The report that they're reacting to

Arts & Culture in the Metropolis was published by the RAND Corporation in the thick of the primary. It pointed out that, as strong as Philadelphia's cultural sector may be, it does not have the funding of the city or the attention of a high-level city office.

The report caught the attention of the mayoral candidates, three of whom now have specific arts plans that refer to the report. You can read the RAND report here.

If you want more information on what the candidates would do to support the arts, the Philadelphia Cultural Alliance will host a candidates' forum on April 15. Click here for details.

Understanding the issue

Philadelphia's spectacular variety of artistic and cultural offerings -- as well as its artists, their work, and the supportive retailers, galleries and other businesses they create -- are among our greatest treasures. Anyone who has spent time in other cities realizes how fortunate we are to live in the heart of a creative city. However, Philly's arts scene may look stronger than it is. A new report from the RAND Corporation said city support for the arts is not as healthy as in many other cities -- leaving one of Philadelphia's signature industries in danger of losing its luster to newer places, such as Charlotte or Denver. One significant problem, said RAND, was the lack of a single office in City Hall to coordinate arts programs. For more on the size and strength of Philadelphia's cultural scene, read the Philadelphia Cultural Alliance's Portfolio report.

Compare the candidates

Four candidates, so far, have issued specific plans that say what they'd do for Philadelphia's arts and cultural communities. Here's a comparison between Brady's, Evans', Fattah's and Nutter's arts plans.

BOB BRADY

Leadership: Brady's Creative Economy Plan would consolidate city arts groups under the newly created Office of Cultural and Creative Community Affairs -- which would, in turn, be charged with creating a "business plan" for Philadelphia's creative economy.

The neighborhoods: Brady specifically targets the Avenue of the Arts North -- the North Broad Street corridor -- and the riverfront in the Northeast as good locations to encourage growth of arts and culture organizations. He suggests the city anticipate, rather than react to, " the movement of Philadelphia’s artistic and creative communities into Nicetown, Fishtown and the Northern River Wards. . . . Revitalizing North Broad Street and the Northern River communities could then pave the way for a sweeping re-birth moving west from the Delaware across the Northeast. "

Money: Calls for a dedicated stream of city money for the arts -- perhaps $60 million per year, as recommended in the RAND report. He'd establish a Non-Profit Cultural Fund Endowment to help grow city support for the arts beyond (and, if it happened, undoubtedly more stable than) what's offered in each year's budget. Money for that could come from a change to the city's "one percent for art" -- an ordinance that requires developers that get any city money to spend one percent of the cost of a building on public art. Brady would instead funnel that money to his endowment.

DWIGHT EVANS

Leadership: In his jobs plan, Evans called for making Philadelphia the "Hollywood of the East" by promoting television and film production and music recording. In his arts plan, he commits to re-establishing the city's Office of Arts and Culture and reinstituting the volunteer Mayor’s Arts and Culture Advisory Council. One of their jobs would be to create a marketing campaign to raise awareness of Philadelphia’s cultural organizations
and events and look for ways to attract more visitors to Philadelphia.

The neighborhoods: Evans says he would push to expand arts opportunity in neighborhoods that don't have arts organizations now and would work to bring free or low-cost performances to neighborhoods -- and he has a particularly good idea to encourage arts events near public transportation.

Money: Evans says he would work to gain support from neighboring counties to prepare a referendum asking voters to support the creation of a regional tax district to fund our arts and culture industry, an idea that's worked in other places (he cites Denver). He also commits to leading the charge for more corporate and grant support for the arts, funding sources that Philly's arts organizations sorely lack. Says he would "work with City Council" to find ways to increase city funding for the arts, but does not set a goal for how much.

He does say he would ask developers to increase the one percent of each major construction projects that they currently give to public art to two percent.

CHAKA FATTAH

Leadership: Fattah's plan would also re-establish the city's Office of Arts and Culture. And he'd form an arts and culture council of local arts leaders to "meet regularly and advise the Mayor on arts and culture issues." He'd keep the one percent for public art projects, which he supports. Fattah's plan, unlike every other candidate's, states outright that he wants the Barnes Foundation gallery in Philadelphia -- and the Youth Study Center off the Ben Franklin Parkway (he also calls for the city to produce a master plan for the future development of the Ben Franklin Parkway). He states his support for public events such as Welcome America, for a proposed R&B Museum at Broad and South streets and for the preservation of the Boyd Theater, though no concrete funding is attached to those projects.

The neighborhoods: Fattah offers a few simple-but-intriguing ideas to promote the arts throughout the city: create a city-wide, high school art competition, for example, and hang the winners' work in City Hall. Or create an open "wiki-calendar" to allow smaller arts groups to promote their work, as the Philadelphia Fun Guide does for bigger institutions. He'd ask the Philadelphia Cultural Alliance to market its discounted ticket program, FunSavers, to schools and youth groups. He also wants to use vacant industrial space for artist co-ops.

He calls on Philadelphia's Cultural Institutions to work closely with schools -- and says he'd use school involvement as a barometer when deciding which arts groups should be funded. He also says he'd "look to partner" with organizations provide arts-based learning experiences to students who do not have arts education .

Money: Fattah commits to increase the city's annual arts and culture spending by 25 percent, plus fully meeting Philadelphia's commitment to funding the Art Museum (the city is supposed to pay for its maintenance costs, but it doesn't now) -- over the course of his first term. He says he would ensure that multi-cultural arts organizations receive an equitable share of that city funding, though he doesn't set a specific goal. He does set a goal for increasing the Mural Arts Program's budget: by 15 percent.

He'd create a 5% wage and sales tax credit to attract a larger share of film and television work to Philadelphia, and explore adding cultural employers to any city-wide insurance pool he can create.

MICHAEL NUTTER

Leadership: He, too, would re-open the city's Office of Arts and Culture. And his plan has an interesting idea to appoint arts and culture leaders to the boards of some of the City’s economic development agencies, "to ensure that this important perspective is represented" -- and, one would think, to introduce corporate leaders to arts organizations. And he would make the City’s cable channel available as an  outlet for music and other performers.

The neighborhoods: Nutter dwells on the importance of arts education. He commits to ensuring that every child in a Philadelphia school get at least two "arts and culture experiences" each year -- one of which would be a visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He also got some headlines for promising to work with corporations that have luxury boxes at local sports arenas and cultural facilities to give unused tickets to city kids. And he says he will work to influence the School Reform Commission to ensure that music is taught in all school and work to add arts and culture offerings to after-school programs.

Nutter also singles out three groups that he says should get help from the city to develop an endowment or fund-raising program: Avenue of the Arts North and the Freedom Theater, the African American Museum, and Taller Puertorriqueno.

Money: Nutter makes a firm commitment: He would increase city funding to Cultural Fund by $1 million in his first year, "with a goal of raising the operating budget to at least $6 million" by the end of his first term. He also commits to restoring city funding that has been promised to a number of city arts groups, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art (the city is supposed to pay its maintenance costs). He also promises funding to the Atwater Kent Museum, the Mural Arts Program, the Greater Philadelphia Film Office and the Mann Music Center. He says the costs for these efforts would be "minimal" and that the money could come from the general fund.

His arts-education programs would be supported by an effort to get more money from corporate donors. As for supporting Freedom Theater, AAMP and Taller Puertorriqueno, to help them he'd use neighborhood economic development funds, including the city's Neighborhood TIF Program.