Thank you for all your support! In just one week we've had over 10,200 people sign the petition in support of saving the Office of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy. Philadelphia City Council has a virtual public meeting this Thursday, May 14. The agenda for the meeting has not yet been published, but time is running out for them to make decisions on whether to accept Mayor Kenney's budget or make changes. I plan on putting the petition in front of the decision makers this week.

What more can you do? Charlotte from the Philadelphia Art Museum suggested a social media campaign that everyone can get involved with to bring awareness to the issue and give the community some kind of an action to take beyond signing the petition. Everyone should do this on Monday, May 11.

It is simple. If you are an artist, musician, sculptor, actor, dancer, painter, photographer, chef, or creator of any kind simply post a piece of your art to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tik Tok, etc. It can be a picture, song, video, photo, poem, recital, speech, or any creation. If you don't have anything to post, there's link to an image to use below. Write whatever message you want and include:

#ArtIsEssential
Save City of Philadelphia Office of Arts and Culture and the Creative Economy! http://www.change.org/savephillyartsoffice

You can tag these people who are decision makers: @phillymayor @jimfkenney @phlcouncil @darrell_clarke @davidohphilly @councilmanderek @creativephl @philaculturfund

Image: http://www.iradiophilly.com/images/logos/saveOACCE_sq.jpg

I believe that actually posting your craft will create an emotional connection and show your artistic value in a powerful way that's different than economic impact numbers.

Please SHARE this petition. TELL anyone you know who has a stake in arts and culture to SIGN and SHARE. 

Al Clay
Executive Director
iradiophilly