In Conversation with Nick Crosson
Oct 17, 2011
After much anticipation, Nick Crosson, Research Analyst with the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, arrived in Scotland to share his knowledge and expertise of the methods used by cultural organisations in Philadelphia to win political and financial support for the arts.
This joint event with Culture Sparks proved to be extremely popular with places for both the Glasgow and Edinburgh events filling up rapidly, and rightly so. The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance is one of the most prolific lobbying organisations and active proponents in successfully arguing the case for culture. Over the past few years they have had numerous successes:
- they increased funding to the Philadelphia Cultural Fund
- prevented the imposition of a state-wide “Arts Tax”
- launched Engage2020, a marketing and audience engagement programme to double cultural engagement (engagement levels on track in 2011 assessment)
- prevented 70% funding cuts to Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
In Conversation with Nick Crosson was definitely going to be an inspiring listen.
Nick proved to be an energetic speaker and kept the audience engaged and amused throughout with his insightful presentation. He talked about researched-based advocacy and marketing efforts of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance that led to the successes outlined above. This set the scene for smaller break-out groups to discuss what Scottish arts organisations can learn from the methods used in Philadelphia and how to apply these methods in Scotland to win over political and financial support for the arts. Despite the differences between these two places, events in Philadelphia can be used as Scottish inspiration, as a starting point to spark new initiatives and energise existing projects to gain support for the arts in these hard economic times.
If you would like to find out more about this event and ways in which you can become involved in future projects, please contact the TAB office on 0131 656 5970 or send us an email.
Remember to check out our events page to keep up to date with up-and-coming training and events offered by TAB and other arts organisations.
