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Josh Campbell is a playwright and teaching artist based in Philadelphia. He has premiered work at The Painted Bride Art Center , University of the Arts , and Juniper Productions . How did you get involved in the Cultural sector? Arts and culture has always been a part of my life. My parents made sure I was in music, theatre, and sports. One of my earliest memories was seeing the Nutcracker and being in awe of the dancers and costumes. Somewhere between elementary and high school, kicking soccer balls got tiresome and writing became a necessary requirement for my survival as a person. My involvement with the Philly cultural sector began through my connection to Philadelphia Young Playwrights and their intergenerational project “TIME MACHINE: THE LOST HOUR”, commissioned for the 2013 PIFA festival. What’s the future of arts & culture in Philadelphia? I feel we are living in a time when artists and policy makers

In 2003, Roberta Fallon and Libby Rosof launched Artblog with a mission to share their intimate knowledge of Philadelphia's cutting edge art, and to educate and support a community of artists, art lovers, gallerists, critics and academics. Artblog was recognized for excellence twice by Art in America (2005, 2007) and has received grants from the Knight Foundation and elsewhere. 1. How did you get involved in the Cultural sector? As a kid I put on puppet shows in the garage and sold popcorn for a nickel. But my cultural entrepreneurship was never about the popcorn and always about the story and steering the discussion. Fast forward and here I am, delivering stories on Artblog and steering the discussion of what’s important. Artblog began in 2003 out of a collaboration and a mission. Libby Rosof, who had been collaborating artists for years and knew the art scene here, and I decided to fix the problem of

Jill Harrison is the Founder & Executive Director of Directors Gathering . Jill is a theatre director and producer. She began her career in NYC, working for Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop and Peculiar Works Project. How did you get involved in the Cultural sector? I've been working in professional theatre for about 15 years. I worked in NYC for some time as a freelance director and then came to Philly in 2009 for the MFA Directing program at Temple. It was there that I discovered my affinity for producing theatre. After graduation, I worked for Simpatico Theatre and Philadelphia Theatre Company in a producing capacity and had another discovery: there is a need for artists with arts administration and entrepreneurial skills in our community to connect, support, and elevate local theatre directors, the artistic leaders and visionaries in Philly theatre. With this discovery and the support of Fractured Atlas and the Wyncote Foundation,

How did you get involved in the Cultural sector? I moved to Philadelphia in 2013 to attend Drexel's M.S. Arts Administration program, so that's when I got into the Philadelphia cultural scene. While in the program, I began working at the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance . When I moved here, I jumped feet first into the sector. What’s the future of arts & culture of Philadelphia? Ha. Good question. Honestly, who knows - but I would love to a part of shaping how it will look in the future. I am very outspoken when it comes to young people of color in the arts and culture sector in Philadelphia, and believe they deserve more leadership. I hope Philadelphia also remains a city where you can be a full-time artist and still live. I also hope to see a shift in power from the flagship organizations to the grassroots organizations truly doing the work. I have

What were doing your senior year of high school? Tamir Harper who is a senior at Science Leadership Academy brainstormed, developed, and raised funds for UrbEd. UrbEd is an initiative to advocate for students and families who are being deprived of a quality and efficient, urban education. 1. Why did you get into education advocacy? I have attended public school all my life. I have experienced the good and bad of the education system. In elementary school I attended Morton Elementary School, which proved itself to be a standard, elementary school with low-income families spanning across the neighborhood. Once I graduated from Morton, I attended one of the worst public schools in the School District of Philadelphia. And now, counterintuitively, I attend one of the top schools in the School District of Philadelphia. Once I went through the good, bad, and ugly of the system, I started advocating for more equitable schools, teacher diversity, and

When a group of Sharswood residents and activists started the North Philly Peace Park in 2012, they did not ask permission.

CreativeMornings PHL If you haven’t attended CreativeMornings , you’re missing out. For those of you not familiar with CreativeMornings, it’s a nationwide breakfast lecture series for the creative community that features monthly speakers on a range of topics and ideas. Luckily for me, this month’s focus was Equality – and featured the wisdom of Sara Zia Ebrahimi , who just happens to be a pretty amazing media maker, cultural producer, and Program Director at the Leeway Foundation. A friend and colleague of mine, Sara Zia brought nothing but empathy and honesty to the conversation as she shared her origin story and how her Iranian parents taught her how to question people in power. More so, she systematically broke down how equality does not, due to popular belief, equal equity. Below, you’ll find a few gems from her lecture. I encourage you to read through and examine your own commitment to equity both within and beyond

An open, fence-free, charitable, intergenerational, neighborhood-managed ecology campus championing food, education and community.

Hidden City is not only connecting people with Philadelphia’s forgotten places but also asking them to imagine new futures.