Creative Philadelphia, an initiative of Philadelphia's Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, held a Town Hall Meeting earlier this evening to discuss the challenges, opportunities and long term goals facing the city's creative community.

Mayor Michael Nutter addressed the crowd in the WHYY building, stating, "you can't have a great city if you don't have an appreciation for the arts". Nutter attributed the last year's population growth, the first time Philadelphia's population grew in 60 years, to the the deep cultural community in Philadelphia. "Philadelphia has become a destination city, not just a city people want to visit, but come back to stay", the Mayor explained.

Michael Nutter expressed his interest in making young talent feel welcome and placed emphasis on creating jobs for talent to be retained within the city limits. He also called Philadelphia a city of entrepreneurs, a genuine city where people feel comfortable with real neighborhoods and people who care which neighborhood they are from.

Mayor Nutter also discussed the City's drop on $300 business tax for new businesses, once called the Business Priviledge Tax. This initiative is expected to attract more small businesses into the city, which the Mayor sincerely expressed as the backbone of the city. "It is my goal to make Philadelphia increasinly known around the world for education, art, culture and design", Nutter exclaimed. 

Describing the later part of the evening, where the audience would be split up into discussion groups, Nutter wanted the audience to think about the challenges and opportunities facing the City, not just in the short term but 10, 20, and 50 years from now. With participant's input the City and Creative Philadelphia would have a basis for more creative initiatives in the coming year. 

Following Michael Nutter, Gary P. Steurer, the Chief Cultural Officer and Director of the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, gave an overview of the 2011 Town Hall and the initiatives created from that session. After the Town Hall in 2011, the Mayor's Cultural Advisory Council presented to the Mayor a vision and direction for arts and culture, which became known as CreativePHL. CreativePHL's goals are to make Philadelphia a world class creative city, make arts accessible and relevant and make arts a core part of the city's planning strategies. Along with these goals, CreativePHL also wants to make access to creative and cultural activites easily available to children, as well as easy accessibility to resources.

Town Hall of 2011 focused on three overarching themes, the business of being creative, youth engagement and the creative workforce, and creative campaigns that communicate importance of art to the public. Through the discussion of the 2011 Town Hall, the City of Philadelphia took on a few initiatives within the past year, such as West Collects @ City Hall, in which artists submit original artwork to be put in a collection at City Hall and City Hall Presents,  24 free performances during Spring, Summer and Fall at City Hall, set to kick off on March 28th. Performing artists and groups can apply to perform at Creativephl.org.

Moira M. Baylson, Deputy Cultural Officer, provided a policy and research breifing from Creative Philadelphia. Both the City of Philadelphia and Creative PHL have been involved in a creative assets mapping project, which takes collected data on arts and cultural activities and houses, maintains and visually maps the data. It will allow users to design maps, tables and reports based on data collected. Also, a user can find the location of cultural organizations, businesses and residency programs. The full launch of the site is expected to happen later this year.  The widget is currently available through cultureblocks.com

Baylson also presented an overview of Creative Vitality in Philadelphia 2010 Update. She provided a snap shop of general trends in the rich creative sector of the city such as an overview of creative occupations, creative degrees granted from local Colleges and Universities and indicated the types of organizations that make up the creative sector. From the data collected, Philadelphia's creative sector is 50% above national benchmarks. 

To wrap up the lecture, Beth Feldman Brandt, Executive Director of Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation, described the dynamics of the discussion breakout session in which all attendees were encouraged to participate in. Brandt asked that each discussion group present three challenges and three opportunities the City faces in future regarding the creative sector of Philadelphia.

After the discussion groups met and agreed on both challenges and opportunities, they were presented as a looping powerpoint for guests to review over wine and small eats. 

All of the challenges and opportunities presented from the discussion groups are due to be put up on Creative Philadelphia's website. Citizen Philadelphia intends to do an update on this story when the information is posted.