Mile-High Musings on Arts, Culture, Creativity and Philanthropy

The newest "guerrilla musical" by the New York-based group Improv Everywhere is called " Grocery Store Musical " (photo on left) was just recently shared with me and is very cool. It got me thinking about this whole new trend towards finding ways to insert art into our everyday lives, in ways that are designed to jolt us out of our complacency, our routine. Many have seen the Belgian train station choreographed dance , which has been seen THIRTEEN MILLION times. A special favorite of mine is a flash mob dance routine that appeared in an episode of Weeds (featuring a great song by Michale Franti and Spearhead!). Check it out here . And in Philly a flash mob dance was organized on the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps. (With apologies to the organizers, not in the same league as the best of this sort of work - keep trying!) There is a group called " Urban Prankster " that has a web site and documents these sort of flash mob projects all around the world, b...

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the federal Community Development Block Grant program received $1 billion in additional funding. Philadelphia's share of that allocation worked out to about $14 million. As part of its effort to foster the cultural and creative economy sector as an integrated component of building healthy communities, the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy (OACCE) was able to create a new $500,000 grant program as part of Philadelphia's plan for use of these funds, with the support of both the Mayor and the City Council. This grant program will include the nonprofit arts and culture community as well as for-profit arts, entertainment and creative businesses, and is a part of the Office's larger strategy to nurture and develop this sector by providing specific programs and resources to the creative industries. This grant program also intersects with The Commerce Department’s business services, neighborhood development, busi...

Philadelphia's two original Percent for Art programs, the program of the Redevelopment Authority , and the City of Philadelphia program , have collaborated on a celebration of the 50th anniversary of their creation in 1959 - the first such ordinances in the nation. More info is available here. A wonderful exhibit has been mounted at the Art Institute of Philadelphia gallery on Chestnut Street which features the work of student photographers from four of our leading arts colleges - Moore College of Art, University of the Arts, the Tyler School at Temple, and the Art Institute - interpreting the City's public art collection through their photographs. The idea was to not just highlight the work of art, but show it "in action," as part of the life of the City, and as perceived by young artists. In addition, a symposium was held last Thursday that featured a panel of artists and curators - Andrea Blum, Dennis Oppenheim, Damon Rich and Adelina Vlas, with Aaron Levy from th...