Cultural Organizations

A substantial number of the region's cultural organizations are operating with life-threatening deficits, according to a new study by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. But despite such specters, the alliance study shows that the 281 groups studied provided 19,000 jobs, attracted 15 million visitors, earned $657 million from tickets, rentals and other sources, and received $526 million in contributions. The data are contained in Portfolio 2008, the second broad statistical analysis of cultural groups performed by the alliance and released yesterday.

‘Set in Stone," the University of Chicago Cultural Policy Center's recently released study about the misguided cultural building boom of the 1990s and 2000s, has generated commentary around the country, including in The Inquirer. The study portrays a climate of cultural organizations gone wild, betting their futures on their ability to build and manage glamorous new buildings. Sadly, the good advice of the study and the ensuing commentary is being offered with 20/20 hindsight to many organizations that are now in financial turmoil as a result of such projects.

The Pew Charitable Trusts has announced a number of grants in the arts, inluding $831,000 to eight cultural organizations to enhance management, $873,000 to seven theaters, presenters and stage performers, and $2.1 million in operating support to 10 area cultural groups. Descriptions of the management grants can be found on the website of the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage here: www.philly.com/pewmanage For a descriptions of the theater grants, go to the Pew center's website here: www.philly.com/pewtheater The operating grants can be found here: www.philly.com/pewoperate    - Stephan Salisbury

TONIGHT, America's eyes will (hopefully) be glued to the final presidential debate between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry as they discuss domestic policy. Instead of feeling the chills and thrills of "CSI," or pondering the reality of love or money on "The Bachelor," we'll be getting a glimpse of what our lives might be like over the next four years. That future will be the result of presidential decisions affecting a key part of every community - its arts and culture.

The nonprofit culture industry in the Philadelphia area - everything from the Philadelphia Museum of Art to the Hedgerow Theatre in Rose Valley, Delaware County - is a vast fabric that supports $564 million in annual spending and 11,000 jobs and generates $16 million in state and city taxes every year, according to a comprehensive study by the Pennsylvania Economy League. The $200,000 study, released yesterday, makes clear that cultural organizations based here "represent a major competitive advantage for the region" in the effort to attract jobs and businesses.

Most cultural organizations report that ticket sales are holding steady or growing at the same time government and corporate support is declining significantly in the recession, according to a new survey by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. Just over 70 percent of the 80 cultural groups responding to the questions said giving by individuals was steady or up in the last six months. But a third of the organizations reported declines in corporate support, 38 percent said government funding was down, and 53 percent said income from endowment funds had declined.

The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance believes it can help double audience participation at area arts events over the next 12 years. And the Pew Charitable Trusts has put up $5 million to help finance an elaborate marketing effort - called Engage 2020 - to push for that goal, officials intend to announce today. The Wallace Foundation and the Philadelphia Foundation also are providing funds for the project's initial $6.3 million, four-year effort. "What we're talking about is getting more Philadelphians involved in arts and culture," said Tom Kaiden, chief operating officer of the alliance.

As part of the final phase of a project to improve the marketing of Philadelphia cultural organizations, the Pew Charitable Trusts yesterday announced grants to 13 projects, including cooperative box offices and direct- mail and broadcast-advertising campaigns. "The 13 different projects as a whole cover a very broad range of marketing initiatives," said Marian A. Godfrey, the Pew's program director for culture. She said the projects, which will receive a total of $1.4 million, would allow the cultural community to experiment with advertising approaches.

Judging from the rush for free tickets to this week's Center City Arts & Culture Fest, the allure of culture is strong - especially at the right price. Special promotions like the Oct. 19-22 festival - see details at http://go.philly.com/artsfest - give audiences a welcome chance to sample the city and region's rich cultural offerings. Every arts patron, though, knows there is no free lunch for theaters, galleries, concert halls and museums during the rest of the year. In fact, the only people who continue to believe in that fairy tale may be local and state elected officials.

Former Philadelphia Orchestra president and CEO James Undercofler has accepted a full professorship in arts administration at Drexel University, where he will also develop an institute exploring new models for cultural organizations. Undercofler, 63, will begin teaching courses in arts leadership, development, organizational structure, and arts education in September at Drexel's Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design. The move represents a full-time return to academia for Undercofler.

Tapper and choreographer Savion Glover will perform as part of the opening weekend of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, organizers said Wednesday, bringing a bit of the young and the funk to the second edition of the festival, which opens March 28 and runs through April 27. Jazz pianist and record producer Robert Glasper, Panamanian jazz artist Danilo Pérez and the Panama 500 Band, instrumentalist and composer DJ Dan Deacon, the...

Arts and cultural organizations have a multibillion-dollar impact on the Philadelphia region's economy, and are among the nation's most productive in creation of jobs and stirring up economic activity. Only those in the Washington area generate more per-capita expenditures, and in terms of jobs, no region comes close to Southeastern Pennsylvania. Cultural activity generates nearly $170 million in state and local taxes annually and supports 44,000 jobs within the city and its four suburban Pennsylvania counties, according to a study set for release Monday by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance.

‘Set in Stone," the University of Chicago Cultural Policy Center's recently released study about the misguided cultural building boom of the 1990s and 2000s, has generated commentary around the country, including in The Inquirer. The study portrays a climate of cultural organizations gone wild, betting their futures on their ability to build and manage glamorous new buildings. Sadly, the good advice of the study and the ensuing commentary is being offered with 20/20 hindsight to many organizations that are now in financial turmoil as a result of such projects.

The Pew Charitable Trusts has announced a number of grants in the arts, inluding $831,000 to eight cultural organizations to enhance management, $873,000 to seven theaters, presenters and stage performers, and $2.1 million in operating support to 10 area cultural groups. Descriptions of the management grants can be found on the website of the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage here: www.philly.com/pewmanage For a descriptions of the theater grants, go to the Pew center's website here: www.philly.com/pewtheater The operating grants can be found here: www.philly.com/pewoperate    - Stephan Salisbury

The region's cultural organizations are showing signs of recovery from the fiscal crisis and deep recession that began in 2007, according to an annual survey conducted by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. Individual giving is up, foundation support is up, earned income is up, and even some hiring is under way, the survey shows. "This recovery is a testament both to how organizations have restructured and how Philadelphians have placed a high value on culture in their communities," Tom Kaiden, alliance president, said in a statement.

Philadelphia-area arts patrons rightly are being called "the heroes of the region's cultural sector" for having stepped up to the box office in greater numbers during the brutal recession, even as deep-pocketed businesses and philanthropies retreated on aid to culture. Even with those heroic efforts, however, a new survey by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance of the recession's impact in 2009 shows cultural organizations were "hanging on by their fingertips" to stay open, according to GPCA president Tom Kaiden.

The first comprehensive look at how the region's arts and cultural organizations fared financially during the steep recession of 2009 does not present a pretty picture. Usually operating on the thinnest of margins even during good times, half of the region's arts groups plunged dramatically into the red as the recession took hold in fiscal 2009. The financial analysis, the third biennial report on the cultural sector undertaken by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, shows sharp declines in investment and interest income, and in corporate, foundation, and government support.

One of the sculptures in the new City Hall art gallery consists of rather rowdy dogs and other small animals in party hats, lounging around a table; toppled chairs serve as evidence of the raucous time they've had. A few nights ago, Gary Steuer, the city's chief cultural officer, was working late in his office when he heard noises from the gallery. Peeking in, he saw a worker setting the table and chairs aright. "No! No!" Steuer exclaimed to the startled worker. "You can't do that - it's art!"

Tom Kaiden, longtime advocate for the region's artistic and cultural offerings and acting director of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, has been named president of the organization. Kaiden, 51, succeeds Peggy Amsterdam, who died of cancer in December. Amsterdam served as president for nearly a decade, with Kaiden as the chief operating officer for most of that period. "I would say Tom is the right guy for the right time," said Hal Real, president of the alliance's board of directors and a member of the search committee.

Grants amounting to more than $1.7 million will be given to nearly 40 regional cultural organizations through two funding programs, according to arts officials. On Friday, the PNC Foundation, philanthropic arm of the financial services company, announced $1 million in grants to more than two dozen organizations as part of PNC's Arts Alive program, a three-year cultural funding effort now in its second year. Earlier this month, the Philadelphia Foundation and the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance announced the first 10 organizations to receive $750,000 through their Innovation Grants program, which seeks to foster creative programming to attract new audiences.