A chance to raise your voices for arts and culture

June 17, 2008
Chris Satullo
Inquirer columnist

When you ask people in this region what they like about living around here, one common response stands out: There's such a wealth of things to do.

For some, sports are at the heart of that, or recreation. But for many, it's concerts, festivals, plays, museums, historic sites, parks, libraries and much more. It's a cornucopia called arts and culture.

The phrase brings to mind the tap of the maestro's baton at Verizon Hall or the eager burble of opening night at People's Light.

But it can also mean a brassy Sousa march on a summer night at the township park or the excited cries of third-graders just back from dance class at the arts center.

In Philadelphia, the true cradle of liberty, it also means history, the wonderful, world-changing stories embedded in our bricks and singing from our trees.

Around here, arts and culture form a big and varied canvas. That's one reason about 1,400 arts advocates are hitting town this week for the Americans for the Arts convention.

And that's why Great Expectations, the civic project of The Inquirer and the Penn Project for Civic Engagement, has launched a new regional dialogue about the future of arts and culture called the Big Canvas.

What's to talk about? What's the problem?

Well, inside this bustling picture, all is not well. Even citizens who rave about all the things to do say that ticket prices can be high. Many fret that arts education is dwindling for the region's youth.

Inside the arts-and-culture sector, heavy strains are felt. Many of the institutions that preserve and present the region's arts, culture and history are cash-poor. They struggle to survive from year to year. Energy that should go toward creating art or building community goes to the dollar chase.

A 2006 study by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance found that nearly half of the region's cultural organizations operate at a deficit. The slice of local government aid the sector gets is very small, about 3 percent of revenue.

For 20 years, the region has talked about a strategy to preserve and enhance arts and culture. Many American cities have one, including St. Louis, Denver, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Each has a regional fund that supports the arts.

But a bid to create a regional culture fund here ran off the rails in the mid-'90s. The Cultural Alliance has begun to build a case to revive the effort, issuing a series of studies on the arts-and-culture sector's breadth, its economic pop and its weak finances.

Until now, though, the dialogue has been mostly among true believers.

The Big Canvas seeks to expand the conversation. It will ask you, the region's citizens and taxpayers, what you think. How do you use the region's arts-and-culture assets? How do you value them? What problems or threats do you perceive? What steps would you favor to preserve and enhance local cultural assets? What would you be willing to pay?

That dialogue will begin with a round of forums in July. A second round in the fall will clarify the strategic options. The project will conclude with a Big Canvas Confab in November, bringing together cultural leaders, citizens and the elected officials who'd have to take key steps to put any strategy in place.

Why do this now, with gas at $4-plus a gallon and foreclosure signs sprouting on lawns? Doesn't culture seem like a frill at such a time?

Here's how Peggy Amsterdam, president of the Cultural Alliance, replies: "People say, 'Sewers need help. SEPTA needs help. The schools need help.' And, it's true, they do. But culture is as big a part of the fabric of this community, of what makes it special, as those things are."

Citizens of this region will dip into their pockets to further a public good; witness the open-space funds begun in three suburban counties. But citizens support such initiatives only when it's clear how what's being done with their tax dollars supports their values and well-being.

Figuring out whether and how such a case can be made when it comes to culture is the task of the Big Canvas.

Help us paint the Big Canvas well. The more voices that are heard, the stronger the end result. Information on how to sign up for a forum is in the accompanying box.

Hope to see you there. You can register to attend by visiting The Big Canvas page.