Arts and The City: Can the Arts Revive Our Cities’ and the Nation’s Economy?

Join the Penn Institute for Urban Research, along with the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance and Philagrafika, for a discussion with leading experts on how the arts impact local and national economies and their potential to help rebuild them. How can policymakers, civic leaders, and other city builders assess and capitalize on the value of the arts? To what extent is public investment in arts and culture a catalyst for job creation and for-profit development? How should pubic investment be directed, in the balance of capital investment versus operating support? The session will address the local and national policies needed to support art-based economies, the obstacles to building political support essential to public investment, and the research needed to better understand both the concrete and illusive value of the arts to urban communities and the country as a whole.

Speakers include:

Rocco Landesman, Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts
Donald Harrison, Saxophonist, Singer, Composer
Julia Olin, Executive Director, National Council for the Traditional Arts
Greg Rowe, Director, Culture Initiatives, The Pew Charitable Trusts
Cookie Ruiz, Executive Director, Ballet Austin
Nick Spitzer, Host and Producer, American Routes, Public Radio
Mark Stern, Professor of Social Welfare and History, Social Impact of the Arts Project, Penn
David Thornburgh, Executive Director, Fels Institute of Government, Penn

A reception follows the event. Space is limited. Register by Wednesday, 2/24 by emailing penniur@pobox.upenn.edu.

This is the second event in Penn IUR’s three-part seminar series, The Arts and the City which is supported by the University of Pennsylvania’s Provost Interdisciplinary Seminar Fund. For more details, click here.