The report finds that Atlanta, Cleveland, Phoenix and Sacramento, which boosted their investments in culture, grew their arts sectors as they emerged from the pandemic \u2014 while Philadelphia is singled out for vastly underperforming.<\/p>\n
\u201cPhiladelphia experienced the greatest contraction of all of the cities that we were looking at,\u201d Jen Benoit-Bryan, the executive director of SMU DataArts told The Art Newspaper.<\/a> \u201cIt has gone from 7 percent of local government coverage of expenses in 2019 down to 1 percent in 2024. Its grants to cultural organizations per capita was at 10 cents in 2019 and went down to 1 cent in 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n Helping to fund the arts is not a giveaway to the privileged class. It\u2019s a comparatively small investment in all of us, and it says that government ought to be in the business of provoking a sense of awe and wonder<\/p>\n According to Benoit-Bryan, that drop-off had \u201chuge ramifications across the sector. Philadelphia cultural organizations are more likely to be running deficits now than they were in the past, and they have had the steepest cuts in their staffing.\u201d<\/p>\n During the time of DataArts\u2019 research \u2014 2021 through 2024 \u2014 the City\u2019s overall budget grew from $4.7 billion to $6.2 billion, \u201coutpacing inflation in its rate of growth,\u201d Benoit-Bryan said. \u201cThat indicates to me that other investment areas have been prioritized over the arts rather than a general contraction affecting the arts and other areas equally.\u201d<\/p>\n How bad did Philly perform? Well, we not only posted the steepest decline in local arts funding, our arts organizations (not surprisingly) also made the deepest cuts of any arts groups anywhere, slashing staff by 47 percent. No other city comes close to our near decimation of such a vital economic sector.<\/p>\n Arts grows jobs and quality of life <\/p>\n To be clear: When it comes to arts and culture vitality, the buck doesn\u2019t necessarily stop at City Hall. There are many factors at play, including our shrinking and stretched philanthropic class. But local government can be a stopgap and set a tone, as has been the case in some of the other cities studied. Why, you might ask, does this even matter? Especially when we\u2019re the second poorest big city in America, with the nation\u2019s worst economic mobility scores? Precisely because of all that. Funding arts and culture is not a handout; it\u2019s an investment in growing jobs and quality of life. It also gets to the heart of who we are and what binds us.<\/p>\n \u201cArt is the great democrat,\u201d John F. Kennedy said in 1962<\/a>, \u201ccalling forth creative genius from every sector of society, disregarding race or religion or wealth or color.\u201d<\/p>\n I know, I know. I got yer Camelot right here. Different time, and all that. But some principles are timeless, or ought to be. What Kennedy was getting at \u2014 what he led America to think of itself \u2014 was the power of the communitarian ideal: That literally coming together \u2014 Black, White, old, young, rich, poor, man, woman, native, immigrant and all others \u2014 in shared cultural curiosity was not only a great unifier, but our greatest differentiator. The country\u2019s secret sauce, as it were.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to imagine now, but the White House from Kennedy till about a decade ago served as proof positive for the nation that art, democracy and prosperity all went hand-in-hand. In the post-World War II 20th Century, America built the greatest economic engine in the history of civilization in no small measure because writers, painters, musicians and architects were as central to the public life of the nation as elected leaders, lawyers, captains of industry and, uh, whatever the equivalent of reality TV stars would have been back then.<\/p>\n Just what is the return on investment when it comes to the arts? According to the Americans for the Arts Arts Action Fund, arts and culture is a $1.2 trillion industry that supports 5.4 million jobs. That amounts to 4.2 percent of Gross Domestic Product \u2014 larger than sectors like transportation and agriculture. In Pennsylvania,<\/a> arts and culture is the Commonwealth\u2019s fourth highest driver of economic activity, ahead of education and utilities and just behind transportation. And that statewide number would have been significantly higher were it not for us, folks.<\/p>\n Other cities have learned the degree to which public subsidy of arts and culture pays off. Here, political claims have long embedded themselves into our budgeting process. Say what you will about the push for a privately funded Sixers arena a couple of years ago; Mayor Parker at least deserved credit for advocating an ambitious economic development deal. That (ultimately aborted) deal also had the support of the Building Trades and the African American Chamber of Commerce. There are no such uber-connected entities pressuring elected officials to support the arts.<\/p>\n No other city comes close to our near decimation of such a vital economic sector.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I talk with artists in New York, I often wonder how many people regularly travel south from there to see things here \u2014 it\u2019s not yet a habit, despite the fertile arts and culture scene here,\u201d says Tim Griffin, curator and former editor of Artforum magazine and a transplant from New York and Los Angeles who evangelizes for our art scene. \u201cBut if there was a clearer sense of a Philly narrative around all that Philly has to offer, it would become a habit. And then you\u2019d be talking about a cultural sector \u2014 which is already starting to grow \u2014 with an influx of funds around tourism to match.\u201d<\/p>\n In effect, Griffin is making a demand-based argument. In a city where, historically, investing in the things that can stir the human spirit or just invite us to come together and think have tended to get short shrift for political reasons, the pressure for change has to come from us.<\/p>\n It\u2019s going to get really interesting when Jeffrey Lurie comes calling for public investment in a new Eagles stadium. There is no greater Birds fanatic than yours truly; I was in the 700 level of Veterans Stadium when, decades ago, then-coach Mike McCormack publicly called his team \u201ca bunch of dogs\u201d and the fans all chanted \u201cAlpo! Alpo!\u201d So I\u2019ve got my bona fides. But numerous studies <\/a>show that dollars invested in sports venues fare far worse than those spent on arts and culture. What are you going to do when Lurie has his hand out, pols?<\/p>\n