CultureWire | January 2025

Broad Street Review, a Cultural Alliance member, is celebrating their 20th anniversary in 2025. As the city's largest remaining outlet dedicated to interdisciplinary arts journalism, Broad Street Review is Philly's home for arts, culture, and conversation. Learn more. Photo by Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer. 

Arts & Culture in the News 

• Consuming arts and culture is good for health and wellbeing, concludes the first major UK research to quantify the impact of arts and heritage. “Engagement with performance-based art such as plays, musicals and ballet, and particularly participation in music, is linked to reductions in depression and in pain and improved quality of life,” read more in The Guardian. 

• King County, WA, home to the city of Seattle, will send about $70 million in funding to local arts, science, history and heritage nonprofits next year. The funding — largely drawn from a sales tax increase that began accruing in April — is part of a blockbuster new program expected to inject $700 million into the cultural sector over the next seven years. Read more in The Seattle Times. 

• A new year brings changes to Philly's arts and culture leadership: Melissa Weiler Gerber steps in as interim president and CEO of the Please Touch Museum after Patricia Wellenbach's transition from her leadership role and Matías Tarnopolsky departs the Philadelphia Orchestra for the New York Philharmonic.

Updates from the Cultural Alliance

THE CULTURAL ALLIANCE LAUNCHES ITS NEW STRATEGIC PLAN

After a year-long process of collaborative work with the cultural community and stakeholders around our region, the Cultural Alliance is both honored and excited to share with you our bold, new Strategic Plan: Co-Creating Our Future. Read the full plan on our website. 

As we embark on this journey, we have identified the need for a new visual identity and brand that reflects our strategic vision. The Cultural Alliance is seeking a branding and design partner to develop a logo, visual identity, and collateral that reflects the organization’s evolving identity and ethos. The RFP is open now, read online. 

Applications for the Cultural Alliance's Bloomberg Arts Internship summer 2025 program are open now through February 28! The Bloomberg Arts Internship (BAI) is a national program for rising high school seniors facilitated by the Cultural Alliance in Philadelphia and other partner organizations in New York City, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Boston, Detroit and San Francisco. Interns are paired with local arts and culture organizations to gain paid, real-world work experience while participating in professional development sessions, cultural immersion activities, and post-secondary readiness workshops. In 2024, the Cultural Alliance placed 80 interns at 39 cultural sites across the city. Learn more about participating in BAI and read interviews with past interns on our website. 

Pictured: 2024 BAI Intern Ana at Carpenters Hall. 

We are pleased to announce the awardees of the 2024-2025 Creative Sector Flex Fund, a program administered by the Cultural Alliance on behalf of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. In this round of funding, 80 organizations received a total of $400,000 in grants to support arts and culture across Southeastern Pennsylvania. The distribution of the Flex Fund helps fulfill the Cultural Alliance's strategic objective to strengthen our sector's capacities. Congratulations to all of the recipients! See the full list of awardees.

Photo courtesy of Team Sunshine Performance, a Creative Sector Flex Fund awardee. Photo by Johanna Austin.

This month, three PA CultureCheck Listening Sessions will be held by the Cultural Alliance, the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, and PA Humanities. These sessions will explore preliminary findings from PA CultureCheck. They offer the opportunity to share your insights and perspectives about the ongoing research and connect with your peers from across Pennsylvania's cultural community. Organizations are invited to participate in any of the sessions, regardless of their location. Registration is required. 

• Pittsburgh: January 16, 2025 at 1:00 p.m. Register. 
• Statewide: January 28, 2025 at 1:00 p.m. Register.
• Philadelphia: January 29, 2025 at 11:00 a.m. Register.

Arts & Culture by the Numbers

The Cultural Alliance's recently released Social Impact Database confirms the far-reaching impact of programming offered by Philadelphia's cultural sector. This information is based on a survey of 50 Philadelphia-based arts and culture organizations and their self-reported 2024 programming.  Read the full report on our website. 

For an in-depth review of the data, join us on Friday, January 10 at 10:00 a.m. for a virtual presentation. Register.

Job Bank

The Cultural Alliance’s Job Bank is Greater Philadelphia's top resource for job opportunities in arts and culture. You’ll find positions at all professional levels in museums, theaters, historic sites, art galleries, dance studios, community centers, and much more. Keep reading for the most recent listings from Member organizations.

• Early Childhood Dance Teaching Artist at Darlington Arts Center
• Digital Content Manager at the Museum of the American Revolution
• Development Manager at the Woodmere Art Museum 
• Associate Registrar at the Barnes Foundation
• Audience Services Associate at the Philadelphia Theatre Company
• Conservation Technician at Fairmount Park Conservancy

Want to connect to candidates? The Cultural Alliance’s Job Bank has 60,000+ views each month. Job listings are free for Cultural Alliance Members and start at just $95 for non-Members. Learn more.