We're 96th!

Yesterday the Philadephia Workforce Investment Board published a report called "A Tale of Two Cities," (pdf) which describes in compelling and straightforward language the state of this city's economy. And no surprise, there is one city-within-a-city that is on the rise, and another that is still in a steep decline. This is probably true of every major urban center in this country.

I was struck by the numbers, though. According to the report, 45% of working-age adults are not working or looking for work, and the city's labor participation rate is ranked 96th out of the nation's 100 largest cities. We're ranked 92 in the percentage of college graduates living in the city (20%).

So... what does this mean for the arts? And what does this mean for arts management? On one level, one could say that the arts are an essential asset that helps the city to attract and retain educated workers and new businesses. And we're working on ways to more efficiently leverage the city's powerful and prominent arts assets for the benefit of the education system, most notably through the new Arts for Youth Initiative. But do the arts have a role in improving the city's educational opportunities for adults? Perhaps more promising, can the arts help to drive innovation by coming up with new markets, new businesses, new business structures that can help generate new jobs?

Our current economic downturn is a signal that an old economic order has passed, and a new one is in the process of being born. The arts can play a role in shaping that new order...