December 2012 Press Highlights 10/7/2012 – 12/16/2012 Editor, “United We Stand - Listings” Sunday Tribune, 10/07/2012 Collins, Shannon, “Cultural Alliance Elects Opera Company’s David Devan as Chair, Welcomes 10 New Board Members Generocity, 10/18/2012 Editor, “Public Briefings on Our New Strategic Plan” William Penn Foundation, 10/22/2012 Jones, Ayana, “Devan to chair board of Cultural Alliance” The Philadelphia Tribune, 10/23/2012 Shapiro, Howard, “’Theatre Philadelphia’: A celebration, then the plot thickens” The Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/23/2012 Barr, Melany, “Visitors interact with Penn Museum’s ‘Imagine Africa’ exhibit” The Daily Pennsylvanian, 10/23/2012 Editorial Board, “Why don’t we put on a show?” The Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/27/2012 Editor, “Arts and Culture Council hosts workshop” Bucks County Herald, 11/15/2012 Editor, “Women of Distinction | Philadelphia Business Journal” Philadelphia Business Journal, 11/23/2012 Salisbury, Stephan, “William Penn head abruptly leaves post” The Philadelphia Inquirer, 11/30/12 MacDonald, Tom, “Arts flex their business muscle in Philadelphia” NewsWorks and WHYY, 12/2/2012 Salisbury, Stephan, “Amid struggles, Jewish museum strives for broader appeal” The Philadelphia Inquirer, 12/3/2012 Zebe, Mike, “On the Boards” The Philadelphia Inquirer, 12/3/2012 Editor, “Your Guide To The Philebrity Award Nominations For Non-Profit Of The Year.” Philebrity, 12/3/2012 Copeland, Karin, “Business and the arts” Philadelphia Business Journal, 12/7/2012 Norris, Michael, “Though No Cure-All, Murals Have the Power to Transform” PhilaCulture, 12/10/2012 Brubaker, Harold, “Study: Philly has had $2.2 billion in community development over 20 years” The Philadelphia Inquirer, 12/12/2012
Kaiden, Tom, “Letter to the Editor: Luring tourists to the region� The Philadelphia Inquirer, 12/16/2012
http://www.generocity.org/2012/cultural-alliance-elects-opera-companys-david-devan-as-chair-welcomes10-new-board-members/
Cultural Alliance Elects Opera Company’s David Devan as Chair, Welcomes 10 New Board Members Shannon Collins October 18th, 2012
This week, The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance announced the election of its new Board Chair, David Devan, General Director of the Opera Company of Philadelphia. Just as the Opera Company of Philadelphia has recently embraced internal transformations, the Alliance is following their lead. “I have long admired the Cultural Alliance for its ability to provide a united voice to a broad variety of cultural groups, which together have a $3.3 billion impact on our region,” said Devan. “It has been a pleasure working with the Alliance and my fellow board members on a comprehensive strategic planning process to develop the priorities and tools to strengthen the sector. I look forward to working with Tom Kaiden and his staff to continue to advocate for the arts and their economic, educational, and intrinsic impact on the Philadelphia region. Other newly elected officers joining Devan include Vice Chairs Valerie Gay, Executive Director of Art Sanctuary, and Sean Buffington, President and CEO of The University of the Arts. Cultural Alliance President Tom Kaiden shared some insight behind the Alliance’s strategic perspective: “In explaining why he was a great hockey player, Wayne Gretzky said, ‘Because I skate to where the puck is going.’ These new board members, with their diverse perspective and experience, help us skate to where the puck is going. Our mission is to integrate culture into all aspects of Philadelphia’s life, as part of what makes this a world-class region. This board has the global view to do that.” The Cultural Alliance also welcomed ten new members to its Board of Directors. They are as follows:
Drew Becher, President of The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Catherine Cahill, President & Chief Executive Officer of The Mann Center for the Performing Arts Danielle Cohn, Vice President of Marketing & Communications at the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau Gregory Corbin, Founder/Executive Director of the Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement Katherine Hanrahan, Coach with the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation Virginia Logan, Executive Director of the Brandywine Conservancy Sharmain Matlock-Turner, President and CEO of the Urban Affairs Coalition Elizabeth Murphy, Vice President of External Affairs at PECO Natalye Paquin, Esq., Chief Executive Officer of the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania Siobhan Reardon, President and Director of the Free Library of Philadelphia
http://www.williampennfoundation.org/PublicBriefingsonOurNewStrategicPlan.aspx
Public Briefings on Our New Strategic Plan Editor October, 22 2012
In response to requests from grantees, partners, and other community stakeholders, the Foundation will convey our new strategic plan to members of the nonprofit, philanthropic, and civic sectors through a series of briefings and events presented by key partner organizations. We are grateful to our colleagues at the Delaware River Basin Commission, Delaware Valley Grantmakers, Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, Philadelphia Education Fund, and the Susquehanna River Basin Commission for providing these venues for public conversations. The following events are free and open to the public, although advance registration is required. Registration instructions vary for each event, so please follow the links or contact the individuals listed for more information. […] Briefing on Capitalizing Change: Creative Communities Jeremy Nowak, WPF President Presented by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance Time: Tuesday, November 13, coffee and registration at 10:30, presentation at 11:00. Location: Suzanne Roberts Theatre at Philadelphia Theatre Company, Host: Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/phillystage/175347826.html
'Theatre Philadelphia': A celebration, then the plot thickens Howard Shapiro October 23, 2012
Monday night signaled a turning point for Philadelphia's ever-expanding theater community in a region with 50-plus professional stage companies, almost 1,000 members of the professional Actors' Equity union, more new theater spaces under construction, plus audiences with seemingly insatiable appetites for live stage work. And Tuesday afternoon will mark a major step down a new road for that community. On Monday, 400 people, mostly theater professionals, came together at the Kimmel Center for what amounted to an ad hoc celebration of their industry's growth and, in a way, coming of age. They presented some long-established monetary awards and announced a new one. They honored the memory of one of the city's modern pioneers in theater arts. They enjoyed entertainment fitted to the occasion from some of their own. On Tuesday afternoon, they will come together again at the Arden Theatre Company, for a town hall-style meeting to decide what's next - how to move forward as a unified voice for theater, how to support new companies and young stage artists, and how to fulfill the specific marketing, audience, and production needs of the region's theaters. What brought all this on was the decision in the spring by the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia to dissolve itself. The alliance, a service group for the region's theater community, also operated the annual Barrymore Awards, honoring outstanding work. Now, the future of the awards - the alliance's most visible project, and one that boosted careers of recipients and the companies that hire them - is cloudy. Monday night's event was called "Theatre Philadelphia: A Celebration," and, in addition to bringing stage people together as a way of replacing the red-carpet Barrymore celebration that would have been held this month, it provided a means for awarding the last of the Barrymores: two cash awards, and a lifetime achievement award. The achievement award went posthumously to Jiri Zizka who, with his then-wife, Blanka - still artistic director of Wilma Theater - took over the small Wilma in 1979 and staged work that enlarged the notion of theater here for both audiences and artists. Zizka died of liver failure in January; he was 58.
The Barrymore cash awards - not disclosed last month when the performance and stage craft awards were announced by e-mail and on the Internet - went to the actordirector-choreographer Steve Pacek and to Flashpoint Theatre Company. Pacek won the $10,000 F. Otto Haas Award for an emerging artist. Like many theater professionals in the city, Pacek, 34, is homegrown (Lansdale) and visible on several stages here, and has chosen Philadelphia as the place to make a living in his field. He is a cofounder of the 11th Hour Theatre Company. The $25,000 Brown Martin Philadelphia Award, which recognizes a theater company for a production representing "the diverse individual, cultural and spiritual differences among us," went to Flashpoint Theatre Company, for last season's Slip/Shot, a new drama about race, family loyalty, and the way shifting impressions can play into what people call truth. Local playwright Jacqueline Goldfinger wrote Slip/Shot, and already had won a Barrymore for outstanding new play among the awards announced last month. Leaders of the celebration also announced a new, recurring $10,000 award, the June and Steve Wolfson Award for an outstanding small theater company, to be presented for the first time in 2013. What to do about the Barrymores - which over 18 years have been a source of grumbling about judging procedures even as they've been a source of pride - was a major point of discussion over the summer, as was what to do about the loss of the organization that represented Philadelphia-area theater, which produces upward of 180 professional shows a year. The Theatre Alliance's board had declared that it did not want to compete for funding with the theaters it served, and said the region now has such a vibrant theater community that its mission was fulfilled. No one can disagree about vibrancy; audiences here display an appetite for live theater, supporting not just the large pool of professional companies but also plenty of new work, plus one of the nation's largest festivals of fringe and experimental theater and a growing number of companies devising all their own work in group efforts - a relatively new model in the American theater. The alliance board's reasoning that theater professionals no longer needed a group to provide general services, run programs that nurture emerging companies, and market theater in general sounded like hokum to theater artists and artistic directors. So a group immediately came together to explore whether theater companies - from the Walnut Street Theatre, which has more than 50,000 subscribers, the most of any theater in the English-speaking world, to the fledgling but growing all-classics Quintessence Theatre Group - could operate without moral and practical support from one another.
"We were just trying to talk about what might happen; there were a lot of questions in the air," says Terrence J. Nolen, producing artistic director of Arden and one of the eight people who've been part of the discussion since the alliance folded. "Folks seemed to be galvanized by the idea that, although the theater community now is vital, an alliance or coalition can be really helpful for the overall theater ecology," he says. The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance had stepped in immediately to help continue some services, among them a website for job announcements and an Internet list-serve on which theater artists communicate. But the Cultural Alliance must represent all the arts, which worries some. "My fear is that the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance is so large, some smaller theater companies might get lost in the shuffle," said Kevin Glaccum, who runs one of those, Azuka Theatre, which performs in a new space in Center City. Glaccum is one of the eight who met to try to chart a course. "With an organization focused strictly on this discipline, theater, I think more people will get more service." So Monday night's celebration is over, and on Tuesday the group, which calls itself Theatre Philadelphia, will come together at the Arden with scores of other professionals, signing on to take control of what they hope will be a unified future.
http://www.thedp.com/article/2012/10/visitors-interact-with-penn-museums-imagine-africa-exhibit
Visitors interact with Penn Museum's 'Imagine Africa' exhibit Melany Barr October 23, 2012, 10:28 pm
“I want them to write on the walls.” When Director of Exhibitions at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology Kate Quinn first proposed this idea to the Museum’s staff, she was met with long stares. Charged with the task of re-envisioning the museum’s African collection and creating a more engaging museum experience, Quinn thought allowing visitors to write their thoughts and reactions right on the exhibit would really connect them to the Museum. Now, with whiteboard panels lined along the exhibit walls, visitors of Imagine Africa can do just that. The Imagine Africa project, launched September 2011, aims to engage the public in discussions about the museum’s African collection as part of a long-term plan to reimagine its gallery for a 21st-century audience. The collection, consisting of about 20,000 artifacts, was one of the earliest and remains one of the largest collections of African artifacts in the United States. The gallery was constructed “piecemeal” as objects arrived to the museum, explained Quinn, with “no strong driving narrative” to organize them. As they looked to a future makeover, Quinn’s team felt it was important to hear from the community. “We wanted to ask: what do you want to know, and how do you want us to tell you?” she said. The African collection remodel seemed to be the perfect occasion to pilot this audiencefeedback approach. Quinn plans for the exhibit were influenced by the 2010 Cultural Engagement Index, a biannual report published by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance,
which found that African Americans ranked among the highest in cultural engagement, a measurement based on how frequently respondents attended cultural events and how important those activities are to them. She noted that the Penn Museum was an exception to this Philadelphia-wide trend, and traditionally has not been particularly well-attended by African Americans. The Imagine Africa exhibit was an opportunity for the museum to attract more of the local Philadelphia community, explained exhibition developer Kevin Schott. Teams from the museum spent a full year preparing for the exhibit, going into West Philadelphia schools and community centers to consult people’s opinions on how the exhibit should be run. Building on that feedback, the exhibit developers created an interactive gallery presentation organized around broad topics ranging from healing practices to the history of enslavement. When visitors enter the gallery, they can select from a monitor several words and images that remind them of Africa. These are then displayed on the screens along the exhibit wall, giving the visitor an initial opportunity to visually impact the gallery. They can also select the music they want to hear from a jukebox near the entrance. “Visitors have a lot of autonomy here,” Schott said. Every evening, museum employees catalog the most recent comments and collect data from the day’s visits. Over the year since the gallery opened, Quinn said there has been between a 23 percent and 41 percent increase in attendance from the African-American community. The data has also shown that although visitors say they are visiting the museum to see the artifacts themselves, they spend quadruple the amount of time on interactive elements. “Something about that combination of interactivity and material culture is allowing people to experience this space more strongly,” Quinn said. As a consequence, the museum has integrated interactive elements into each part of the exhibit. Though the complete African collection remodel is still far into the future, the museum staff is already integrating the knowledge gleaned from the Imagine Africa data into current exhibitions.
For example, the Imagine Africa exhibit’s “Strength” section showcased two sets of bones — one from an enslaved man, the other from a free man — and was one of the highest scoring elements of the exhibit. In response to the great interest sparked by this display, the museum staff decided to develop an entire project on telling the history of race through the evidence of remains. The resulting “Year of Proof: Making & Unmaking Race” exhibit features the notorious Morton skull collection. Samuel Morton, a 19th-century physician and physical anthropologist, collected about 1,200 skulls to investigate his beliefs about racial hierarchy. This exhibit opened earlier this year in September. The Imagine Africa exhibit itself, originally set to end that same month, has been so successful that the museum decided to extend it beyond January 2013, giving visitors more opportunities to “tell us what they want while we’re especially listening,” Schott said. Evidence of the exhibit’s success is written on the walls. Among the opinions scribbled on the last wall panel before the gallery’s exit last Friday afternoon, three schoolchildren left behind their messages for the museum staff. For one, it was the “best time of my life!” Another asked for “more videos of mummy’s please,” and one student put in a request for “more [of] everything!!” LAST UPDATED OCTOBER 23, 2012, 10:28 PM
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq_ed_board/Why-dont-we-put-on-a-show.html
Why don't we put on a show? Editorial Board October 27, 2012
Leave it to Philadelphia's enthusiastic stage professionals to plan a rousing encore, now that the region's theatrical boosters' group - the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia - is going out of business. With the Alliance's departure from the theater scene goes the Barrymore Awards, rightly viewed as an important career-building honor for young and established artists alike. But beyond presenting a challenge to find another way to spotlight center-stage talent, the theatrical service group leaves a gap in terms of providing the region's stages with a unified voice. So it was encouraging, then, to see the final Barrymores announced Monday at a Kimmel Center gala dubbed "Theatre Philadelphia: A Celebration," and to have that followed the next day by a town hall-style brainstorming session. Meeting at the Arden Theatre Company, actors, stage managers and others pondered next moves, leaving with a pledge to explore specific strategies to work together on boosting audiences, fund-raising and supporting theater-group operations. While the arts sector has a strong advocate in Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance (GPCA), that larger umbrella group has a broader agenda to boost the region's entire cultural sector. As head of the 350-member group, Tom Kaiden says their aim is to be a resource for area theater without upstaging anyone or duplicating efforts. In effect, it's early in the rehearsal process for this discussion. Theater pros will have to explore whether, given an austere funding climate, it would make sense to debut another stand-alone advocacy group like the Theatre Alliance. What's hopeful is that these efforts come as the region's theater community is enjoying strong support among audiences. It should be easier to play to a crowd that's already on its feet.
http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/feature/women-of-distinction-2012.html
Women of Distinction Philadelphia Business Journal Editor November 23, 2012, 6:00am EST
The Philadelphia Business Journal honored its Women of Distinction for 2012 Nov. 27 at an event at the Sheraton Downtown Hotel. This year our panel of judges culled through nearly 300 nominations to select 31 women for their outstanding professional accomplishments and influence in their communities. Click through the slideshow to meet this year’s winners. Women of Distinction Honorees Gina Altieri, Catherine Avgiris, Elizabeth Hicklin Barber, Barbara Binis, Suzanne Boda, Yvette Bright, Mandy Cabot, Nanette Sciolla Carney, Catherine M. Cahill, Suzanne Chiavari, Julie Coker, Deborah Epstein Henry, Deborah Hays, Michelle Howard-Vital, Minne Iwamato, Carolyn Jackson, Alix A. James, Anne Sceia Klein, Kathleen Long, Debra Malinics, Stacy Martin, Donna M. Massanova, Jill Michal, Sheree Mixell, Esperanza Martinez Neu, Angela Snyder,, Nakia S. Stith, Audrey Claire Tiachman, Maria Juantorena Trafton Judges Jason T. Cataldi - Vice president of sales and marketing, IMS Audio Visual and President, ISES. Rosemary Fulton - Manager, Enterprise Systems Development, Aramark and President, Network of Women in Computer Technology. Linda Galante. - Stradley Ronon, partner and Women of Distinction Alum. Janet Grace - Senior project manager, AthenianRazak and Board member, Philadelphia Chapter of Commercial Real Estate Women. Eunice Heath - Senior director, Northeast government affairs and corporate citizenship – STEM education, The Dow Co. and Women of Distinction Alum. Tom Kaiden - President, Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. Mellanie Kai Lassiter - External affairs manager, PECO. Carol M. Meerschaert - Director of marketing and communications, Healthcare Businesswomen’s .
http://articles.philly.com/2012-11-30/news/35437245_1_jeremy-nowak-strategic-plan-foundation-moves/3
William Penn head abruptly leaves post Stephan Salisbury November 30, 2012
Jeremy Nowak, president of the William Penn Foundation for only 18 months, has left his position, the foundation announced Wednesday, catching the region's nonprofit and educational communities by surprise. Foundation officials said in a statement that "differences in approach regarding implementation" of William Penn's new strategic plan - developed during the aggressive Nowak's tenure - led to the departure. There was no hint it was coming - even foundation staff members were caught off guard. Nowak apparently left the office for good Tuesday evening. "Jeremy Nowak guided the William Penn Foundation to understand the challenges the region will face in the coming years and to help position the foundation to focus its resources to meet those challenges," board chairman David Haas said in a statement. "He will remain an important resource and adviser as the foundation moves forward in implementing its strategic plan." Gary Steuer, the city's chief cultural officer, said, "I'm as shocked as anyone by this. William Penn is a critically important player in the city's cultural landscape." William Penn's philanthropic role has escalated in the last decade as the Annenberg Foundation, once a regional bulwark, relocated to Los Angeles and the Pew Charitable Trusts, at one time wholly based in Philadelphia, moved much of its activity to Washington, D.C. That has left William Penn - its $2 billion in assets leavened by the 2009 gift of $750 million from John C. Haas, who died in 2011. (The foundation was started by Otto Haas, a founder of the Rohm and Haas chemical manufacturing company, and his wife, Phoebe, in 1945.) Sources say Nowak arrived in the summer of 2011 with a mandate from the foundation's board to address its emerging mega-role in the region and to craft a new focus with a sweeping strategic plan.
Previously, he was founding chief executive of the Reinvestment Fund, a well-known organization focused on urban development through housing, community arts centers, schools, commercial real estate, and sustainable energy projects. "Jeremy was brought in as a change agent," said Tom Kaiden, president of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. "Change is an important part of the strategic plan." Nowak also made a number of personnel changes, prompting some longtime foundation staffers to leave as new program officers came aboard. As speculation about his exit rippled from phone to e-mail to text around the region, one theme stood out: Nowak may have moved at a pace and in a direction that produced far too much friction at William Penn. "Jeremy was making a lot of change very fast," said a close observer, who emphasized the speculative nature of his comments. "William Penn is still a family foundation and family foundations tend to move slowly. . . . He moved too quickly and too aggressively and lost the support of the board." The changes in staff and strategic direction led to anxiety among grantees in the region, officials from all program areas said. And the substance of his vision - embrace of the private sector and lionization of "economic development" - made Nowak himself an issue. "He doesn't know enough about philanthropy and what its uses are and aren't," said one observer. Nevertheless, the strategic plan has been completed and is scheduled for implementation starting in January. Henceforth, it says, the foundation will focus on the achievement gap plaguing low-income students by "increasing the supply" of schools; on investment in public spaces to enhance Philadelphia as a "creative community;" and on ensuring clean water by protecting regional watersheds. In addition, the foundation will build two investment vehicles, a Transformation Fund and an Innovation Fund, to boost "breakthrough ideas" and "help key legacy organizations respond to changing conditions." In the past, it has focused on the same areas but in a far less formal fashion. In the cultural community, Nowak and foundation officials have said, some kinds of organizations will simply no longer be eligible for grants. Nancy Burd, head of the Burd Group consulting organization, sat in on public plan presentations and said the new plan seemed "to lock out a lot of sectors they've funded
in the past." That, she added, "was not well received by the community. . . . There seemed a clear message that the history community would be eliminated." The foundation's changing direction with schools has already caused controversy. It funded a multimillion-dollar "blueprint" for restructuring the Philadelphia School District, largely through privatization. Introduced earlier this year, the plan caused an uproar. In a phone interview Wednesday, Haas said Nowak's departure was unrelated to the school project: "This change in leadership has no bearing in our work with the schools." He also emphasized that the board remained committed to the strategic plan "committed to its work in the Philadelphia region, and that remains unchanged." A search committee will identify candidates for Nowak's position, and William Penn veteran Helen Davis Picher has been named interim president. She most recently served as the foundation's director of evaluation and planning. Nowak, who could not be reached directly, said in a statement: "I am extraordinarily proud of the work we have done that will guide the William Penn Foundation for years to come. I am confident the foundation is well-positioned to positively impact the region particularly with so many facing such economic uncertainty. I look forward to continuing to support the foundation to address the critical needs of the Greater Philadelphia region." Foundation officials said new program guidelines and application procedures will be issued in late January. "What's important is that [the foundation has] reaffirmed its commitment to Philadelphia, and reaffirmed its commitment to culture, children, and the environment" said the Cultural Alliance's Kaiden. "What's the family history? What's their legacy? It's a strong commitment to Philadelphia."
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local//philadelphia/47823-03tmarts
Arts flex their business muscle in Philadelphia Tom MacDonald December 3, 2012
The arts is big business in Philadelphia. The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance says the arts generate close to 50,000 jobs in Philadelphia and the people holding those jobs earn a total of $2.7 billion a year. Joyce Allen of the Freedom Theatre on North Broad Street told a hearing at Philadelphia City Council about how her group does more than provide jobs, it instills discipline in young people. "Freedom Theatre is where you learn to become focused, know about the different disciplines in the theater," said Allen. "To become involved with the moment of sharing that you have studied all year long, and you have this one night to show what you have learned, it's a moment, a beautiful moment." Councilman Curtis Jones says Philadelphia must support the arts. "You can't want crops without rain you can't want culture in a community without supporting it," said Jones. "Every community nationally is charged with supporting the thing that are are important to them culturally." The city is in the process of forming a non-profit to help arts groups.
http://articles.philly.com/2012-12-03/news/35550175_1_michael-rosenzweig-ivy-l-barsky-jewish-museum
Amid struggles, Jewish museum strives for broader appeal Stephan Salisbury December 03, 2012
The National Museum of American Jewish History, whose enormous new facility on Independence Mall opened with much optimism and fanfare two years ago, is struggling to find its voice and its audience. With 126,000 visitors in 2011 and declines in this year's first quarter, attendance has not come close to original expectations of 250,000 annually. The flurry of grand-opening hoopla in late 2010 and early 2011 has faded, taking the attention of visitors and their dollars elsewhere. There was an initial surge into the museum's 25,000-square-foot exhibition space, in which the story of Jewish America is told through artifacts, documents, photographs, biography, and art - from feminist politician Bella Abzug's signature hat to a 1789 acrostic prayer celebrating ratification of the Constitution and spelling Washington in Hebrew. But that surge - into an institution billing itself as "the only museum in the nation dedicated solely to telling the story of Jews in America" - soon ebbed. Memberships fell from a reported high of 18,000 a year ago to what officials say is a stable 15,000. Fund-raising, with sluggish economic growth the norm nationwide, has proven a challenge since day one at the new digs at Fifth and Market Streets. In July, amid these difficulties, the museum named Ivy L. Barsky chief executive. Barsky had already been the museum's director and chief operating officer for about a year, after serving as deputy director of New York's Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. While she had never run a museum, Barsky has started to address some of the most glaring problems facing the facility. A new strategic plan has been virtually completed, laying out educational, program, and operational goals for the next several years. While seven staff members were let go this year, Barsky, 48, says at least some of the layoffs were not the result of out-and-out belt-tightening. There is no development director, but an appointment is near, she said; searches are also in the works for heads of education, marketing, and public relations, all posts that are vacant.
Barsky maintained that a year from now, staffing levels would be back up to about 54 positions, which is where they were before layoffs and what she called realignment. Barsky did not respond to requests for information about her salary. Her predecessor, Michael Rosenzweig, who left the museum this year, had an annual compensation package totaling $434,515, according to the museum's 2010 tax return. Both Barsky and Ron Rubin, cochairman of the museum's board of trustees, said there would be no deficit at the end of this fiscal year. Whether that means annual fundraising will fill any looming revenue gap is less clear. The museum has a small endowment, $10 million to $12 million, that could be used to patch any budget holes. Asked if board members were prepared to step up and help the museum meet its annual needs, Rubin said he "can't commit the board, obviously." He continued: "We will find ways to meet our obligations. I think there are certainly some members of the board who are in a better position to do that than others." The museum, according to Barsky, has an annual operating budget of about $11 million, including construction loan indebtedness of about $1.4 million. About half that operating budget must be met by fund-raising, she said, a daunting task. "This is not a challenge that's unique to the National Museum of American Jewish History," said Tom Kaiden, head of the Cultural Alliance of Greater Philadelphia. "Retrenchment comes with a steep recession," he said, noting that virtually all city nonprofits face a difficult fund-raising climate. But the problems of the Jewish museum, which raised about $156 million to build its facility, have been compounded by faulty or nonexistent post-construction planning, its officials readily concede. "Every ounce of energy went to building out this building and building out a world-class core exhibition," Barsky said. "And I think it's accurate to say that probably that same kind of energy should have been spent on determining what the programs were, determining what the model was that was going to sustain the organization into the future. "But there was a single intense focus that was really bold but not very wide. . . . And we are now having to really go back and establish some of the other things that, yes, as a museum professional, I would have loved to see happen a couple of years ago. There's only so much lamenting I'm going to do that it wasn't done." Barsky and Rubin both said the museum was seeking to broaden its appeal by exploring the implications of its mission. What is Jewish American history? How does it
relate to the histories of other immigrant groups? How does the experience of Jews relate to the experiences of other religious groups? Toward that end, special exhibitions and programs seek, at least in part, to define the Jewish experience as a broadly American experience. The current exhibition "To Bigotry No Sanction: George Washington and Religious Freedom," focuses on letters Washington wrote not only to Jews but to Quakers, Catholics, and other religious groups. Beginning in January, the museum will host "Beyond Swastika and Jim Crow: Jewish Refugee Scholars at Black Colleges," a virtually unknown story touching both African American and Jewish American history. Barsky and Romona Riscoe Benson, head of the African American Museum in Philadelphia, are working on joint programming and ticket deals aimed at introducing new audiences to each museum. The African American Museum, in fact, will bring back "381 Days: The Montgomery Bus Boycott Story," a traveling Smithsonian exhibition it first showed last year. It will run during the Jewish museum's "Swastika and Jim Crow" exhibition. "Part of our strategic plan is really about looking at this American spirit of hope and courage, of leadership and service," said Barsky, "and if you look at the stories in our core exhibition, that's what all of them are about in the end."
http://www.philebrity.com/2012/12/03/your-guide-to-the-philebrity-award-nominees-for-non-profit-of-theyear/
Your Guide To The Philebrity Award Nominees For Non-Profit Of The Year Editor December 3, 2012
At the heart of the Philebrity Awards, this year and every year, is the Non-Profit Of The Year award. Indeed, it’s the thing that makes these acknowledgements different from the annual ad section that is Best of Philly and their sickly Yelp-ish ilk. This category celebrates those groups and individuals who donate their time, money, and energy to help make our city run better, and to make life better for all of us — or at least as many of us as possible. Any longtime resident knows that the city government moves slowly, and often in not entirely fair or understandable directions, and that even when it’s at its best, it’s spread thin. The groups below are so important to life in this city because they take it upon themselves to improve things, and to prod the officials when needed. It’s an admirable job not many are up to, and all of these organizations have taken it on with gusto and distinguished themselves in some way. Bearing that in mind, here’s a handy guide to this year’s nominees. · New Kensington Community Development Corporation has basically been helping to hold Kensington together and raising its profile since the mid 1980s. In that time, they’ve developed programs to reclaim and develop abandoned lots, to help residents buy new homes and stay in them, and to help Kensington develop in a way that benefits the residents and business owners who live there. They’ve taken over old factories and turned them into housing, which brings in new residents and keeps the neighborhood vital. One of their biggest campaigns has been Sustainable 19125, which seeks to make Kensington the most sustainable zip code in the nation. Most recently, they organized with other community groups to lobby the School District of Philadelphia to build Kensington High School for Creative and Performing Arts (KCAPA) as part of their Big Green Block. The high school is the first building in the area to be LEED certified platinum. · Mighty Writers is all about setting up kids to succeed by fostering literacy and creative thinking. MW has a variety of programs, like their after-school writing academy, shortand long-term classes on topics that range from writing novels and short stories, to
building your brand as a writer and getting your stories broadcast on Mighty Radio, Mighty Writers’ internet radio station. Mighty Writers’ Teen Scholars program helps high school students continue their development and prepare for college with SAT prep. · The Sustainability Workshop is the school of your dreams. Sustainability Workshop takes 28 students from three local high schools. Those students attend SW for their senior year instead of going to their normal schools. At SW, they work with professors who help them develop projects that accord with their interests. Instead of being forced to complete assessments in a variety of limited subjects, SW students learn the material they need to graduate in the context of their individual projects and under the guidance of real professors. All their projects are taken from real world problems, which aside from addressing the problems, shows kids that they have the power to change the world and build the future. You may have heard of the West Philly High EVX team, comprised of Philly high school students who build energy efficient cars and win lots of races with them; they’ve even been touted by President Obama. That’s a Sustainability Workshop project. SW is hoping to expand to a full high school next year. · The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance is an advocacy group that believes that Philly has a unique resource in our arts community, and that that community should be protected. The Cultural Alliance represents hundreds of cultural organizations in the city and acts as a unified voice for the whole cultural community. They keep tabs on the involvement of Philadelphians in culture and the arts, publish reports on the importance of the arts to the economy and the quality of life in Philadelphia, and in the past have helped to keep away taxes on the arts that would burden cultural groups. They also hold workshops for artsrelated non-profits that aim to make those non-profits stronger. · The William Way Community Center is the center of the LGBT community in Philadelphia. The building that houses William Way is used by over 2500 people each month, and the list of services offered there is a bit staggering. There’s support groups, a library, a computer lab, an historical archive of Philadelphia’s LGBT community, meditation classes, a writing center for queer writers, and an art gallery. Aside from all the resources they offer, they also serve as an information center to connect members of their community with other non-profits. · Neighborhood Bike Works is dedicated to spreading cycling and improving the quality of life for youth in Philly’s underserved neighborhoods through education and empowerment. They have an Earn-A-Bike program where after an 8-week course, students are able to get their own bikes, which Neighborhood Bike Works hopes will give them an opportunity to see parts of the city they might not otherwise. NBW also hopes that by cycling and meeting other cyclists around the city, young people will learn that seemingly different people can share interests, and that our similarities are more important than our differences. After they complete the course, many NBW alumni join an NBW cycling team and continue to ride, keeping them fit and healthy and getting them out from behind their screens. NBW also holds bike repair and education classes for adults.
So there you have it: A diverse group of organizations for sure, each of them fighting the good fight. And though it kills us to pit any one of them against the other, the reality is, that’s not the point of why we do this. Rather, it’s a great way for us to celebrate people and works that so often fly under the radar in the city’s media cycle. That said, hey, why not: Vote anyway.
http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/print-edition/2012/12/07/business-and-the-arts.html
Business and the arts Karin Copeland 12/7/2012
Philadelphia City Council recently held a hearing in response to Arts, Culture and Economic Prosperity, a new report from the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. The report quantifies the total economic impact of our region’s cultural sector — some $3.3 billion and 44,000 jobs – and clearly shows that the arts and cultural sector are a critical part of our region’s economy At the Arts and Business Council of Greater Philadelphia, an affiliate of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, we wake up every morning thinking about what will make Philadelphia more competitive as a region to attract, motivate and and retain the best talent, and prepare our children for 21st-century careers. Philadelphia’s cultural assets helped spark the renaissance of the mid-1990s, which helped provide much needed revenue to the city. Today, creativity and entrepreneurship are again at the heart of our region’s post-recession restructuring and resurgence. The Cultural Alliance's report makes it clear that businesses and workers in every industry and every community benefit from the economic impact of cultural organizations and their audiences. The billions spent directly in and around Philadelphia’s cultural sector ripples through the economy and supports jobs, produce government revenue, and is the keystone of our tourism industry. Arts and culture help Philadelphia develop the workforce we need to compete in the global economy. An early education, strong in arts and culture, fosters creativity and innovation, decreases truancy and improves performance across subject areas. Cultural organizations provide area students with thousands of opportunities to learn through class trips to museums and zoos, workshops in schools, and afterschool and weekend arts education programs. A vibrant arts and cultural scene helps us to retain the best talent graduating from our local colleges and attract the best talent from competing markets. Yet building a competitive workforce starts well before college. Nurturing and attracting the best and brightest is crucial to fostering a vibrant Philadelphia and ensuring that a wider cross-section of residents benefit from that future prosperity. To get there, we all have to do our part. Across the region, corporations are signing up to promote a culture of volunteerism among their employees. As reported in the 2011 Portfolio, also published by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, volunteer and board member positions far exceed paid employment positions in the region’s arts and
cultural organizations. Through the services of the Arts & Business Council, experienced professionals provide critical support to the region’s arts and cultural community. The Arts & Business Council is the essential link that matches the skills and interests of business, technology and legal professionals with arts and cultural organizations in need of expertise, ensuring that Philadelphia’s cultural organizations are strategically managed and sustainable. Our Business on Board program pairs talented business professionals with arts and cultural organizations looking to add diversity and experience to their boards. Business Volunteers for the Arts and Technology Connectors offer volunteer management and technology consulting by experienced professionals to arts and cultural organizations. And Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts provides arts and cultural organizations and local artists with probono legal referrals, assistance and representation. The businesses community supports arts and culture because it is our civic responsibility to invest in the quality of life for our employees and their families. We realize that sustaining our cultural assets is not someone else’s job--it’s the job of us all. Business, government, foundations and individuals must work together to ensure that Philadelphia is a world-class cultural region. That means more corporate contributions and sponsorships; more individuals donating and buying tickets, memberships and subscriptions; and strong, continued foundation and government support. Arts and culture are a crucial part of improving Philadelphia. But making our city great isn’t just about adequately funding arts and culture. It’s about the private, public and philanthropic sectors joining forces with individuals to make sure we’re globally competitive in creativity, innovation and quality of life.
http://www.philaculture.org/news/16824/though-no-cure-all-murals-still-have-power-transform
Though No Cure-All, Murals Have the Power to Transform Michael Norris, December 10, 2012
Inga Saffron is right (Changing Skyline: Mural Arts, 12/7/2012): it would be naive and irresponsible to suggest that neighborhood redevelopment can begin and end with a mural, even one as spectacular as Hahn & Haas' new work on Germantown Ave. This is why no one is actually saying any such thing. Jane Golden, of the city’s Mural Arts Program, believes that murals and other forms of public art can be transformational to our visual landscape and instill pride of place, and her program provides paying jobs to neighborhood kids to empower and enrich them both spiritually and economically. But she knows that art has to be part of a holistic, long-term development strategy. Murals on their own aren’t enough. Without crucial investments on the part of government, business and nonprofit development groups, and without a holistic business and quality-of-life strategy, these corridors can’t be saved. They will stagnate or, worse, continue their downward slides. But Inga Saffron is wrong when she says that public art, or more specifically murals, can’t play an important role in that strategy. She is also wrong when she states that the National Trust’s highly acclaimed Main Street Program’s strategies don’t involve murals. In fact, public art is prominently mentioned under the design heading of its Four-Point Approach, and it has published several articles on its website discussing murals’ power to help create a “sense of place” and “enhance the visual quality and artistic interest” of main streets. If elected officials at the dedication ceremony were too “giddy” or overstated the impact of the new mural, perhaps they should be given a bit of leeway. Even Ms. Saffron, who admits that she is no great fan of our city’s murals, seems to have only positive things to say about its quality and composition; the mural must be truly dazzling. I hope Inquirer readers will take the trip to see it for themselves. You can get to Germantown and Lehigh Avenues via the 23 bus or by walking five blocks east from the North Philadelphia stop of the Broad Street Line.
http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20121212_Study__Philly_has_had__2_2_billion_in_community_dev elopment_over_20_years.html
Study: Philly has had $2.2 billion in community development over 20 years Harold Brubaker December 12, 2012, 3:01 AM
Community groups in Philadelphia have completed 1,500 construction jobs, major rehabilitations, and other related efforts at a cost of $2.2 billion during the last 20 years, in inflation-adjusted terms, says a study scheduled for release Wednesday. The study, commissioned by the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations and supported by a $50,000 grant from Citi Community Development, is the first accounting of the community-development sector in Philadelphia, the association said. Many types of nonprofit community groups can be categorized as communitydevelopment corporations. Their focus can be affordable housing, economic development, social assistance, or a combination of those and other communityimprovement efforts. Community-development corporations included in the report range in size from the Salvation Army, with an annual average budget of $34 million over three years, to the Wynnefield Overbrook Revitalization Corp., which reported an average annual budget of $72,500. The Salvation Army, which is not listed as a member on the development association's website, accounted for $122 million in projects, including $72 million for the Kroc Center in Nicetown. Of the organizations in the study, the Salvation Army is the "least CDClike," said Rick Sauer, executive director of the community-development association. The study by Econsult Corp. tallied data reported by 44 organizations and ran them through a model to estimate a total economic impact over 20 years of $3.3 billion, or an average $165 million annually. The broader calculation includes an estimated spin-off effect on tax revenue of improved property values in neighborhoods that are home to community-development projects.
The study's goal was to solidify support for the development groups in the public and private sectors. "Especially in a time of dwindling resources, when smart decisions need to be made about investments," Sauer said, "we wanted to be able to better talk about what the industry has accomplished." Economic-impact reports are a popular way for groups or industries to demonstrate how important they are to regional economies. In September, the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance published a study pegging the economic impact of 345 arts and cultural organizations in fiscal 2010 at $3.3 billion. A weakness of economic-impact studies is that they assume certain economic activity would not happen without the organizations being profiled, even though it is probable that individuals or the government would spend that money elsewhere, affecting another economic arena or another set of organizations.
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/inquirer/20121216_Letters_to_the_Editor.html
Letters to the Editor: Luring tourists to the region Tom Kaiden December 16, 2012
If we need any more evidence that Philadelphia needs to "Invest in luring more visitors" (Dec. 5), we just got it. This month, Lonely Planet Travel Guides named Philadelphia as a top "must-see city for 2013," specifically citing our incredible arts and culture scene. The marriage of culture and tourism is a Philly success story, and it's one we need to tell. That's why we support the currently proposed one-third of 1 percent increase to the hotel tax. Arts and culture are a strategic competitive advantage for this region, but a fragile one. If we care about Philadelphia's employment, tax base, and quality of life, we must make investments that support our distinct cultural product and its promotion. Tom Kaiden, president, Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance