Study Says Greater Collaboration, Centralization Of Functions Needed To Support Arts

The arts sector in Philadelphia and other big cities would benefit greatly from a strong local agency to coordinate cultural activities and help make arts an integral part of each community, according to a RAND Corporation report.

The report recommended that civic leaders make cultural institutions a vital component of community economic development and neighborhood revitalization strategies.

In a study with broad national implications, RAND researchers studied systems of support for the arts in 11 metropolitan areas to identify strategies for sustaining Philadelphia's arts sector.

The report found that while the national nonprofit arts sector flourished in the last decade, the challenges of rising costs, shifting funding patterns, and a public increasingly skeptical of government growth or increased taxes necessitate new strategic approaches.

The metropolitan areas examined in the study were: Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Pittsburgh.

Researchers for RAND — a nonprofit research organization — created a unique systematic analysis to examine ways the 11 metropolitan areas support their nonprofit cultural institutions.
“Arts organizations across the country are competing more intensely for funding,” says study co-author Kevin McCarthy. “Furthermore, civic leaders are trying to provide stability to their arts programs while also dealing with other major urban problems, political turnover and declining budgets.”

To address these challenges, RAND researchers suggested that Philadelphia develop a centralized agency, either public or private, that would serve as the primary point of contact for artistic organizations and be integrated with other city government offices.

Alternatively, the city could have multiple public or private agencies with a clear division of labor serving the same function. Such agencies are found in cities with the strongest support for the arts, the report said, and provide a wide range of services to arts organizations including, but by no means limited to, funding.

“This report underscores that we all need to do our part to ensure the long-term viability of the sector, and establishing a strong central office of cultural affairs is a key step in any successful plan,” said Peggy Amsterdam, president of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, which joined the William Penn Foundation in sponsoring the RAND study.

Additionally, the study recommended greater collaboration within Philadelphia's arts sector on many areas, including programming, marketing, fundraising, employee benefits and some other operations. Collaboration could both strengthen the sector and save money, researchers found.

McCarthy and co-author Liz Ondaatje conclude that while arts organizations have typically undertaken fundraising on an individual basis, they could be better served by addressing the whole sector. The traditional approach of fundraising for individual organizations raises the transaction costs for both the organizations and the funders, the report found, and can put smaller establishments at a disadvantage.

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