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

As some may have already heard, I have been appointed the new President and Chief Executive Officer of the  Bonfils-Stanton Foundation  in Denver, Colorado. I am so excited about taking on this new challenge but, of course, sorry to be leaving my friends and colleagues here in Philadelphia. Here is the link to the  City of Philadelphia press release , and to  the Foundation release . Someone congratulated me with the quote "Go West Young Man", which I took as a reference to Horace Greeley who coined the term. He meant it as a reference to the Pet Shop Boys Song , which somehow passed me by completely. (Well, I know how it passed me by - I have a 90's popular culture black hole from the era when I was parenting two young children!) I feel proud of my accomplishments in Philadelphia as Chief Cultural Officer and director of the  Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy , and feel that I am leaving a strong legacy, and a great team in place. I will als...

On June 19th I delivered a commencement address to the graduating class of Philadelphia's High School of the Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA). A number of people asked me to post it. Text is below... Greetings everyone, Principal Whaley, parents, students, faculty and all special guests. I am Gary Steuer, the Chief Cultural Officer for the City of Philadelphia, and I run the City’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy. It is my great honor to be here to today to celebrate these outstanding graduates, the best creative young people that our City can produce. Being a part of this program has a special resonance for me. While I did not go to CAPA, or even grow up in Philadelphia, I can relate to all of the students graduating today. That is because I graduated from LaGuardia High School for the Arts in New York City, which is the equivalent of CAPA in New York. In fact I graduated 40 years ago, almost to the day. So I was in your shoes a long time ago. I al...

First off, let me apologize for having been so remiss in my blogging activities the past few months. I have tried to keep up with my social networking connections, so I have not disappeared entirely from the digital universe, but I have dropped the ball on my blog. No excuses other than the usual: work, kids, STUFF. So what momentous news has lured me back to the blogosphere? It is the launch of an exciting new project this week in Philadelphia: CultureBlock s. Click this link for the press release announcing the project. And here is a link to a one-sheeter describing the project. CultureBlocks is a web-based mapping tool that has built into it over 50 different types of data that can be layered onto a map of Philadelphia in infinite ways. The project was initiated by the City of Philadelphia Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy along with several core partners: The Reinvestment Fund , the Social Impact of the Arts Project of the University of Pennsylvania (SI...

The Art Gallery at City Hall recently opened our newest exhibition, in partnership with Fresh Artists - "Mini-Masterpieces from the Barnes Foundation" - and it is a stunner. The show features an array of pictures created by Philadelphia School District children (from Hancock and Henry elementary schools) that are inspired by the iconic paintings of the Barnes Foundation collection. Originally developed to be reproduced and installed on panels affixed to the construction fencing that surrounded the site while the Barnes on the Parkway was being built, this installation now brings the work of these talented young people into City Hall, installed and hung in "Barnesian ensembles" that include student-made replicas of the metal hinges and objects that Barnes famously included in his ensembles. We have even painted the walls of our gallery beige to replicate the color of the wall covering in the Barnes galleries. Fresh Artists is a unique non-profit social busin...

My past two blog posts have surveyed, first, Philadelphia's arts and culture gifts shops , followed by New York City's cultural gift shops . Essentially I've been exploring museum gift shops, but I have also noted some gift shops at botanical gardens, zoos and other cultural venues. So now, in the third, and probably final, installment of this survey, I am going to cover a selection of shops across the country. This is not scientific - the list is drawn from museum and other cultural gift shops I have enjoyed visiting in the course of my travels. So if your favorite is not on this list, don't be offended - post a comment, and I will do my best to visit it if I am ever passing through that city/town. Getty Center Museum and Getty Villa (Los Angeles and Malibu) - The Getty Center Museum in LA has an excellent gift shop, as well as an excellent online store. Because of their strong photography collection and exhibitions program, there are often good photography-base...

After getting started with a survey of notable cultural/museum gift shops in Philadelphia last week, I am continuing the tour with a survey of my favorite shops in New York, where I spent so much time in my career (not to mention money in museum gift shops!). This list is in no particular order. I will admit, have been been back only irregularly for the past four years, so apologies if something is out of date. Feel free to post comments with suggested corrections/additions and I will do my best to update. MoMA - The Museum of Modern Art's gift shop is really a suite of shops. There is the MoMA Design and Book Store at street level at the museum, and there is a bookstore in the museum. Across the street from the museum is the larger MoMA Design Store that features the Muji "store within a store."  There is also a SoHo store in NYC and a Tokyo store. I happen to be a HUGE fan of MoMA's design store. An incredible assortment of the best of both contemporary and...

Note: This was originally posted about six months ago, and with the holiday season upon us, I figured it was time to update and repost! The tourism web site UWISHUNU (from the Greater Philadelpia Tourism Marketing Corporation) has also recently published its guide to Philadelphia Museum gift shops, which is available here . Happy shopping! I have been a huge fan of museum and other arts organization gift shops for years. My work has given me the opportunity to explore lots of organizations, in NY, Philadelphia, and to some extent all across the country. Some are well known - others are hidden gems. The best ones have excellent buyers that find products relevant to the exhibitions, collections or presentations of the institution, but also stock unique artisinal creations by artists, craftspeople and designers that have a sense of place or direct connection to the organization's artistic focus. I am not talking about t-shirts and other logo-emblazoned merchandise, or touristy ...