What Philly’s arts and culture scene needs: eight ideas to kick off the conversation

Philadelphia’s arts and culture building boom turned a very good arts scene into a great one. More than three decades have passed since that expansion began, launching Center City’s renaissance. Well north of $1 billion in public and private money has been spent renovating, building, and creating new theaters and museums from scratch. The audiences have followed.

It’s hard to imagine the artscape without the Kimmel Center, the Arden Theatre Company, or the Museum of the American Revolution. But now, supercharged arts expansion is probably over.

The latest reports put attendance at roughly 20% lower than pre-pandemic levels for many arts and culture groups. While it’s fine for organizations to hope for a rebound, it’s not wise to count on one.

We’ve built all this capacity. It’s time to consider what’s next.

The city may not need more seats. What it does need, however, is to channel the same energy that went into our building spree into rebuilding audiences, creating excitement, and making new art.

Before going forward, it’s smart to think about why. The reason to reboot ambition isn’t to ensure the health of the arts community or to satisfy the appetites of arts aficionados — or even to boost the vitality of the city.

We should pursue next steps on behalf of a very specific arts demographic: those who know nothing about it.

Imagine not yet having seen The Nutcracker. Or heard Beethoven’s piano sonatas. Or knowing the work of Horace Pippin, Thornton Wilder, or Marian Anderson. The arts patrons of tomorrow — some are children, others newbies — have life-changing experiences waiting for them, and there’s no more worthy act of public good than to cast the net as wide as possible for these arts-lovers-to-be.

We need new goals. And we can’t wait for our new mayor to lead the next phase in arts development. Elected officials don’t act without a mandate. It’s up to the arts community to provide one. As the late city planner Edmund Bacon used to say: When the people lead, the leaders will follow. So here’s a list of ideas to kick-start the conversation and to encourage the arts to do what they do best: dream.

The focus has long been on bringing the people to the arts in Center City, and that will no doubt continue. But a variety of factors point to a future in the neighborhoods and suburbs. Whether caused by a media pile-on about crime in the city or a demographic trend accelerated by the pandemic, some arts lovers seem determined to never come east of the Schuylkill and west of the Delaware River again. A few downtown groups are eyeing more concerts in neighborhoods and suburbs. This is where the growth is going to be.

Everyone agrees. We need more trains and buses and they need to be safer and cleaner. It’s important to realize how closely tied the fortunes of concerts, exhibitions, and other cultural events are to public transportation.

It’s about the talent pipeline. After-school and summer programs are the growth fertilizer of arts education — some students advance as much in two months of summer intensives as in the rest of the year. More of these programs, whether they ultimately produce artists or audience members of the future, are critical.

The revival of the Met Philadelphia has been a success, and Philadelphia Ballet has broken ground on an expanded headquarters and studio building. And yet the “light masts” in the median of North Broad Street have done little to bring a sense of cohesion to the streetscape. If North Broad is to become more pedestrian-friendly (and friendly in general), it’s going to need a streetscape that does a better job of communicating intent — as in, there’s something exciting going on here.

Let’s say it plainly: The high rents and related costs of performing at the Kimmel Center make it impossible for many groups to perform there. The Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center Inc. needs to establish an endowed fund to subsidize rental fees for groups like Astral Artists, Symphony in C, chamber ensembles, dance companies, and theater troupes. Through a lottery or juried application process, the Kimmel could award 50 or 100 slots per year for smaller groups to perform in the Perelman and Verizon at reduced cost. Performing at the Kimmel brings visibility and prestige, and the arts center needs to make good on its claim that it’s for everyone.

It’s obvious every time the Philadelphia Ballet and Opera Philadelphia orchestras perform that a bigger ensemble would bring up the level of the entire experience. Audiences may not always be fully conscious of it, but when they are enveloped in sound, they perceive what they’re seeing differently — it has greater emotional impact. While they’re at it, the building’s stewards should restore the lush, golden murals on the Academy’s ceilings. The Philadelphia Orchestra has done a superb job since 1994 of renovating and restoring the building, wisely prioritizing and sequencing the project. Still, to look up at the Academy murals and see punctures in the plaster is painful.

There’s been talk for more than three decades about establishing a dedicated funding source for arts and culture. Other cities have done it. Denver has a Scientific and Cultural Facilities District tax — a penny-per-$10 sales tax in the seven-county Denver area. In 2021, the SCFD distributed just over $75 million to more than 300 organizations. Other cities have devised similar vehicles for funding the arts. Philly can’t?

Yes, the pandemic was damaging. But the miracle of the shutdown recovery is how successfully Philadelphia groups survived artistically. The Philadelphia Orchestra didn’t perform together for a live audience for more than a year, yet emerged with its skill and core personality intact. Museums like the African American Museum in Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts are taking chances with ambitious exhibitions.

Coming up with a campaign to convey the artistic riches in the city, neighborhoods, and suburbs shouldn’t be difficult. All it has to do is tell the truth. In arts and culture, Philadelphia has the real thing. Not every city does. That’s a story just itching to be told.