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

The City of Philadelphia’s visual art exhibition program Art In City Hall , in collaboration with the National Arts Program Foundation , last night opened the 10th National Arts Program at Philadelphia, an exhibition featuring works of art by City of Philadelphia government employees and their families, including children.  Participants of this year’s exhibit come from many different departments and agencies in City government, including DHS, Law, Commerce, Free Library, Prisons, Police, Fire, Water, Courts, City Council and more. The exhibition is open to the public from December 17 to February 19, 2010 and is located on the fifth floor of City Hall, north corridor. The thing I love about this program is how it engages the full scope of Philadelphia's public employees, and shows that we have social workers, police officers, fire fighters, code enforcement officials, attorneys, administrators, etc. who are artists. These are people who make MAKING art a part of their life, a...

This past Wednesday Senators Tom Coburn and John McCain issued a new report purporting to identify 100 projects funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) that they feel raise questions about the effective use of these funds. This report has been covered in the media (see this Wall Street Journal story ) and once again has raised the point - why is investing in the arts as part of recovery somehow considered to be, by its very nature, inappropriate?  The list includes a number of arts projects funded by the NEA's stimulus grant program as well as other ARRA categories. A quick overview of the arts related projects on the McCain/Coburn list: $225K for Shakespeare theatre festivals in several different communities. $100k to "Anti-Capitalist, Socially-Conscious Puppet Shows (which includes $25K to Philadelphia's Spiral Q Puppet Theatre ). What they define as "Clown Theatrical Production" - actually our own Philadelphia-based Pig Iron Theatre...

Andrew Taylor posted this Obama quote from the Kennedy Center Honors that I thought I would share: “ In times of war and sacrifice, the arts — and these artists — remind us to sing and to laugh and to live. In times of plenty, they challenge our conscience and implore us to remember the least among us. In moments of division or doubt, they compel us to see th e common values that we share; the ideals to which we aspire, even if we sometimes fall short. In days of hardship, they renew our hope that brighter days are still ahead. ” Well said Mr. President (or at least, great speechwriter...)!  Thanks for sharing Andrew.

Susan Stamberg of NPR gave a great talk this past Friday at the Philadelphia Museum of Art on the subject of "why museums matter."  In fact, though she used visual art and museums as a theme, she was really talking about the larger issues of the importance of the arts. Her talk was wide ranging and much more personal than the usual arts advocacy "why the arts are important" talk, which was why it was so refreshing. Also, having heard Susan on the radio for so many years, it was also a treat to finally see and hear her in person - voice connected to a real live human being. It was hard to take notes during her talk, because I did not want to be distracted from her words by trying to write them down. A few phrases stuck with me from her remarks. She rhetorically asked why we don't ask "why do we need rain," that art "soaks us with discovery." She noted (and believe this may have been a quote from someone else) that "art will save the...

As a follow-up to my earlier post, here is a link to the work of Duncan Speakman , an artist using MP3 players and sound to create a "subtle mob" as he calls it. Here is the direct link to his newest project, called " as if it were the last time ." It is almost as if we need to create a new art form category of experiential, immersive, participatory art. I don't feel that any existing art form categories adequately capture this new developing body of work.

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...