Mayor Street's Arts and Culture Transition Team Report

ARTS AND CULTURE POLICY AND PLANNING TRANSITION COMMITTEE REPORT, February 10, 2000

Dear Mayor Street:

Twenty years ago Philadelphia’s political and civic leadership were focused on how to preserve the region’s manufacturing industries. Today the tables have turned.

On the eve of the 21^st Century, the hospitality and commercial industries are at the center of the regional economy. A strong and vital cultural industry is key to their future and success. Our historical, arts and cultural assets are the reason that most tourists visit, many businesses locate, and "empty nesters" and recent graduates settle in Philadelphia.

No city in the nation has a richer cultural fabric. Greater Philadelphia possesses the highest concentration of historic houses, museums and sites. It is home to world-class cultural organizations and a vibrant contemporary arts scene. Neighborhood "cultural treasures" anchor the quality of life in communities throughout Philadelphia and the region. Schools and settlement houses, community organizations and libraries, recreation and senior centers buzz with art classes, writing workshops, book clubs, amateur performance troupes, historical research projects and horticultural organizations.

Arts and culture are more than a luxury for the few, they are a fulcrum of community improvement. When artists and arts organizations move into neighborhoods like West Philadelphia, Old City and Manayunk, they spur new enterprise and investment. When residents create colorful murals on blank walls or transform vacant lots into lush community gardens, blighted neighborhoods are turned into beautiful urban oases. When elementary and secondary school students join in arts and cultural activities, their academic and social skills improve dramatically.

Although the cultural industry can spur the growth of the commercial and hospitality sectors, it needs serious investment. Many arts and cultural organizations suffer from inadequate staff and outdated facilities that constrain their programs and their potential. The time has come to capitalize upon the cultural industry and to give it a seat at the table where the important civic decisions are made.

Your Administration can use arts and culture to continue Philadelphia’s remarkable transformation of Center City, forward and out to every city neighborhood and suburban community. The recommendations that follow are designed to show how a strong cultural industry can help advance The Street Administration’s program for a better Philadelphia.

Philadelphia’s arts and cultural organizations possess the power to advance the civic agenda. We stand ready to step up to the plate.

Sincerely yours,

The ARTS AND CULTURE POLICY AND PLANNING TRANSITION COMMITTEE

ARTS AND CULTURE POLICY AND PLANNING

TRANSITION COMMITTEE

REPORT

February 10, 2000

ARTS AND CULTURE POLICY AND PLANNING

TRANSITION COMMITTEE

Committee Members

February 10, 2000

{Member and affiliation}

Terrie S. Rouse, Lead Co-Chair, The African American Museum in Philadelphia

Peter Benoliel, Co-Chair, Quaker Chemical Corporation

Jesse Bermudez, Co-Chair, Association Musicos Latino Americanos

Walter Dallas, C0-Chair, Freedom Theatre

Debora Kodish, Co-Chair, the Philadelphia Folklore Project

Bob Leslie, Co-Chair, Freedom Theatre

Co-Chairs, Sub-Committees

David Haas, Member, The William Penn Foundation

Helen Haynes, Member, Temple University-Full Circle Theatre

Elliott Shelkrot, Member, The Free Library of Philadelphia

Jesse Bermudez, Co-Chair, Association de Musicos Latino Americanos

Debora Kodish, Co-Chair, The Philadelphia Folklore Project

Bob Leslie, Co-Chair, Freedom Theatre

Pete Hoskins, Co-Chair, The Philadelphia Zoo

Adrienne Jenkins, Co-Chair, The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance

David Acosta, Member, Aids Activities Coordinating Office

Mary Alice Alexander, Member, John Coltrane Cultural Society

Fernando Chang-Muy, Member, The University of Pennsylvania

Anthony Checchia, Member, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

John Dowell, Member, Temple University–Tyler School of Art

Allan Edmunds, Member, Brandywine Workshop

Oshunbumi Fernandez, Member, Odunde

Paul Hanle, Member, Academy of Natural Sciences

Gail Harrity, Member, The Philadelphia Museum of Art

Amy Hodgdon, Member, Philadelphia Young Playwrights

Germaine Ingram, Member, The School District of Philadelphia

Patricia Manley, Member, Settlement Music School

John Marshall, Member, The Clef Club

Nona Martin, Member, Betsy Ross House

Gladys Meade, Member, 29th Street Performing Arts Center

Joan Meyers-Brown, Member, Philadanco

Maria Mills-Torres, Member, The School District of Philadelphia

Susan Moore, Member, Temple University School of the Arts

Nancy Moses, Member, Atwater Kent Museum

Stephanie Naidoff, Member, The Regional Performing Arts Center

Jane Pepper, Member, Pennsylvania Horticultural Society

Steve Rowland, Member, Culture Works

Marjorie Samoff, Member, Prince Music Theater

Sonia Sanchez, Member

Alfred Simpkins, Member, Bushfire Theater

Peter Solmssen, Member, University of the Arts

Jonathan Stein, Member, Community Legal Services

Lisa White-Jones, Member

Dennis Wint, Member, The Franklin Institute

Special Thanks for their editorial work and research:

David Haas, Member, The William Penn Foundation

Nancy Moses, Atwater Kent Museum

Helen Haynes, Temple University-Full Circle Theatre

Adrienne Jenkins, Co-Chair, The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance

Arts and Culture Policy and Planning Transition Committee

Maps of Cultural Activity in the Region and Philadelphia

Social Impact of the Arts Project (SIAP)

University of Pennsylvania

School of Social Work

http:/ www.ssw.upenn.edu/SIAP

Maps

• Cultural Providers in the City of Philadelphia
• Cultural Providers in Metropolitan Philadelphia
• Recreation Centers and Murals in the City of Philadelphia

Description of categories

• Performing groups: organization and groups that stage production in the performing arts
• Cultural Facilities: organizations whose primary functions is to operate a facility
• Participatory and Community Programs: organizations and groups whose primary focus is on providing active cultural opportunities
• Media: producers of films, videos, and publications
• Resource organizations: providers who encourage or facilitate cultural activities
• Libraries: public and nonprofit
• Nonarts organizations providing cultural programs: community, social service, and religious organizations that offer cultural programs
• Historical sites
• Educational institutions: providers of training in the arts and culture

Arts and Culture Policy and Planning Transition Committee

Executive Summary of Recommendations *

• Expand support for neighborhood-based arts and cultural organizations.
• Transform the current Office of Arts and Culture into an adequately staffed department.
• Make arts and culture part of the core curriculum of the School District.
• Create a regional funding mechanism to support and advance arts and culture.
• Invest in the cultural industry as an economic development priority.
• Expand funding for and the impact of the Philadelphia Cultural Fund.

Arts and Culture Policy and Planning Transition Committee

Committee Process and Activities

The Arts and Culture Policy and Planning Transition Committee was convened in late 1999 with the following scope of work from Mayor John Street’s Transition Committee:

• Review of existing information on regional cooperation, funding and integration;
• Review of Best Practices in other Cities, as appropriate;
• Recommendations for dedicated regional funding, regional cooperation and integration with City services and program;
• Identification of issues that must be or are being currently addressed, decided or implemented

Essentially, the objective was to develop a response based on the collective input, discussion and filtering of ideas through an appointed committee of forty-three members of the arts, cultural and scientific communities from the smallest neighborhood organizations to the City of Philadelphia’s oldest and largest institutions. The report’s targeted completion date was approximately eight weeks. The transition committee assigned a relatively short delivery period because of the extensive surveys, data, maps, and comprehensive reports available within the field on tourism, economic impact, audience development, curriculum impact, and cultural providers.

The facilitation methodology was to take the scope of work and divide the work into three sub-committees and have the members of the full committee "self select" into one of three areas of interest or expertise, which were regionalism, city connections, and neighborhoods. Each sub-committee generated minutes and then synthesized their key issues. Fortunately, the sub-committees’ work collectively generated common themes and, thus, six key issues relevant to the scope of work were identified. Reports of the sub-committees were synthesized under the direction of the Lead Co-Chair and copies of the reports of the sub-committees appear, in full, at the end of this report.

Arts and Culture Policy and Planning Transition Committee

Recommendations

Expand and assure equitable support for neighborhood-based arts and cultural organizations.

Within Philadelphia’s neighborhoods are more than one thousand arts and cultural organizations as well as hundreds of individual artists. If adequately supported with government funding, access to opportunities and technical assistance, these sectors of Philadelphia’s cultural industry can become a powerful force for neighborhood educational, cultural and economical advancement and development.

• Neighborhood-based groups have historically received a very small proportion of City arts dollars from such sources as the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, Community Development Block Grants, City capital budget and line item expenditures.
• Increased dollars should be directed to stabilize "cultural treasures," those long-standing neighborhood-based arts groups which are vital to community revitalization; to encourage the emergence of new groups and to encourage such initiatives as artist housing in exchange for community involvement.
• Support should include targeting existing government arts funds to under-served populations; set-asides for the arts in such neighborhood-based initiatives as after-school programs and blight removal; and joint proposals for community/arts development activities.

See Appendix IV for best practices of economic impact of neighborhood-based arts and cultural organizations.

Establish a Department of Arts and Culture that would provide the stability and resources needed to capitalize on the cultural industry’s capacities to advance the broader civic agenda. A separate and autonomous Department of Arts and Culture would assure that the city’s arts and cultural organizations are optimally employed toward building the hospitality industry. An independent department would also ensure the advancement of commercial and neighborhood revitalization by contributing to neighborhood quality of life while assuring the continued vitality of the diverse artists and of the cultural and historical treasures that make our city unique.

• Recognizing that a City Charter change is required to create a new City department, the current Office of Arts and Culture should be strengthened as an interim measure.
• Hire persons with demonstrated knowledge of and commitment to neighborhood-based arts and culture, diverse communities and artistic traditions to staff the Office of Arts and Culture.
• The Department of Arts and Culture should partner with such other agencies as the Department of Housing and Community Development, Department of Recreation and the Office of Children and Families, to enhance their existing initiatives and to tap new sources of state and federal funds.
• It should assure stable support for government-owned cultural organizations and commissions. Finally, it should focus the power of the cultural industry on the Street Administration’s priorities.

See Appendix II for best practices culled from other communities.

Recognizing that school-based arts and cultural education improves academic performance and cultural literacy, we recommend that arts and culture become part of the core curriculum of the School District. Every student should benefit from an enriched arts and cultural curriculum which combines school-based training, visiting artists and trips to cultural attractions in neighborhoods and Center City.

• The program should be shaped through the combined efforts of the Office of Arts and Culture, the new Office of Education and the School District of Philadelphia and assisted by an advisory committee of teachers, artists and arts and culture organizations.
• New staff should implement the program assuring that it supports the Children Achieving goals of the School District and match schools and cultural providers.
• The effort should be supported by a public/private Arts and Cultural Education Partnership or development of a neighborhood-based arts and culture initiative which would provide per-capita funding for such items as ticket subsidies, class transportation, after-school programs and contract for service artists residences and other partnerships between arts agencies, schools, health and recreation centers.
• An artist should be appointed to serve on the Board of the School District of Philadelphia to aid in this initiative and effort.

See Appendix III for best practices culled from other communities.

Mayor Street has a unique opportunity to take the lead in establishing, with neighboring Pennsylvania counties, a new funding mechanism to capitalize on the cultural assets of our region. Metropolitan areas across the country have adopted regional strategies to develop and support arts and culture, with positive impact on neighborhood economic growth and quality of life.

• Long-range planning for a regional and cultural body has already begun. The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance (GPCA) is currently conducting research and planning to develop a regional arts and cultural authority. With grants from a number of area foundations, the GPCA has initiated a regional cultural policy planning process and is also developing a marketing campaign designed to increase regional participation in the arts.
• Mount a Regional Leadership Summit on Arts and Culture.

See Appendix I for an outline of the Regional Leadership Summit on Arts and Culture

Greater Philadelphia’s competitive advantage in the international marketplace of cities is that it combines a rich historic fabric with a lively contemporary arts scene. With strategic investment and development, these cultural assets can accelerate commercial development and leverage the region’s transformation into a powerful and popular cultural destination.

Initiatives should include:

• Directing the region’s economic development entities to assign high priority to cultural investments that can leverage commercial growth.
• Advocate for local or regional arts initiatives within the Greater Philadelphia Tourism and Marketing Corporation (GPTMC). The initiative would focus on forging alliances between the hospitality and cultural industries, designed to increase visitors length-of-stay by making it easy to sample more cultural attractions.
• Focusing development of the cultural "product" via such initiatives as coordination of hours of operation at area attractions, improved signage and transportation and events that take visitors out to explore our neighborhoods.
• Support of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance’s marketing campaign directed toward regional audiences designed to increase visitation and support.

See Appendix V for best practices culled from other communities.

Expand funding for and the impact of the Philadelphia Cultural Fund.

Now in its seventh year of operation, the Philadelphia Cultural Fund has played an important stabilizing function for many Philadelphia cultural institutions. An evaluation of the Cultural Fund and an increase of its municipal support to $5 million would bring Philadelphia funding in line with other comparable U.S. cities.

• The operations and selection criteria of the Philadelphia Cultural Fund should be evaluated to assure that the city gains the greatest impact for its arts investment.
• New programs should be put in place in every Councilmanic district to support a range of activities. These should include after school arts and cultural education, ticket subsidies for children and neighborhood residents to arts and cultural organizations and free community arts festivals and performances.

See Appendix VI for best practices culled from other communities.

Arts and Culture Policy and Planning Transition Committee

Funding Strategies

Cities like Philadelphia invest public dollars in economic development and job creation. For key growth industry sectors, cities provide direct grants, subsidies, tax incentives and abatements.

For more than 100 years, Philadelphia’s arts and cultural organizations have demonstrated extraordinary creativity in using minimal public dollars to leverage funds from such private sources as foundations, corporations and individual donors.

Today the cultural industry is at the center of Philadelphia’s economic development agenda. It is primed for new investment.

What follows is an array of financing strategies available to the Street Administration.

• Designate the cultural industry’s development as a lead priority of government and of government-related economic development agencies such as the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, Commerce Department, Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, Penn’s Landing Corporation and the Redevelopment Authority.
• Direct low-cost or no-cost loans and Federal and State funds to those cultural and arts initiatives that can leverage private investment.
• Earmark a percentage of funds already directed to neighborhood revitalization, blight removal and the empowerment zones, towards stabilization of long-established neighborhood arts and culture organizations.
• Assign a portion of funding for after-school programs in recreation centers, libraries and schools for arts and cultural education.
• Spur increases in Federal and State dollars through collaborative proposal development by city agencies, the School District of Philadelphia and the Office of Arts and Culture.
• Explore the feasibility of tax-related options at the State level such as a voluntary check-off on taxes and lotteries for the arts.
• Recognize that artists’ initiatives can substantially improve neighborhood quality of life, thus explore the feasibility of modifying zoning to permit artists to live and work in under-utilized or vacant properties in key sections of the city.

Appendix I

A Convening of Regional Leaders to Expand the Role of Arts and Culture

Common Issues (Economic Development, Education, Neighborhoods, etc.)

Purpose/Goals – New Vision for the Region

Timing – Early Sept. 2000

Format -- Present Cultural Plan Research Findings, Showcase Arts and Cultural Organizations, Leaders/Conveners present "testimony" on regional value of arts and culture, the Benjamin Franklin Parkway initiative, and provide input on cultural plan, potential legislation

Invitees – Leaders (100-120) from politics, government, business, arts and community

Regional Arts and Culture Commission (Working Group)

Purpose/Goals – Translate Summit Goals into Action Steps by developing a plan and serving as advocates for regional funding.

Participants – Team (12-20) sector representatives

Reference Documents: {note included}

Cultural Plan/GPCA – Policy/Planning for City and Region

GPCA/Pew Marketing Campaign – Regional Audience Development

The Center City Districts proposed concepts for Benjamin Franklin Parkway

Pennsylvania Senate Bill No. 977 (session year 1997)

Appendix II

Best Practices

Four key cities with arts and cultural departments

Charlotte, North Carolina/Arts and Science Council: Founded in 1958, it is recognized by both the City of Charlotte and Meklenberg County as the local arts agency for the region. It is an independent 501-© 3 organization, with a 45 member Board of Directors representing staff and elected public officials from both the City and the County government and the School Board. The Council allocates funds to cultural organizations and individual artists on a competitive basis. Supports regional education initiatives. Oversees the public Art Program in partnership with the regions public agencies. Acts as a cultural advocate and resource for local, state, and federal issues, as well as a cultural strategic planner. The staff of 30 includes President & CEO, Senior VP for strategic planning, 11 staff development, 6 administrative staff, 4 public art staff, and 2 public relations staff. For the fiscal year ending 6/30/99 the revenues were $13,382,068 and expenditures $11,445,539. Funding sources include: City of Charleston, School District, NC Arts Council, National Endowment for the Arts, Annual Fund Drive, Endowment payments, Investment returns.

Pittsburgh, PA/Allegheny Regional Asset District: Created in 1993 by the Pennsylvania Legislature, funded by a 1-% county sales tax, enacted in 1994. It is governed by a 7 member Board includes 4 appointees from the County Commissioners, 2 appointees from the Mayor, 1 at-large member elected by the above 6. The 27 member Advisory Board is appointed by the Board of Directors and provides guidance on policy and programming. The program distributes monies to libraries, parks, sports facilities, cultural and recreational organizations. It has a four person staff, including an Executive Director, Senior Program Officer, Program officer, and Administrative Assistant. In FY99 the revenue was $66,100,800 and expenditures $66,100,800. Funding sources includes the county sales tax, Interest earnings, and reserve fund.

Denver, Colorado/Scientific and Cultural Facilities District: Voted into existence in 1988 by voters in the 6 county metropolitan Denver area and funded by a .10% sales tax. A 9 member Board that includes 1 member from each of the six metro counties governs the program, along with 3 members appointed by the governor. They distribute approximately $30 million a year in grants to over 300 cultural and scientific organizations. It is program has a 7 person staff, including a District Administrator, Program Officer, and Public Information Officer. The FY97 revenues were $27,672,039 and expenditures $27,498,096. The funding source is primarily the 1% sales tax.

San Francisco Arts Council: Established in Charter of the City and County of San Francisco in 1932 to ensure that the arts were incorporated into the civic infrastructure for the City’s residents. Governed by 15 commissioners who are appointed by the Mayor for a four-year term. Eleven are arts related practicing professionals while four lay members’ hold-at-large seats. In addition, the president of the Planning Commission serves as an ex-officio member. The fiscal year 2000 budget totals $7,507,000 through City of San Francisco’s general fund, percent for art program and hotel tax as well as the California Arts Council. The staff of 30 includes Director of Cultural Affairs, Public Information Officer, Gallery Director plus additional staff.

Appendix III

Best Practices

Arts and culture as a key part of the School District’s core curriculum.

Americans for the Arts, Arts Education and Community Development Program Database.

President Clinton announced the America Reads Challenge. This an initiative that calls on all Americans -–parents, educators, libraries, universities, college students, the media, community and national groups, cultural organizations, business leaders and senior citizens—to work with schools and help ensure that every American child can read well and independently by the end of 3^rd grade. Secretary of Education Richard Riley called on the Goals 2000 Arts Education Partnership, of which Americans for the Arts is a member, to form a task force aimed at fostering the participation of the arts community in this initiative. This program provides sub-grants to organizations that implement innovative programs in this effort.

Website: www.artsusa.org/education/arts8.html

• Learning to Read through the Arts (LTRTA) employs the visual and performing arts as a core for learning. artists, art teachers, reading and classroom teachers work together using a holistic approach to improve thinking, listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, and increase interest in other curriculum areas. It began as a partnership combining New York City Schools Title 1 funds with financial support from the Guggenheim Museum. Since 1980 The Business and Industry for the Arts in Education, Inc. (BIFAE), has been a partner in developing this reading improvement program in three school districts in New York City. BIFAE’s Parenting Through the Arts Program provides workshops and activities to coach parents to use the arts to help their children learn and succeed in school. The New York LTRTA sites have been recognized as a model developer/demonstration program by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Diffusion Network and various studies have confirmed its effec-tiveness. The New York Model has been adopted by more than 2,850 schools in 823 urban and rural school districts across the country, reaching more than 192,000 students.

Arts Resources for Children and Youth in Philadelphia/Pew Charitable Trust

This report presents the findings of a study of arts resources for children and youth in the city of Philadelphia commissioned by The Pew Charitable Trusts. The Central Philadelphia Development Corporation in association with Research and Policy Associates conducted the project from June 1995 through March 1996. The city of Philadelphia has a wealth of cultural resources from community arts facilities, that serve particular neighborhoods, to regional facilities, world-class institutions and historical treasures that draw children from across the metropolitan area. Numerous other resource organizations that do not have their own facility, serve as incubators for new groups and through their mobility weave together the city’s neighborhoods. Highlights of the report include the some of the following statistics and conclusions:

• A total of 229 nonprofit cultural organizations offer programs and services to the city’s children (73 regional facilities, 70 community arts facilities and 86 resource organizations
• Over 50 of these groups define children’s arts as their primary mission. Another 150 define children as part of a mission that encompasses all age groups. These groups provide performances and programs, hands-on introductory experience in the visual and performing arts, and others offer opportunity for more advanced training.
• Community cultural facilities provide an invaluable foundation for a system of services for the city’s children and youth. The 70 community arts programs are located where children live. Three in four of all children under age 18—approximately 296,000 children live within one mile of a community arts facility. Community cultural facilities represent a significant physical investment in Philadelphia’s neighborhoods. Many provide a public space that is used by a variety of neighborhood groups. More importantly they represent a social investment in our communities, involving members of the community children, parents, teachers, board members, and volunteers in the life of their neighborhood. Community cultural institutions represent a social infrastructure and a level of civic engagement that an external entity, public or private, neither could nor duplicate.
• 75 cultural groups that provide opportunities for children (regional facilities and resource organizations) are located in Center City; these organizations have developed services for teachers, families, and youth. Many of who provide pre- and post visits curricular materials to enhance the impact of visits.
• Children’s arts groups are clustered in the city’s most diverse neighborhoods. This includes neighborhoods with higher than average poverty as well as those with higher than average educational attainment and occupational status. Racially integrated neighborhoods have more groups than segregated sections of the city.
• Current challenges include: The public schools are no longer fulfilling their historical role in the provision of arts and cultural opportunities for the city’s children. 29% of city schools no longer offer visual arts classes; 17% of schools no longer offer vocal music classes and 91% of city schools offer no instrumental music classes.
• Community based cultural programs currently do not have the ability to provide opportunities for the majority of the city’s children: Of all the children’s art providers, 43% have annual budgets of under $100,000. In the case of the community based programs 60% have annual budgets under $100,000; another 34% have budget of between $100,000 and $500,000.

Appendix IV

Best Practices

Expanded support for neighborhood-based arts and cultural organizations.

Stern and Seifert’s analysis of the economic impact of neighborhood-based arts and cultural organizations, SIAP February, 1998

Chicago Neighborhood Tours (Chicago, Ill.) Juana Guzman spearheaded a multi-cultural effort that is creating awareness and enhanced economic opportunities for Chicago’s diverse communities. The program has created a viable market for cultural tourism involving a unique partnership with local arts organizations, and artisans as part of the Chicago Office of Tourism. The program offers an "urban odyssey" featuring the feel and flavor of Chicago’s exciting and diverse communities. These half-day bus excursions, sponsored by Sears, Roebuck and Co., take an in-depth look at traditions, stories and people of this great American city, with tours leaving from the Chicago Cultural Center. Each week a different neighborhood is featured. The tour explores the history of local landmarks, and artistic havens, roams through unique shopping areas, and visits the sights and tastes of ethnic celebrations. Co-sponsors include the Chicago Coalition of Community Cultural Centers, Chicago Transit Authority, and Neighborhoods Alive. Website: www.chgocitytours.com

Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild/Community Enterprise (Pittsburgh, PA) The mission is to provide professional training that will enable arts administrators and community development leaders to effectively utilize the arts as an integral component of community revitalization. Through training and leadership development, the initiative emphasizes an integrated approach to strategic planning, community arts programming and entrepreneurial organizational development. Website: http://artsnet.heinz.cmu.edu/mcg

Coming Up Taller Initiative is a private sector patrons program with the President’s Committee on the Humanities. The mission is to focus national attention on and garner support for, out-of-school programs that use the arts and humanities to provide children safe places to go, new learning opportunities, chances to contribute to their community, and ways to take responsibility for their own lives. They assist these programs through partnerships with Fortune 500 corporations and smaller companies. This program provides grants, contracts, in-kind support, and technical assistance to help programs serve more children more effectively. Website: www.cominguptaller.org

• California Lawyers for the Arts: Arts and Community Development. Project. (San Francisco, CA) For the young people of the San Francisco Bay Area, the Arts and Community Development Project of the California Lawyers for the Arts (CLA) provides an avenue to summer employment in the arts as well as multicultural after school instruction in visual, literary and performing arts. Working in partnership with the San Francisco Unified School District and the Private Industry Council. CLA finds employment in local arts and cultural institutions for youth city-wide. CLA coordinates enrichment seminars that focus on life skills such as conflict resolution, peer counseling, communication and job readiness, as well as sessions on careers in the arts, and a mentoring program for career development in the arts. The after school instructional program is offered in collaboration with 8 multi-cultural arts providers.

City of Baltimore (1984-1988) under Mayor Donald Schemer: The Department of Housing and Community Development ran Baltimore Traditions, an office directed by Elaine Fe, which undertook innovative and effective projects. Some of the programs included naming, valuing and promoting community-based culture: from projects galvanizing the arts and history of a major city street (North Avenue), projects commemorating people’s holiday lights, and plaques marking and honoring long-standing community businesses

Queens Council on the Arts Neighborhood Transit/Promotion: is one of a series of programs undertaken by this local borough arts council that have been exemplary examples of neighborhood centered arts policy

Elko, Nevada: Cowboy Poetry Gathering for neighborhood/folk arts-based community economic development. Website: www.westernfolklife.org

.

Appendix V

Best Practices

Invest in the cultural industry as an economic development priority.

Black Economic Union of Greater Kansas City (Kansas City, MO): BEU is a 27 year old not-for-profit Community Development Corporation which through support of the Ford Foundation and other funders developed a Cultural Arts Plan for the Historic 18^th & Vine District. This (501 © 3) CDC is dedicated to the economic, social, and physical redevelopment and revitalization of blighted communities. It provides technical support to entrepreneurs, small businesses and neighborhoods. BEU/GKC employs a comprehensive approach to redevelopment by incorporating the arts and culture into this work to positively impact employment and business development, commercial, industrial, and residential community redevelopment and outreach. Website: http://www.liscnet.org/kansascity/cdcs/beu.htm

Appendix VI

Best Practices

Expand funding for and the impact of the Philadelphia Cultural Fund.

Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund. Since its inception in 1961, Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund (GFTA) has distributed over $125 million to hundreds of nonprofit cultural organizations in San Francisco. The economic investment in the activities of diverse arts and promotional groups enhances the City’s attractiveness to visitors and provides employment and enrichment to the City’s residents. GFTA’s revenue derives from a portion of the 14% room tax levied on local hotel and motel bills. Established through a combination of City and State legislation, and approved by the City’s Board of Supervisors, GFTA has evolved into a national model of arts funding. It has a policy of supporting an arts organization’s general operating expenses, and does not limit the number of years a group can continue to receive grants. The foremost goal is to be a stable, dependable base of support for organizations that continue to meet the funding criteria, and that represent the broadest spectrum of the San Francisco arts community. This 38 year old Grants for the Arts program, which supports nearly 200 organizations, is an internationally admired model of municipal funding and support of the arts and culture.

Bronx Council on the Arts: the official designated cultural agency of Bronx County

Celebrates 37 years of stimulating community interest in the arts through programming and technical assistance. BCA has become a leader in the fields of Grantmaking, Programming, Arts Education and the use of cultural strategies to help revitalize local communities. BCA’s program development philosophy is centered on the notion that the arts can be a catalyst for community enhancement as well as facilitating the professional development of artists and arts organizations. Many of BCA’s initiatives help to articulate a broader definition of existing urban policy by demonstrating the relevance and appropriateness of the arts. Initiatives include direct financial support for individual artists and non-profit organizations, information services, technical assistance, education and community programming, and advocacy. The key to the success of the programs has been the formation of mutually beneficial partnerships with the private sector, educational institutions, social service agencies and community organizations. BCA has also created a not-for-profit community development subsidiary to further their efforts in community revitalization and economic development. Major Initiatives include The Business Center for the Arts, The Business/Arts Quarterly, The Fine Arts Technical Services Training Program, and Research and Development. BCA Development Corporation focuses on building infrastructure wile BCA concerns itself with capacity building. Website: www.bronxarts.org

City of Charleston, Office of Cultural Affairs (Charleston, SC) The city’s office of Cultural affairs (OCA) was created to stimulate and enhance the cultural life of the Charleston area through coordination and interaction among various arts organizations both in the city and the tri-county region. In developing its mission, the OCA acts as a catalyst and municipal interface for a variety of activities between artists, arts organizations, community and governmental agencies and other funding organizations.. In 1979, The office of Cultural Affairs designed and launched Piccolo Spoleto to provide a substantive forum for the region’s talented young artsists and performers against the backdrop of Spoleto Festival USA. The OCA also created the original Charleston Black Arts Festival, now called MOJA, to celebrate and highlight the important contributions of African-American and Caribbean artists to American society and culture. The Office publishes and distributes the Arts in Charleston calendar, a monthly events listing sent to area arts consumers and published in the Post Courier newspaper. Since its inception, the Office of Cultural Affairs has developed a major art in education component which carries out such projects as Storefront School for the Arts and the Piccolo Spoleto and MOJA festival’s school outreach programs.

The Arts and Cultural Policy and Planning

City Connections Sub Committee

Policy Recommendations

Transition Committee - Arts and Culture Task Force

City Connections Subcommittee

Policy Recommendations

Goals/Objectives

1. To provide increased access to arts & culture for children and families
2. To promote neighborhood revitalization through the arts
3. To further develop Philadelphia’s arts and culture infrastructure
4. To sustain the economic renewal of Philadelphia through investment in arts programs that will attract tourism and increase visits to Philadelphia.
5. To develop new public and private sources of arts funding

Neighborhood Revitalization through the Arts

Mayor’s goal of blight removal can be enhanced and deepened by utilizing the existing resources of cultural outreach and the talents of artists engaged in community development. These resources can be actively used in the betterment of communities by addressing issues of education, training, beautification, cultural expression and community pride through creative approaches for revitalization of neighborhoods..

• Establish a neighborhood-based after-school arts and culture initiative via "contract for service"

• Stabilization of long-established neighborhood-based organizations

• Support and promote accesible neighborhood public arts and cultural events through the Philadelphia Cultural fund

• Earmark some percentage of funds already proposed or allocated to neighborhood revitalization, blight removal, and the empowerment zones towards stabilization of long-established neighborhood arts and culture organizations.
• Develop partnerships and collaborations with other city departments (e.g. Department of Housing and Community Development, Recreation and Welfare) to enhance their existing initiatives

• Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild/Community Enterprise (Pittsburg, PA)
• Kansas City Black Economic Union (Kansas City, MO)
• Coming Up Taller Initiative ( ex. California Lawyers for the Arts: Arts and Community Dev. Proj. (San Franciso, CA)
• Arts Resources for Children and Youth in Philadelphia/Pew Charitable Trust

Development of Children and Youth through Arts in Education

Every child in the School District of Philadelphia should have access to a specific number of cultural experiences through each school year. This would include artists coming into the school as well as students attending outside cultural events in their neighborhood and at major cultural institutions. These programs enhance curriculum and performance while promoting cultural literacy. Under the current School District structure there are a number of "points of entry" or opportunities for funding for non-profit cultural institutions. However, many organizations do not know how to utilize curriculum standards and lesson plans that would integrate them into these existing avenues of funding.

• The Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, and the newly established Mayor’s Office of Education, in collaboration with the School District of Philadelphia, should establish a committee, composed of teachers, arts and culture organizations, and artists to support the growth, development and implementation of Arts in Education programs to give our children the experiences and the education they will need to succeed in the next century.
• Develop a Guide would be the first goal of this committee, utilizing service organizations like GPCA, UpStages, the Theatre Alliance, and Coalition of African American and Latino Cultural Org. members. The purpose of the Guide would be:

1. enable arts institutions and artists to access the School District and build instructional relationships at the school and cluster level;
2. Assist arts institutions and artists to understand curriculum standards so that they can develop and offer programs geared at meeting School District standards and benchmarks;
3. Enable teachers to easily find and contact the myriad of arts and culture organizations in the City do that their classroom is enhanced by outside resources;
4. Provide a searchable database, of the educational programs offered by cultural institutions by making the Guide available on the Web.

• This effort should be staffed by a liason or ombudsman that could work out of the Office of Arts and Culture to drive this process.
• Launch a Arts and Cultural Education Partnership Initiative for children’s cultural experience providing funds on a per capita basis for ticket subsidy, contracting of cultural organizations to go into the schools, and matching funds for artist residencies that are also currently supported by the state arts council. This could also support collaboration between arts organizations and individual schools or school clusters
• An artist should be appointed to the school board to support these efforts at the highest level

• This initiative could be supported through the Mayor’s Office of Children and Families which brings together Human Services, Health and the School District to link arts programs with health and social services resources, especially for children-at-risk.
• Convene twice a year with representatives of the city budget office, OHCD, office of Commerce, and the School District of Philadelphia’s Office of Federal and State Programs and Office of Curriculum Support to review with members of the Arts and Culture Task Force federal and state level funding programs and opportunities for joint proposal development. An arts and education partnership involving individual schools or clusters can be a result of this information sharing. There are millions of dollars available at the federal level that would preclude any need for the City to be that major financial resource for these types of partnerships. Current research indicates that substantial contracts and dollars are being provided by the School District in conjunction with several major institutions.

• Americans for the Arts, Arts Education and Community Development Program Database
• Example: Learning to Read through the Arts

Strengthening the City’s infrastructure for Arts & Culture

• Director of the Department of Arts and Culture

• Appoint funding task force with 4 specific charges over 6 months:
• to research and recommend strategies for matching public dollars with private

dollars by December 2001;

• to involve individual donors from the region in supporting the Arts in Education Partnership and other city arts initiatives;
• to review City-funded programs in light of the Street Administration's arts policy
• to recommend practical new ways of providing dedicated funding to arts and culture,

• Philadelphia Cultural Fund
• Renewed City contract (the PCF is an independently incorporated nonprofit contracted by the City to carry out its mission and programs.)
• Increase allocation to $3 million for arts and cultural organizations, for general support using current guidelines
• Must provide support for full-time staff to sufficiently carry out program functions, especially outreach and technical assistance
• Re-institute 3-year window for non-incorporated programs to be eligible for funding via fiscal sponsor organizations (with proven track record of accountability), before incorporation would be required.
• Subject to legal review (important!) eliminate funding restriction of 20% of organization's budget (which impact only very small groups.)

• Additional Options for funding
• Voluntary check-off's
• Lottery for the arts
• Tax rebates and zoning allowances to permit artists to live and work in little-used properties

• Bronx Council on the Arts: the official designated cultural agency of Bronx County
• City of Charleston, Office of Cultural Affairs (Charleston, SC)

Economic Development of the Cultural Industry

• Greater Philadelphia Cultural Tourism Corporation
• We recommend that the Mayor call for a Vice President of Cultural Tourism to be added to the staff of the Greater Philadelphia Tourism and Marketing Corporation. The objective would be to increase the length of stay of visitors to the city by giving them more to do when they come.
• Provide a portion of funds through GPTMC to promote Philadelphia arts and cultural organizations locally to increase audiences and earned income and to create "ambassadors" for local cultural attractions.

• Listing of cities with Cultural Tourism Directors nationally

The Arts and Cultural Policy and Planning

Neighborhood Issues Sub Committee

Policy Recommendations

Neighborhood / Issues Subcommittee

Arts and Culture Committee/Mayor’s Transition Team:

David Acosta, Jesse Bermudez, Joan Myers Brown, Allan Edmunds, Lois Fernandez, Oshunbumi Fernandez, Debora Kodish, Bob Leslie, Gladys Meade, Linda Meade, Al Simpkins and Ron Washington. Scribe: Debora Kodish

Neighborhood-Based Arts and Culture: Needs and Possibilities

I. VISION:

Arts and culture are the soul and character of our city; they draw people here and keep people here. They make our neighborhoods livable and memorable. Such arts as jazz, drama, painting, drill teams, choirs, lakhon bassac (Cambodian folk opera) and hundreds of other neighborhood-based traditions name and nurture the hopes and visions of our communities, and are forces both for community cohesion and for social change. Our concern is with enabling equitable and needed investment in the existing community-based arts and cultural sector: in organizations and artists who have historically been neglected despite their often pioneering roles (and future possibilities) as change agents and major resources in neighborhoods. We see stabilizing the arts organizations that have demonstrated long-standing commitment to Philadelphia’s neighborhoods as simultaneously an investment in other areas: education, social and mental health, job readiness and creation. A focus on community-based arts and artists at the outset of this administration would be a way of linking blight removal to its complement: asset enhancement— the nurturing and enabling of community-based neighborhood resources such as cultural organizations and artists). As well, community-based arts agencies and artists could build on the Mayor’s early call for town meetings by offering other forums for ongoing discussion of, and development of solutions to, key urban and community issues.

II. RECOMMENDATIONS:

Equitable Funding: Direct Resources to Neighborhoods. The city is home to an extraordinarily wide range of neighborhood-based arts and cultural "agents"— including long-standing community arts agencies, emerging grassroots and culturally-specific groups and individual artists. Far more than a thousand organizations exist: they represent an untapped, unorganized and often unrecognized resource. Their cultural contributions and economic impact have never been measured formally. These groups have in the past received a very small proportion of City arts dollars (from .009% to 16% of dollars from Cultural Fund, CDBG, capital investment, and line item expenditures), and are largely unaware of and unable to access contracts, jobs, opportunities, information and other City resources. Priority should be given to neighborhood-based arts organizations, across all councilmanic districts, as this sector of the cultural landscape has historically not benefited from the same kinds of investments and opportunities accorded downtown. These groups can and should play a greater role in the betterment of the education, cultural, and social economic opportunities within neighborhoods. To do so, they need to be strengthened.

1. Stabilize Community Cultural Treasures. Stabilization of long-standing neighborhood-based art groups is a way of providing an anchor for economic development through the commerce they generate in employment, the purchase of goods and services, and the traffic (outside audiences) they bring to their facilities. It is also a way of providing an anchor for community quality of life. Neighborhood-based arts agencies can also help neighborhoods develop young leadership for future community advancement, thereby strengthening all agencies dedicated to community revitalization

• Create a new fund or look into possible reallocation of existing expenditures to ensure operating support to community cultural treasures. Establish criteria that take into account longevity and history of service to a community, uniqueness and significance in the cultural landscape, and the investment that an organization has made in a community and to its artists.

• Set aside annually a portion of the city’s capital budget to address the repair and maintenance of long-standing neighborhood-based art organization’s facilities both for emergency needs and upgrades for long-term benefits.

2. Create a Cultural Safety Net. Investing in neighborhood-based arts and culture can be a simultaneous investment in other areas. For instance, support for after-school cultural arts programming can achieve the following: Create opportunities for creative expression and personal growth (i.e., ethnic pride and self-knowledge, improved esteem, discipline); Support K-12 education goals through course content offering advanced and remedial instruction in basic skills; Establish training and exposure to career opportunities in art related technologies; Provide opportunities for education through cross-cultural activities in all art disciplines; Link entrepreneurial opportunities in art creation, graphic design, fashion, printing, and media to job generation; Engage youth and adults in creative problem solving, using arts and artists to address problems in the community and to teach community residents to see creative opportunities in problems of blight; Create opportunities for communities to come together through arts.

• Increase the Philadelphia Cultural Fund allocation and administrative budget in order to establish a neighborhood-based initiative that places a high priority on art groups which have structured after-school programs for youth and adults in their communities which engage and employ community-based artists. Funding levels should support a year-round program operating on a fall-winter, winter-spring schedule. If schedules are uniform, it would create the greater possibility for participants to participate in multiple opportunities at one or more arts organizations in close proximity and make it easier to plan city-wide collaborations among service providers. The budget allotment would be assigned on a contract-for-services basis with performance requirements; it would not be a general grant program.

• Conduct twice-a-year seminars with representatives of the city budget office, OHCD, Office of Commerce, and the School District of Philadelphia’s Office of Federal and State Programs and Office of Curriculum Support to review with interested art groups federal and state level funding programs and opportunities for joint proposal development. An arts and education partnership involving individual schools or clusters can be a result of this information sharing. There are millions of dollars available at the federal level that would preclude any need for the City (Philadelphia Cultural Fund) from being a major financial resource for these types of partnership. Current research indicates that substantial contracts and dollars are already being provided by the School District in conjunction with several major institutions. Establish criteria, performance requirements, and assess impact and effectiveness.

• Explore and create neighborhood-based housing opportunities for artists, in exchange for artistic and cultural community service. A benefit in providing incentives for artists to live in and become engaged in community is increasing accessibility of young people to teachers and mentors. Artists who take on apprentices and mentoring responsibilities could be honored annually with a special mayor’s award for community service.

• Offer technical assistance to emerging, grassroots and culturally-specific arts organizations to enable more opportunities for growth and development, to facilitate collaboration and networking, and to ensure access.

• Encourage neighborhood-based art groups to become partners in economic development initiatives by including them in early planning stages of projects.

• Buy local. Explore how the city infrastructure can invest in neighborhood-based arts. Contract with neighborhood-based arts and cultural organizations and artists to staff school district, recreation department, and after-school programs. Spend city dollars on local artists’ works for tourist giveaways (rather than mass-produced). Encourage city employees to serve on boards and in other ways contribute to neighborhood-based arts and cultural groups. Such investment policies will enable organizations and artists to do meaningful work and will enhance the economic stability of neighborhoods.

3. Make the Whole City a Destination for Tourists and Residents. Encourage cultural exchange in neighborhoods around the city, regionally, nationally and internationally

• Study the potential for cultural tourism in neighborhoods and assess the environmental conditions—transportation, parking, facilities, that would impact success. What is the feasibility of special promotions— advertising targeted to specific market segments? What are the opportunities for linking major attractions for cultural tourism with complementary neighborhood-based festivals, outdoor concerts, exhibits, and films?

• In order to help promote the work of neighborhood-based arts groups, increase their audiences, improve contributions and earnings, create a marketing and promotional grant program similar to the Regional Marketing and Tourism program but targeted to local media benefiting neighborhood art groups.

• Consider using City infrastructure to promote in-reach tourism, and to help us to know ourselves. For example, use the back of city paychecks and city distribution mechanisms for information (i.e. signage on sanitation vehicles and at city offices) to promote cultural events and experiences in the neighborhoods.

4. Create an office for Arts and Culture with the ability to implement a strong and intentional arts policy that benefits neighborhoods as well as downtown cultural institutions and organizations. Establish either a cabinet-level Department of Cultural Affairs (as has been recommended in previous MCAC reports) or an office with adequate staff, power, and funding; which centralizes currently dispersed city arts and cultural activities, and which can serve as a kind of "one-stop-shopping" for information, resources, contract opportunities, technical assistance and economic development assistance for neighborhood-based arts organizations and artists. Ensure equity and access for neighborhood-based groups and artists. Use the office to increase outside dollars for arts and culture.

• Develop a vision and a strategic plan for arts and culture that take neighborhood needs into consideration. Enable neighborhood arts and cultural organizations to shape the process.

• Hire the staff for the above office with demonstrated knowledge of (and commitment to) neighborhood-based arts and culture, and of diverse communities and artistic traditions.

• Establish a cultural council that represents the arts and interests of neighborhoods. Create a community-based arts and cultural advisory board that can ensure the responsiveness of this Department to the whole City and all of its citizens, that can advocate for (and ensure) access and equity, and that can effectively integrate arts and culture into other City departments, and reflect the concerns and vision of the many neighborhood-based artists and organizations.

III. BEST PRACTICES (In process)

• Chicago-area bus programs

• Yorkshire city of festivals

• Queens Council on the Arts Neighborhood Transit/Promotion

• Elko, Nevada: Cowboy Poetry Gathering for neighborhood/folk arts-based community economic development

• City of Baltimore (1984-1988) under Mayor Donald Schaeffer: The Department of Housing and Community Development ran Baltimore Traditions, an office directed by Elaine Eff, which undertook innovative and effective projects naming, valuing and promoting community-based culture: from projects galvanizing the arts and history of a major city street (North Avenue), projects commemorating peoples’ holiday lights, and plaques marking and honoring longstanding community businesses.

• Variety of artist housing initiatives

The Arts and Cultural Policy and Planning

Regionalism Sub Committee

Policy Recommendations

Mayor Street Transition Team for Arts and Culture

Regional Cooperation for Arts and Culture

Recognizing the importance of arts and culture to the region’s economic, social and educational well-being, we recommend that the City and neighboring Pennsylvania counties join efforts to capitalize on our shared regional cultural assets. Metropolitan areas across the country have successfully adopted regional strategies to develop and support arts and culture, with positive impact on economic development and enhanced quality of life. We suggest that the Mayor and City Leadership play a lead role in fostering regional dialogue, planning and funding by supporting and participating in the following efforts:

1. Long-Range Planning for Regional Arts and Culture
1. Cultural Plan/GPCA – Policy/Planning for City and Region
2. GPCA/Pew Marketing Campaign – Regional Audience Development
2. Convening of Regional Leaders to Expand the Role of Arts and Culture in Addressing Common Issues (Economic Development, Education, Neighborhoods, etc.)
1. Regional Summit (Leadership Conference)
1. Purpose/Goals – New Vision for Region
2. Format/Timing – Early Sept. 2000, Present Cultural Plan Research Findings, Showcase Arts and Cultural Organizations, Leaders/Conveners present "testimony" on regional value of arts and culture and provide input on cultural plan.
3. Invitees – Leaders (100-120) from politics, business, arts and community
2. Regional Planning Commission (Working Group)
1. Purpose/Goals – Translate Summit Goals into Action Steps by developing a plan and serving as advocates for regional funding.
2. Participants – Team (12-20) sector representatives
3. Developing Regional Resources for Arts and Culture
1. Foster Regional Collaboration
1. Economic Development
2. Community Development
3. Education
4. Tourism
2. Develop Model and Mechanism for Regional Funding
1. Determine role, structure, activities, budget and funding as appropriate to regional needs and opportunities.
2. Models/Best Practices

For Background Section…

Several studies in recent years have confirmed the essential role of arts and culture in stimulating economic development through tourism and recruitment/retention of business, in educating our children and in revitalizing our neighborhoods and communities. Philadelphia and its surrounding suburban counties in Pennsylvania all benefit from the presence of arts and culture, from community arts centers to regional attractions like the Philadelphia Zoo and Parkway Museums.

This site last updated: May 21, 2002 22:05:38.