The Citizens Agenda on Arts and Culture

At Great Expectations forums, the first thing most citizens said they love about this region is its wealth of things to do. That includes recreation, team sports and restaurants. At its core, though, this asset is about arts and culture – about concerts, plays, museums, zoos, libraries and historic sites.

When New York philanthropists decide to shower millions of dollars on Philadelphia’s arts and cultural scene, you know the city’s $1.3 billion arts and culture sector has gained national and world notice.

But embedded in that vote of confidence is a challenge.

To paraphrase famous words from Ben Franklin: We have an arts and culture Mecca … if we can keep it.

Even some marquee institutions in the region struggle to meet everyday budget and capital needs. For the smaller arts organizations that add such depth, breadth and soul to the cultural scene, money is a constant struggle. More than half operate in the red.

A recent Rand Corp. study found that local foundation support for the arts is strong. But corporate and government support is, to put it diplomatically, not robust.  That situation hampers the city’s quest to become known as a world-class, 24-hour destination. And it undermines the role that the region’s cultural organizations, large and small, play in educating youth, healing communities, and lifting up Philadelphia’s soul.

When you love something, when it brings you insight, meaning and laughter, you take care of it. This region’s citizens love its arts and culture. It’s time to take care of what we love.

Here’s how:

The No. 1 Priority

Go for the blockbuster: A regional fund.

Why it matters: A stable source of funding for theaters, museums and the Philadelphia Zoo etc. would be the gift that keeps on giving. It would provide the base-level public support that’s been missing. As in other regions that have taken this step – Pittsburgh among them – a regional fund could solidify world-class institutions while raising the curtain for arts groups of all shapes and sizes.

What to do: Capitalize on Mayor Michael Nutter’s effort to make friends in the region. When he and other leaders look for an issue to rally around, arts and culture could be the feel-good cause to spur a try at regional cooperation. Make the case for the fund while soliciting public input. Citizen feedback should be sought to clarify what sectors should be included in a fund – libraries? historic sites? parks? – to achieve sufficient public buy-in.

Near-term actions

Office hours: Revive the city’s Office of Arts and Culture, to serve as: a spearhead for promoting Philadelphia’s cultural “brand”; a clearinghouse for information; a coordinator of projects; an advocate with other city departments; and a distributor of city arts funding. That fund should be increased. Nutter has promised to boost arts-office funding to $6 million a year in his first term.

Show in the Barnes: Now that the city juvenile detention center is slated to receive a new home,  its old site on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway is now available for a new  Barnes Foundation gallery. Get it built, built well and in a way that preserves the Barnes style of showing art.

One-stop shopping: Expand upon a good start in offering joint ticket centers for venues in the city. Use both the Web and several well-located centers (the Kimmel Center lobby?) to make it easier for visitors to sample what’s on offer. Experiment more with combined tickets so that patrons get to experience different attractions, large and small.

More free stuff: Free concerts or free admission days, say, among Parkway institutions could introduce cultural assets to wider audiences, create excitement, and build the case for a regional fund.

Long-term efforts

Feed young minds: Restore arts and music education in the Philadelphia schools to its former glory. These students are the artists and audience of the future. For starters, the district needs to do better at taking advantage of local arts institutions for field trips.
Explore mentorship programs where students at the region’s many fine arts and performing arts schools would visit local K-12 schools.

KidsPass: Build upon revived arts education by creating a regional pass that enables young people to get free or discounted admission to a host of cultural venues. Price it to sell to middle-class parents, then use resources from a regional arts fund to offer it for free or at a means-tested discount to less fortunate children.

$60 million: That, by the way, is arts groups’ working estimate of how big a healthy regional cultural fund would need to be eventually. That would require a mix of taxpayer and corporate sources. Begin building support by asking the region’s citizens to help shape the proposal. Don’t forget that the suburbs have arts riches in need of protection, too.

Champs Elysees West: Improve the Benjamin Franklin Parkway as a cultural district. Follow through on the ideas for a livelier, pedestrian-friendly Parkway proposed by the Central Philadelphia Development Corp. and other stakeholders.

Speak, volumes: Fund the expansion of the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia. This is the people’s Taj Mahal of culture, and the inspired design for its expansion by “starchitect” Moshe Safdie should be a top public-funding priority.

Ideas from citizen forums

Respect the legacy: Do more to promote and preserve African Americans’ rich cultural heritage in this region. At forums, citizens decried the lack of attention to places such as the homes of John Coltrane and Marian Anderson.

The Dell computes: Revive and stabilize summer programming at Robin Hood Dell.

House of ushers: Create a job/mentoring program in which urban youth are trained to be ushers and do other jobs at the city’s major arts venues.

May-December matches: Pair arts-savvy older citizens up as “arts buddies” with students. Each generation would introduce the other to its favorite music, poetry, dance, films, etc.

The history alliance: Do for Philadelphia’s many historic houses and sites what the Theatre Alliance of Philadelphia does for theater groups: idea exchanges, service sharing, joint promotion and grant writing.

(Ilustration by Tim Ogline)