The Big Canvas: Fiscal tightness creates opportunities?

In times of tight budgets – from family budgets up to the federal budget – it’s often smartest to look for other kinds of support than fiscal.

Yes, our arts and culture institutions are looking for more fiscal support.  From small to large – the Point Breeze Arts Center to the Kimmel Center – our arts and culture institutions operate on the edge.  And that edge gets very thin in times like these.

Still, if what we’ve learned at through the Big Canvas forums to develop a regional strategy to support arts and culture in the Delaware Valley is any indication, citizens and organizational leaders alike think there are additional things that can be done in the short term.  Things like “communicate, coordinate and collaborate” to take better advantage of existing resources.  Or like being explicit on the qualitative benefits the arts and culture bring to neighborhoods and communities.  None of this would take addition dollars, but would require using existing dollars differently.  But it’s a difference that could make a difference.

And it’s a difference that could, citizens told us again and again in forums across the five counties, build real public support now and into the future.  Public support that could translate into dollars later.

We’ll discuss these and related ideas at The Big Canvas Confab: Rally for Arts and Culture.  It’s this Saturday, December 6th at the Radisson Valley Forge Hotel and Convention Center.  We’ll start at 1 p.m. and be done at 4, so you can do holiday shopping before or after the Rally.

Join us and work with citizens, arts and culture organization leaders and elected officials to craft a strategy that will strengthen arts and culture for individuals, for communities and organizations into the future.

To sign up for the free event, and for a free trolley from center city Philadelphia,

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