WHERE

We root our work in U.S. towns, cities, and regions where we have a presence to build local cooperation, trust, and movement. We connect our cross-location roots to share resources and best practices

WHERE LABS CAN EXIST

Labs can exist in U.S. towns, cities, and regions where there are local stewards who can build trust, cooperation, and movement for transformative arts and culture investment.

Towns
In small towns across the U.S., local economies are challenged by geographic isolation, corporate extraction, closing of small businesses, declining populations, and more. Arts and culture investment can preserve culture, foster social cohesion, catalyze regenerative growth, and enrich local community health and well-being.

Cities
In cities across the U.S., local economies are challenged by socioeconomic disparities, cultural fragmentation, community disinvestment, public safety, and more. Arts and culture can support mental health, enrich education, provide access to shared resources, steward equitable neighborhood growth, build community resilience, and drive regenerative growth.

Regions
In regions across the U.S., local economies face challenges of creating a common vision and thriving livelihoods across urban, suburban, and rural environments and cultures in close proximity to each other. Arts and culture investment can bring a unifying social and economic vision and provide new pathways for resource exchange.

Imagining the Future of Philadelphia’s Arts & Culture Investment Ecosystem Hosted by ImpactPHL

“

Imagining new models for investment requires us to lift our assets, celebrate
our unique culture, and build our own community.

- Philadelphia arts & culture steward

WHERE WE’RE STARTING:
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA

Our first lab is being cultivated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in partnership with ImpactPHL.

A brief Philadelphia’s Arts & Culture Ecosystem Overview
Philadelphia has one of the highest concentrations of top-rated graduate art schools in the U.S. (five, including Moore College of Art and Design[46], which is the first and only historically visual arts college for women in the U.S.), the nation’s largest public art program called Mural Arts Philadelphia[47], the oldest “percent for art” program supporting public art for 60 plus years[48], and appears on nearly every “best cities for art” list, including measures of arts vibrancy.[49] Regarding commerce and business, Philadelphia is ranked among the top 30 cities in the world for startup ecosystems.[50] The Greater Philadelphia region, which includes Camden, NJ, and Wilmington, DE, is also ranked amongst the top ten highest-grossing metro areas in the U.S. by GMP.[51] In Philadelphia, the Office of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy (OACCE), now a program of the Managing Director’s Office after budget cuts, is responsible for promoting arts, culture, and creative industries. The City Council commissioned and published the findings of an arts & culture task force in 2021.[55] The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance[56] is a membership and service organization that provides strategic support to artists, culture workers, and creatives through research, advocacy, and other services. Philadelphia also has a separate non-profit arts fund financed through the City of Philadelphia, known as the Philadelphia Cultural Fund.[57]

In Philadelphia, arts advocates have organized to challenge budget cuts that severely impacted both the OACCE and the Philadelphia Cultural Fund in 2020, 2021, and 2022.[63] Members of the cultural community provided clear feedback about the need for more resources and support from the City in the 2021 report. In 2022, arts advocates raised questions of equity by scrutinizing the selection process for a new city commissioned Harriet Tubman sculpture.[64]

Source: Moving Minds & Money to Transform Arts & Culture Investment