Cultural Alliance Mourns Passing of President, Peggy Amsterdam

It was with extreme sorrow that I read of Peggy's passing. She was such a positive force in the Arts Community and her inspiration was felt by everyone who had the good fortune to meet and speak with her.

My heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with her family.

She will be sorely missed.

Peggy Amsterdam was a HUGE person inside a small frame. She had the unique vision, strength, and vitality to take hold of a sleepy little organization and turn it into a national model for advocacy, policy creation and advancement, cultural arts research and public impact. I feel fortunate to have spent off-hours time with her, to have shared in her open-hearted generosity, and to have been on the receiving end of Peggy's winning smile.
From one who admired her-

I am deeply saddened by the loss of Peggy Amsterdam, as she was a role model and guiding light for those of who are young in the world of arts advocacy and leadership. Her passing is a loss to our city and our nation. I was inspired by her sense of humor and humanity, and invigorated by the passion with which she fought the arts tax and the courageousness with which she launced the ambitious Engage 2020. Losing Peggy is a call to action for all of us to step up our efforts in her absence to think boldly about the work of the arts in our city. My condolences go out to her family and to the entire Cultural Alliance.

My condolences to the Amsterdam family. Peggy was truly an inspired advocate for the arts. Her impassioned work will benefit generations of citizens in Philadelphia and Delaware.

Chad Bauman
Director of Communications, Arena Stage

I'm so sorry to hear the news this morning about Peggy. She has been an amazing advocate for the arts in this community and will be greatly missed. She has been helpful to me professionally on many occasions. Our condolences first to the Amsterdam family and secondly to the whole Philadelphia area arts community.

We in Delaware also remember a true friend of the arts. Peggy was a postive force and powerful voice for the arts and for the importance of culture in the United States.

J. Susan Isaacs
Professor and Coordinator of Art History
Towson University, Towson, Maryland
Curator of Special Projects, Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts

To our colleagues at the Greater Philadephia Cultural Alliance, all of our thoughts and love are with you at this difficult time. Peggy leaves us with the remarkable work she did to make Philadephia and Delaware better places to live. Her impact extends far beyond just one state or city as she so generously shared her wisdom with colleagues across the country. Her vision, leadership and creativity inspired all of us.

What I especially loved about Peggy was her verve and zest for life. I can picture her at the Las Vegas Americans for the Arts conference when she announced the AFTA conference dates for Philly the following year. No one could have made that announcement with as much style, fun and impact.

It's hard to imagine the world without her.

Catherine

Catherine Peterson
ArtsBoston

To Peggy, a tried and true friend of the Greater Philadelphia Arts & Culture Scene, I absolutely adored her smile and cherish all the conversations we had about dance. I think the last time I saw Peggy was at the Finals for Dancing Classrooms Philadelphia last year.....I remember how gracious she was to me; It made me feel better just to be with her. Little Elizabeth, your grandmother was GRAND.... Keep Dancin' Peggy, we love you at PHILADANCO!

The Erfer family would like to express our sadness on the passing of Peggy and our deepest condolences. We were friends of Peggy when she (and we) were young and living in Washington. We were neighbors in our apartment building and became fast friends. As the year passed we lost touch but I did run into her on occasion at the Israeli Consulate here in Philadelphia. She was a tiny dynamo and her loss to the arts community is great. To her family and friends, please accept our sympathy. May the good and beautiful memories you have of her, help to sustain you in this difficult time. JoAnn & Ted Erfer

It was with shock and great sadness that I read of Peggy's death this morning. To say that she was a shining star does not even begin to convey her contributions to the Philadelphia region's arts & cultural community. At a time when cultural communities across the country have been under greater pressure than ever to find ways to sustain themselves because of the recession, Peggy simply stepped into the fray, determined to not only lead the battle, but win the war. And she did. Armed with heartfelt passion, courage and that glorious smile, she was a vibrant leader for all of us, and it is in great part her efforts -- and now her legacy -- that brought back the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy and overturned the pending arts tax legislation that would have been life-threatening to so many organizations. She was an inspiration and a role model, an innovator and a champion, a warm and vibrant colleague who helped ensure that our community would continue to grow and thrive.

Like Anne d'Harnoncourt before her, Peggy's absence will be deeply felt. It is truly a grievous loss to our region and to all who knew her and worked with her, and a tragic loss for her family and friends. She cannot be replaced. But I know she would say that the greatest tribute to her, the most meaningful memorial, will be that we take up her torch, and carry on the legacy she's left us. To her family and her GPCA family, I offer heartfelt condolences, and may her memory be for a blessing.

To Peggy's family and to the team at the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, my sincerest and deepest condolences. I had the good fortune of getting to know Peggy while she was running the Delaware Division of the Arts. She had a reputation throughout the state arts agency community as a clear thinker, a generous and kind person, and a good dancer! Over the years that I knew her and followed her career, she was all that and more. I join the many who will greatly miss this dear and dynamic colleague.

I offer my condolences to Peggy's family. Having known her since she was working for the arts in Delaware, and having both moved to Philadelphia at about the same time, we would often chuckle over how our lives had changed. What never changed, however, was her commitment to the arts in all of its wide ranging glory.

We will greatly miss Peggy, as a wonderful civic leader, warm generous person and friend to so many. Peggy warmly introduced me to some of her favorite parts of Philadelphia, and always went above and beyond to think of and help others. We will miss her smile, her sense of humor, her sense of good living, her generosity, her knowledge, interests, and many accomplishments . She leaves us too soon...

A leader, a light, an inspiration, a dynamo, a visionary, Peggy has always had the strength of a legion and the passion to forge the path. We are left with a huge responsibility to continue her work across the community and the region. Condolences to the family and friends who are experiencing this great loss. As a colleague, admirer, and supporter of Peggy's work at the Cultural Alliance, I am saddened that she has left us.

I was shocked just now to see Peggy's obit. I first knew her when she was in Delaware and organized an amazing month-long teaching and performing residency for the Lewitzky Dance Company, which I then managed. There are few out-of-town colleagues with whom I have bonded at the level at which I did with her, and although we had not seen one another often in the intervening years, I was always delighted when I did run into her; she was a force of nature.

The PANO staff were saddened to learn about Peggy's passing. We extend our condolences to her friends, colleagues and family.

Peggy's legacy is not only in what she has done for Arts and Culture in Philadelphia. It is also in the torch she has passed to all of us. In her honor we will meet her big hairy audacious goal to double participation in the Arts by 2020. Her passion and determination lives in all of us and together we will realize her dream.

Thank you, Peggy, for the gift you have given us by setting the bar as high as we can possibly reach.

We are now, without Peggy, so less able to contend with the forces that diminish our capacity to gather in celebration of the beautiful. She was a herald calling our attention to acts of civility, asking that we notice the sense-making found through participating in the arts experience and the senselessness of not doing so. A diminutive figure, she stood so tall for equality for those whose access to opportunity had been blocked or for whom the flame of hope had faltered. So, who will come now to ask us to be more, to be better? Who, inspired and inspiring, will accept the cloak of service she left and ask us to move beyond ourselves and again imagine and work for a fairer world.

I extend to you and those who knew Peggy so much better than I, her colleagues, friends and family, my condolences as we now miss her and wait.

I will surely miss my friend Peggy who has been a friend for fifty years. We started out together at summer camp and took our first art history classes together at George Washington University. Peggy was always energetic, funny, wise and brave. She shared her gifts with all of us. My deep condolences to her sons and her family and friends and to the City of Philadelphia.

I was shocked and saddened to learn of Peggy's death because I had been thinking of her and talking about just this week with a colleague. I worked with her during my time at Knight Foundation - she was a tireless champion for the Philly Fun Guide project and the work of the Cultural Alliance overall. More than that, she was a genuine, FUN, person who was wonderful to talk to and spend time with. She will be greatly missed!