The Philadelphia Daily News
Julie Shaw
Friday, March 9, 2007

A study released today on Philadelphia's arts sector says that the scene here is thriving but that civic leaders could do more to help sustain and promote arts and culture in the city.

The RAND Corp. study, conducted at the request of the William Penn Foundation and the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, focused on this city in its recommendations, but also examined 10 similar cities to see how they support the arts.

" Philadelphia has a lot of things going for it," but "it's not stressing the arts, history and culture" as much as it could, Kevin McCarthy, a senior social scientist at RAND Education, who co-authored the report, said yesterday.

One of the report's recommendations is for Philadelphia to more closely integrate its arts and culture with its economic-development and neighborhood-revitalization projects, McCarthy said.

The report also recommended that Philadelphia's next mayor consider reopening the city's Office of Arts and Culture, which Mayor Street closed in 2004.

McCarthy cited Chicago, Denver and Boston, three other places examined, as cities that do a good job of integrating the arts into their overall vision.

Peggy Amsterdam, president of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, said the RAND report serves as "a call to action" for government, the corporate sector, nonprofit groups and the arts community to work more collaboratively.

City Commerce Director Stephanie Naidoff, who serves as the arts-and-culture point person in the mayor's Cabinet, said yesterday that the administration has made the arts a priority.

Street, in bringing her in and upgrading the post to Cabinet level, told her that "our economy is changing, and one of the changes is arts and culture - it's what makes Philadelphia a great city," said Naidoff, founding president of the Kimmel Center.

Street closed the Office of Arts and Culture, she said, because "he didn't really believe it was effective."

Although Philadelphia has many arts offerings, the RAND report said, it faces various threats to sustainability including the city's ability to keep college-educated adults here, a fragmented arts-community leadership and financial pressures.

"The most frequently cited weakness was the uneven distribution of resources among arts organizations," the report said. "Specifically, the large, major arts organizations, particularly those in Center City, receive the vast majority of resources."

Naidoff said the city has looked to help small- and mid-sized arts groups thrive, and even survive. One example is a new $5 million City-wide Capital Grants Fund designed to support organizations' capital projects. The mayor announced the opening of the application process earlier this week (see www.phila.gov/capitalgrantsfund).

The source of the fund is the $150 million bond issue approved by City Council in November, about half of which is slated for cultural groups.

The authors of the RAND study, "Arts and Culture in the Metropolis: Strategies for Sustainability," interviewed 37 people in Philadelphia associated with arts, educational, nonprofit and news organizations.

(c) Copyright 2007, The Philadelphia Daily News. All Rights Reserved.

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