On Wednesday, July 14th, Mayor Nutter announced new cuts to the city budget that directly impact our neighborhoods, including a 35% reduction to the Philadelphia Cultural Fund (or $1,120,000), the Recreation Fund, and the Community Land Care Program run by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (or $840,000). These cuts will impact cultural groups that directly support our communities and contribute to the long-term health, vitality, and sustainability of our region, serving thousands of city residents and visitors.

Many other departments were affected, including police, fire, community college, prisons, and behavioral health. Balancing the budget, creating jobs, and reversing the economic downturn require careful planning and difficult decisions. With that, we hope this funding can be restored as the economy rebounds and the city tackles its larger structural budget issues.

Here are some examples of what these critical programs have been able to accomplish with city funding: 

"Without Cultural Fund support we would not be able to provide access to cultural events for all of the city's most needy and underserved communities that we currently reach, including children and adults who are economically disadvantaged, people with physical and developmental disabilities, and the elderly in need."
-- Art-Reach

"Funding from PCF provided scholarships for 95% of the 900 youth from North Philadelphia that participated in our summer programming in music instruction and performing arts."
-- Georgia E. Gregory Interdenominational School of Music

"Over 85 congregations with historic buildings have received support from Partners for Sacred Places. Without Cultural Fund support we would have to reduce our work and many of these invaluable neighborhood anchors will not survive."
-- Partners for Sacred Places

"Funding from the Philadelphia Cultural Fund directly supports free or deeply discounted admission to the nearly 300,000 students that visit the Museum each year. This includes free admission to nearly 30,000 schoolchildren from Title I schools in the School District of Philadelphia."
-- The Franklin Institute

Please join us in encouraging the Mayor to restore this funding. Once again, the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance (GPCA) has made it easy for you with a pre-written letter you can fax to his office electronically. We ask you to add your own personal anecdotes - how have these programs shaped your community and personal growth? GPCA has also created a petition for you to sign that we will deliver to the Mayor's office. Lastly, we hope you will forward this campaign widely to friends, family, and colleagues.

Arts and culture is a small but critical investment in our neighborhoods that consistently delivers better education outcomes, community revitalization, and jobs. Please join us in our efforts to restore this funding to its original levels. We need your voice now more than ever.

Thanks for all that you do!