The Philadelphia Office of Arts and Culture closed under Mayor John Street in 2004. One of Mayor Nutter’s campaign promises was to reopen it. In the fall of 2008, Gary Steuer began as the head of the new Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy. We invited two arts bloggers to give us their assessment of Mayor Nutter’s first two years in office.

by Roberta Fallon and Libby Rosof
Creators of The Artblog

When Michael Nutter appointed Gary Steuer as the Art Czar we were elated to hear there would be arts liaison, although we knew little about him.  Then, the economy  tanked, pulling the budget out from under him and everyone else and we lost hope.

Philadelphia's Art Czar Gary Steuer

Turns out, Gary Steuer was a brilliant choice — he can make something from nothing. Working without a budget and with a limited staff he is getting things done, like getting the Cai Guo-Qiang gunpowder burn at the PMA through the approval process, for instance.  And he put the Jun Kaneko ceramic heads — temporary public sculpture — in City Hall Courtyard.  He’s opening up City Hall to make it a more art-friendly place with a ground floor gallery and art offices on the first floor.  Besides, he’s a blogger — and we love that!

Here’s our tick list for the future.  We hope that Steuer will launch a Public Art Fund in Philadelphia to support temporary public art in the city, for work that is exciting and unexpected, building on the art sizzle already going on.  We need an arts district and tax exemptions for art sales on First Friday.  We need an arts shuttle bus to connect the sprawling gallery scenes.

Imagine what both Nutter and Steuer could get done if they came in with the kind of budget John Street had at his disposal.

WHYY News profile of Mayor’s first two years