152867271
The Philadelphia Cultural Fund has seen its ups and downs, like many institutions in this city that are at least two decades old. It’s been known by different names and distributed a vast variety of amounts since 1991, but the 2014 grants to 272 arts and culture organizations were kind to South Philadelphia.
A total of $1.63 million, which was given to approximately 90 percent of the applying organizations, will help keep entities from small to huge in action by contributing to their operating budgets.
To name a few: DaVinci Art Alliance, 704 Catharine St., Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens, 1020 South St., Theatre Exile, 1340 S. 13th St., Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers, 1316 S. Ninth St., Settlement Music School, 416 Queen St., Tempesta di Mare, 1034 Carpenter St., Fleisher Art Memorial, 719 Catharine St., Luna Theater Company, 620 S. Eighth St., and slew of other companies that employ South Philadelphians,
In an era where arts funding is threatened by tight municipal budgets and dwindling resources, for some organizations, this money is highly welcome and needed.
“It’s always a tremendous shot in the arm, and it enables us to keep all of our programs alive,” Jen Childs, the artistic director of 1812 Productions, 2329 S. Third St., said.
The comedy-based theater company has been working with South Philadelphia High School, 2101 S. Broad St., for 16 years now and grants from the Cultural Fund allow them to continue their efforts.
“Comedy is a great learning and teaching tool, and we work with teachers to achieve active learning, getting students out from behind their desks and learning about things on their feet,” the Passyunk Square resident detailed. Grant money “enables us to continue that kind of work and we owe a big thanks to [First District] Councilman [Mark] Squilla.”
At a ceremony at City Hall March 10, Squilla handed out checks and shook hands.
“The Cultural Fund has allowed for continued growth of the Arts in my district,” the Front-Street-and-Snyder-Avenue dweller said. “It has helped to improve the quality of life in the neighborhoods surrounding these organizations.”
What are the criteria for receiving this grant money?
“We don’t evaluate artistic merit,” Cultural Fund’s Executive Assistant Michelle Currica assured. “What we evaluate is if an organization has community impact – that’s the largest weighted criteria.”
The great thing is organizations can use the grant money however they see fit.
“The grants that we give can be used for anything: marketing, salaries, to keep the lights on, for scholarships,” Currica added.
With pride, she reported a few surprising facts: $3.3 billion of the city’s economy comes from cultural organizations and “44,000 jobs are created through the arts in Philadelphia.”
Fiscal responsibility is necessary to receive grants, however; record-keeping and budget maintenance are evaluated in the process, as well.
“We look at their mission and their programming and that there is a response from the community,” Currica elaborated. “Every organization organizes in its own way. We understand that. They may have a small staff and an extremely small budget, but we want to make sure they’re making smart fiscal choices.”
Cathy Coate, a resident of the 1400 block of South Broad Street and long-time friend of the Fund, helped create it under the direction of former Philadelphia Mayor and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and one-time City Council President and mayor John Street.
“It’s not a program of the mayor, and it’s not a program of council, but a program for all citizens,” she explained.
She attributes Rendell’s wholesale belief and investment in Broad Street as an arts corridor with the city’s revitalized arts and culture community.
“That was so critical that Rendell bought into the idea that focusing on the arts and culture to revitalize the city. He took the whole Avenue of the Arts thing really seriously,” she detailed.
The fund saw its highest distribution in 2010 with a pool of $3.2 million and a low in 1994 of $440,000. Thankfully, the City has put a premium of sorts on protecting and nourishing its cultural institutions, perhaps because of the aforementioned economic incentives.
“The money’s gone up and down, and it all depends on how much money Council approves,” Coate explained. “It all has to do with what else is going on. Some people find it hard to justify supporting the arts and culture in a big way when there are potholes to repair and other needs. It was really a dire situation in the late ’80s and early ’90s when the city was on the verge of bankruptcy, but a couple of years later and we were able to bring it back to life.”
Even a cultural behemoth like The Rock School for Dance Education, 1101 S. Broad St., has room in its budget for city support. Eighty-eight percent of its budget comes from tuition, performances and a massive summer program, but 12 percent gets picked up in other ways.
“It’s not a huge amount, but it’s not insignificant for us,” school director Bo Spassoff said. “We used to receive support from the Federal Educational Outreach Program, and that’s pretty much disappeared. So we’ve had to come up with an alternative. There’s still stuff like guest faculty, scholarships for students, computers, you name it: there’s always places where we could use the additional support.”
Currica detailed a change this year in the application process. Applications and budgets used to get reviewed by like-minded companies: dance looked at dance, art looked at art, and so on. But this year they split it up along budget size, and she thinks it worked out for the better.
“An organization cannot receive more than 30 percent of their budget. It’s best if an organization doesn’t receive more than 30 percent — what if the grant isn’t there the next year or if they forget to apply,” she explained.
Peer review based on budget size also forged a greater understanding within the community of what like-minded companies are up against and how they work.
“It fosters a greater cross-pollination and understanding of different cultural institutions outside of your own specialty,” Currica said.
There is a clear passion for the process and the end product — the way the arts effect Philadelphians’ lives.
“For me, access to arts and arts education is a human right,” Currica said. “It’s an alternative form of education and expression that remixes the humanities in a way that makes learning less intimidating and more digestible for those who have had negative experiences with popular or traditional education. The arts also allow deeper individual expression and reception for those who socially or emotionally may be incapable of what we consider normal interaction.”
Contact Staff Writer Bill Chenevert at bchenevert@southphillyreview.com or ext. 117.
152867291
152867281
