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

The City of Philadelphia Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy has been challenged since its (re)establishment in late 2008 with the fact that it was (re)built by bringing together some of the programs and staff that had been housed in the Office of Arts and Culture when in last existed before being closed. This meant we ended up with staff in four different offices spread over two different buildings. We have also been addressing  how to enliven City Hall itself with more cultural activity. Two ideas emerged: 1) create a new office space large enough to accommodate all current staff and some interns and maybe a little bit of growth (a guy can dream can't he?) and put it right on the first floor of City Hall where it can be visible and accessible to the public. 2) create a new art gallery space in City Hall, ideally on the first floor where it can be accessed without having to clear security. One of the issues the Art in City Hall program has always had to address is t...