Azavea’s Brown Bag Lunch program provides a unique monthly opportunity for Azavea staff to talk about projects they are pursuing inside/outside of work as well as hear from community leaders in the Greater Philadelphia region.
Our speaker for March was Thaddeus Squire, founder and president of CultureWorks Greater Philadelphia. CultureWorks is the next evolution of Peregrine Arts, the organization that presented the spectacularly successful Hidden City event in 2009. During the Hidden City festival, performing and visual artists created dance, music, sculpture, video, print, and mixed media pieces inspired by the history and architecture of ”hidden” sites that people are not usually able to see. [Azavea participated in an early brainstorming session and also developed a transit map to help Peregrine Arts determine which hidden places would be the most accessible to visitors]. As part of his talk, Mr. Squire described the process of bringing some of the city’s best-unknown historical and architectural landmarks back to life and how excited he was that some of the old buildings, many of which are in various states of disrepair, are currently being repurposed due to the renewed interest generated by Hidden City. Those of you who attended the 2009 event will be pleased to know that a new Hidden City festival is currently being planned for 2013 and will encourage even more interest in redevelopment and reuse of neglected historic sites.
With fully 47% of all arts and cultural organizations in southeastern Pennsylvania currently operating at a deficit, the overarching goal of the new CultureWorks venture is to provide arts and heritage organizations with affordable access to the support and strategy they need to be resilient and sustainable in a constantly changing environment. A major challenge for non-profits is reliance upon government and foundation grants. When they end or decline, many organizations are forced to shrink and eliminate programs. CultureWorks aims to improve the financial resilience of non-profits by lowering costs and developing or improving their business models. These services are provided through three important programs:
- Cultural Sustainability Initiatives that provide partnering and resource support for large organizations with a particular project or goal in mind;
- Management Services for smaller organizations in need of financial, fundraising and marketing support; and
- Cultural CoWorking space to provide organizations of all sizes with the opportunity to network and support each other.
Mr. Squire indicated that arts and cultural organizations often find themselves competing for both funding and community support not only against other like-minded organizations, but also with the educational and community development projects that are often perceived by the general public as being more important. The recent announcement that the world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra was filing for bankruptcy really drives home the challenges faced by arts and cultural organizations throughout the nation. CultureWorks has been founded to improve the chances of both survival and prosperity for cultural organizations.
