Philadelphia Campaigns To Lure Away New York Artists

[Jularc]

Philadelphia Campaigns To Lure Away New York Artists


By ELIOT BROWN
Special to the Sun
April 10, 2007

With an eye on disgruntled New York artists pinched by rising rents, Philadelphia is using a new advertising campaign in an effort to lure the so-called creative class crowd to help the city rebound.

The tactic is a common one for cities seeking revitalization, as 20-something artists tend to spur investment in industrial, dormant, or tawdry neighborhoods. In New York, this has been the story of SoHo, followed by Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and now Astoria and Bushwick, where neighborhood vitality follows the hipsters, as do the higher rents that eventually push them out.

The city of brotherly love is seemingly bidding to add its name to that list, showboating its proximity to New York and relatively inexpensive cost of living.

The ads take the form of posters and inserts in an alternative weekly newspaper that direct people to uwishunu.com, a Web log run by the city 's tourism agency that focuses on nightlife and Philadelphia's artistic scene.

" New York, being the wonderful city that it is, has been successful, and on many levels, folks are being priced out," a spokeswoman at the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation, Caroline Bean, said.

New York City is a major focus in the $5 million, two-year campaign that also targets other cities such as Boston and Washington, Ms. Bean said.

The agency launched its Web site late last year, and the poster and newspaper campaigns are to begin in coming weeks.

Philadelphia's population has dropped substantially over the past half century, to less than 1.5 million from its peak of about 2 million in 1950. A struggling economy and high crime have accompanied the downward slide, though the population loss seems to be slowing.

To counter these trends, the city for years has been making revitalization efforts, and recently has launched initiatives aimed at attracting and retaining both college students and young professionals.

A key factor in attracting anyone to the city is the relatively low cost of housing, which can be an especially tempting carrot to college graduates looking to live in a place like New York on low wages, officials say.

A 22-year-old musician who grew up on the Upper West Side, Mookie Singerman, said his rent, $2,200 split six ways, was a major factor in his moving to Philadelphia in September.

"It's incredibly cheap, and we can afford to do the band full time — we wouldn't be able to do that in New York," Mr. Singerman said. "I knew I would be living in a shoebox if I was living in New York."


© 2007 The New York Sun, One SL, LLC. (http://www.nysun.com/article/52160)

[donybrx]

yep. it's gotten increasingly much harder for these folks (among many) to eke out a life in New York... They've been leaving NYC for other cities for some time, including Philadelphia which, in addition to its already healthy art, music and dance umbrella is a logical place for new talent to consider...... the ad simply calls attention to Philly's excellent attributes, location and reasonable, more affordable lifestyle.

Bear in mind that over the decades thousands of talented people have migrated from the 'Phillys', etc. across the landto New York especially in the days when they were more able to get by....

NYC will endure this....it's not exactly a conspiracy or a massive artistic depoplation......it's actually kind of silly.....

[vertex]

Philly may be able to attract the artists, but does Philly really have the people willing to support them? In other words, does Philly really have the benefactors and patrons to support all of these artists? If they don't, these artists will eventually move on.

[donybrx]

Philly may be able to attract the artists, but does Philly really have the people willing to support them? In other words, does Philly really have the benefactors and patrons to support all of these artists? If they don't, these artists will eventually move on.

Actually, no. Alas. Philly is very poor city. It's hard to imagine how they made it this far. I hear that even the world famous Philadelphia Orchestra is thinking of moving to Phoenix, following the money...but at the last minute they became the only major orchestra to get out of the red.

Ok...enough facetiousness...there's a lot of dough in Philly...newer residents as well as old money (those quietly rich Welsh, German and English Quakers knew how to rake it in, baby). An example---in an effort to attract the famous $7 billion Barnes collection from a nearby suburb to the Parkway, Pew Trust (Sunoco Oil) and others coughed up $150 million practicallly overnight). That's one example......

Suffice it to say that Philadelphians...without regard to NYC have a thriving arts community and work extremely hard to continue same through sponsorship and education not only at the major universities, but at places such as the famous Curtis Institute (endowed by Curtis Publishing heiress) to offer full tuition to excellent young musicians, the one-of-a-kind University of the Arts (one of a kind) or the Moore College of Art for Women---one of two in the world) to name a couple.

And whatever benefactors and patrons they happen to lack, they'll probably attract from NYC.....:)

[vertex]

Ok, so the next obvious question is this, why hasn't Philly already bloomed as an art-friendly city? Are the corporations and old-money families only now starting to get it?

[donybrx]

Ok, so the next obvious question is this, why hasn't Philly already bloomed as an art-friendly city? Are the corporations and old-money families only now starting to get it?

Is that a serious question?

[vertex]

My question is a serious one; with all of this money, along with the proximity to New York, why hasn't it happened in Philly already?

[donybrx]

But it has/had happened in Philly already. It's simply that an extra measure of artists are finding it so difficult to live in and get traction in NYC that many are migrating elsewhere....to Philly, Boston, Providence, Pittsburgh and certainlyy Chicago, LA perhaps....

Philly is not New York....few places are. It found its own level and generally a more intimate one.....as most things Phillly. Philly has been arts oriented for a century or three, by now.

In brief, Philly had the first art museum & school in the PA Academy of Fine Arts (still exisitng-recently expanded) where many American artists studied, e.g. Eakins; Philly is reputed to have had the first theater. Today the city is home to the oldest theater--the Walnut St. Theater, dating back to the 1830s; home also to the oldest opera house in continuous use..the Academy of Music; the Philadelphia Museum of Art is reputed to be the country's third largest after the MET and the Brooklyn and it is being greatly expanded; the Rodin Museum is said to have the largest collection of Rodins outside Paris, there's the Athenaeum, the Rosenbach (rare documents), the Mutter (bizarre early medical devices), the major Franklin Institute (science and planetarium), and various other, smaller niche museums.

There has always been a lively theater scene comprising several professional companies including the Phila. Theater Co. Society Hill Playhouse, Arden, Walnut St., the WILMA, Prince Musical Theater. Other houses include the Forrest and the Merriam usually presenting road shows and the like. An old art deco movie palace, the BOYD is being renovated (amid funding troubles),
a national museum of rhythm & blues is intended for Philly centered on another old art deco palace the UPTOWN...near Temple University.

Education continues at the PA Academy of Fine Arts, Moore College of Art & Design for Women, Academy of Vocal Arts, University of the Arts, Art Institute of Philadelphia, in addition to programs found at PENN, Temple and various other schools.

Philadelphia has a wonderful Opera company & the Pennsylvania Ballet; various small dance companies/ dance studios including the reputable Philadanco that tours the nation......there are two or three amateur opera companies; the previously mentioned Curtis Institute trains classical musicians, opera singers, etc. but you've gotta be pretty good to be enrolled
(Lang Lang, the current hot pianist is an alum, as was Leonard Bernstein).

Curtis has its own symphony (soon to return to Carnegie Hall); Temple has a Symphony, there's the "new Philadelphia Classical Symphony" and various chamber orchestras.....

Philly has a second Opera House, built by Oscar Hammerstein in the 1910s to compete with NYC's "Met"; he had intended to make a chain of opera houses, but only got as far as Philly; it was the largest opera house in the world with 4,000 seats and now sits semi-derelict several blocks north of City Hall, some of it used as a church; the Philadelphia Orchestra had used it for recording since the acoustics were top-notch, but no longer.

The arts received a major boost in connection with the need to revitalize Center City. Wise heads (and much dedication/money) under Rendell renamed South Broad St. "Avenue of the Arts" since so many theaters, etc., are concentrated there. The effort begun back in the 1980s was an excellent idea from which both Center City and the arts have benefitted beautifully, having tied it all together.

There are galleries in abundance, especially in Old City, instruction-studio space galore.

The historic love of the arts endures; the infrastructure exists in spades, as does the money to cultivate and maintain it [Annenburg, Pew, Lenfest, Perelman (Ronald's bro) and so forth, in addition to GlaxoSmithKline, e.g., and various other corporate sponsors......)]

S'all I got. Hope this is informative.

[vertex]

Uber-informative. :tup:

[Jularc]

Also Philadelphia needs to make campaigns to attract many of the immigrants from NYC. I though I read somewhere that Philly wasn't attracting enough immigrants as Washington or Boston were. But anyway many NYC immigrants live in some bad conditions. Too much expenses. Alot of overcrowding in one apartment or a house. Now with all of those abandon homes and those areas that philadelphians are leaving, wouldn't that be perfect for immigrants to take over and create new communities. So some campaigns in the immigrant areas of NYC will help Philly aswell.

[Capsule F]

The title of this thread makes me f'in sick to start. Like Philly is maliciously luring artists away from pure New York. Like many great talents from Philadelphia over the ages didn't have their New York calling an go there only for New York to get the credit, gimme a break.

Vertex, if any city, other then NYC can support the arts, its Philadelphia. Easily on par with the patrons of LA and chicago.

[PhillyRising]

Philly may be able to attract the artists, but does Philly really have the people willing to support them? In other words, does Philly really have the benefactors and patrons to support all of these artists? If they don't, these artists will eventually move on.

Does Phoenix? Benefactors to the arts just pledged millions of dollars to keep a painting from a native artist from the 1800's from leaving town and being put in some grubby mueseum of the Waltons in Arkansas. We have one the major art museums in the county. Why would you even ask this?

[PhillyRising]

Ok, so the next obvious question is this, why hasn't Philly already bloomed as an art-friendly city? Are the corporations and old-money families only now starting to get it?

Where are you getting this? You have no clue about Philly.

[donybrx]

Does Phoenix? Benefactors to the arts just pledged millions of dollars to keep a painting from a native artist from the 1800's from leaving town and being put in some grubby mueseum of the Waltons in Arkansas. We have one the major art museums in the county. Why would you even ask this?

He simply did not know.....and seemed sincerely interested in finding out.....so I gave it a go.....I'm certain he was not being hostile...only interested....

Not every one is making war on Philly.....:)
At ease........

And yes, Capsule F the title of the article is stupid. The text makes a clearer, reasonable statement.

[PhillyRising]

He simply did not know.....and seemed sincerely interested in finding out.....so I gave it a go.....I'm certain he was not being hostile...only interested....


Maybe so....but notice how a SunBelter automatically had a negative view of something about Philly without knowing the facts. That really pisses me off.

[vertex]

PN, donybrx made a pretty thorough post, and I came away impressed. No need for the reaction.

[Shawn]

PhillyNation, simply put, chill out. I've been noticing how easily you seem to get your feathers ruffled lately. There wasn't a hint of maliciousness in vertex's questions, and your response was unnecessary. Other forum members have been asking you to tone it down recently, many of them fellow Philadelphians. I suggest you seriously consider their suggestion.

[wanderer34]

Also Philadelphia needs to make campaigns to attract many of the immigrants from NYC. I though I read somewhere that Philly wasn't attracting enough immigrants as Washington or Boston were. But anyway many NYC immigrants live in some bad conditions. Too much expenses. Alot of overcrowding in one apartment or a house. Now with all of those abandon homes and those areas that philadelphians are leaving, wouldn't that be perfect for immigrants to take over and create new communities. So some campaigns in the immigrant areas of NYC will help Philly aswell.


I believe that you said half of what I wanted to say. Anyways let me say the rest.

What a lot of people don't know is that the fastest Dominican and Colombian communities aren't in NYC, Miami, or Boston, but Philly. Why??? Because f the rediculously low real estates prices and the quality of life (aside from the crime wave that's currently happening in the inner cities) and affordability.

Also, you're going to see a lot of West Indians (Jamaicans, Trinidadians, Barbadians, Haitians, etc.) coming to Philly, specifically in Olney, Logan, WOL, EOL, Germantown, and the NE. Even South and the SW is slightly growing. That's who we really need to target.

Also, I wouldn't mind mind getting more Russians and Ukrainians in the Far NE, Portuguese and Brazilians in the NE and Frankford, Central Europeans (Polish, Lithuaninans, Slovaks, Hungarians, etc.) in Port Richmond, and I think that we need to be the real Athens of America (not Boston) by attracting Greeks to this fair city, making the Delaware Valley have the largest concentration of Greeks in America). Why??? Because we have out own Parthenon (the Art Museum)!!! :)

And more Sicilians, and bring some Lebanese chicks here too!!! (they're hot!!! :P)

[PhillyRising]

PhillyNation, simply put, chill out. I've been noticing how easily you seem to get your feathers ruffled lately. There wasn't a hint of maliciousness in vertex's questions, and your response was unnecessary. Other forum members have been asking you to tone it down recently, many of them fellow Philadelphians. I suggest you seriously consider their suggestion.


I apologize if I was too harsh.