, who also enjoys making pottery with the Moore College gals when they come out for the annual FunDay on the Parkway. The live music scene is getting national attention, but I can still see the shows without mortgaging my house. I can wander through the Philadelphia Museum of Art when I feel a need to be overwhelmed, and yet a friend just drew caricatures in support of cruelty-free eating as part of the "Veggie Cabaret" in Philly Fringe.
I have lived other places, and they aren't like this. Charlotte, N.C. and San Jose, Calif. would hand over a headquarters or two to have just a taste of the arts offerings that we have here.
This is one thing that Philly does incredibly well, and City Hall should be in the business of encouraging the parts of our city that work.
Oh, is that argument too philosophical? How about this: Our arts scene gets us attention for the right reasons, in the right places.
Such as Paper magazine, which wrote us up in April. They said:
"...the Philadelphia art scene is booming. Everyone I met was in some sort of art collective (or two) and wearing cool, over-sized plastic glasses. Every artist/gallery person I met seemed unironically excited about making really cool and interesting art. There were hardly any jaded eye-rolls, and not a lot of too-cool-for-school-ness that I associate with the New York art scene. Everyone seemed to be rooting for everyone else. It was very heartening."And so on, for many paragraphs and not as many comparisons to New York as I feared (though there were still plenty).
Now, we can talk about exactly what it is that City Hall could or should do for the arts. There are some easy ideas -- loan funds? tax breaks? -- and maybe they are important. But the most significant thing the city could do is simply prioritize and advertise its arts scene. Why is the Youth Study Center still sitting in the middle of the Parkway? Why aren't the arts used as a draw for economic development? (Lincoln Financial's CEO told me once that the arts scene was a major draw to the group that chose Philly for the company's new headquarters.)
I don't want to imply that all the members of the current administration are tone-deaf on the importance of art, because I know that's not true. But I also know that the arts are not front and center in the civic conversation of this city, and that's a missed opportunity, for the city's coffers and the city's souls.
Comments (4)
I loved the post! really enjoyed it, If you need a hand with your SEO just let me know
Posted by cheap search engine optimization | November 13, 2011 8:18 AM
Great post really enjoyed it mate :) If you ever need some help with SEO let me know
Posted by using duplicate content | November 23, 2011 11:56 AM
I loved the post! really enjoyed it, If you need a hand with your SEO just let me know
Posted by lil wyane new song | November 27, 2011 10:48 AM
I loved the post! really enjoyed it, If you need a hand with your SEO just let me know
Posted by lil wyane new song | November 27, 2011 1:18 PM