Taking the pulse of Northeast culture

The art of Northeast Philly: A metal public art piece called ‘Fire Engine’ by Harold Kimmelman is located at 7818 Frankford Ave. MARIA POUCHNIKOVA / TIMES PHOTO

Thanks to a new online tool called CultureBlocks, anyone interested in the “cultural assets” — art nonprofits, cultural businesses, public artworks — of a Philadelphia neighborhood can get a clear picture of just how much culture is bubbling up in any part of the city.

Using the database at cultureblocks.com to examine Northeast Philly neighborhoods showed no art galleries listed, but did uncover something else — dozens of creative cultural enterprises that are being run out of homes.

Moira M. Baylson, a CultureBlocks developer, said what surprised her about the data was how many for-profit creative businesses there are in the Northeast.

“A lot of for-profit and nonprofit businesses are being run out of people’s homes,” she said. “There are a lot of film and video companies, publishing companies, photographers, people with embroidery businesses.”

Baylson, who is deputy cultural officer for the city’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, said the tool shows the Northeast is culturally vibrant in ways that are different from neighborhoods like Fishtown or Northern Liberties, which have exploded with art galleries and the like in recent years.

“Just because there might not be a ton of ‘artists-in-residence’ showing up here [in the Northeast] on the tool, there are a ton of creative people,” Baylson continued. “If you just try to pick [on CultureBlocks] the ‘formal’ art and cultural activity, the Northeast might not be a strong area, but there is a different story happening there.”

The tool also offers data on race, income, age and even education of a neighborhood’s residents. CultureBlocks is a veritable one-stop shop for comprehensive data about any given neighborhood, ZIP code or specifically defined area in the city.

Joe DeFelice, chairman of the Mayfair Community Development Corporation, said in an interview June 7 that he hadn’t used CultureBlocks before the Northeast Times asked him about it, but that he very much liked the tool’s concept.

“The premise is great,” DeFelice said. “It gives us [the CDC] an idea of what kind of resources are in and around our neighborhood.”

Developed by several city agencies, CultureBlocks is grants-supported and free to the public. Its data comes largely from the Social Impact of the Arts Project, which has been collecting data for more than 15 years.

On the database, cultural assets are represented by dots on maps. The Northeast has a lot of dots.

What does this mean for the Northeast?

“Anybody making investments can and would be using this tool to make better investment decisions. It helps people understand what’s happening in communities,” Baylson said.

This could lead, she said, to funds being channeled into arts organizations in neighborhoods like those in the Northeast.

What about neighborhoods that lack an abundance of creative enterprises?

“Everyone approaches it differently — some people want to be where other [creative] businesses are. Another would see a neighborhood with a lack of enterprises and say ‘there’s an opportunity here,’” Baylson said.

A different story than, say, areas of the city like Fishtown and Northern Liberties, where galleries and independent publishing houses and the like have opened in great numbers in recent years.

Baylson said there is “absolutely” already a spread of arts and culture happening in those neighborhoods, but comparing the availability of resources there to those in the Northeast could initiate cultural action in neighborhoods here.

“Does the fact that the Northeast has no art galleries motivate someone to say, ‘Hey, there are no art galleries here, is this a good place to put one?’ I do think there is a market for that here,” she said.

DeFelice agreed, citing the success of cultural events in the Northeast. He said that he’s been inspired by what other neighborhoods, like those in Center City and the River Wards, have done culturally, and the Mayfair CDC has followed suit.

For instance, First Friday is enormously popular in neighborhoods like Old City and Fishtown. The Mayfair Art Initiative, a committee of the Mayfair CDC, DeFelice said, organized Third Thursday as a local version of the free monthly art event. It takes place on the third Thursday of each month at the Headquarters art shop, 7213 Frankford Ave.

On CultureBlocks, a user can explore an area in a variety of ways — by entering an address or ZIP code, a neighborhood name, a council or planning district or even a school catchment area. Users can filter what they want to search for: cultural resources, arts-related investments, or city resources, along with “people” data like ethnicity or age.

Each ZIP code or neighborhood has a “profile” as well. You can select, for example, the 19136 ZIP code or the “Mayfair” neighborhood.

A user can draw a custom area on the map and see the points that fall within whatever area is considered the neighborhood. That’s what the Northeast Times did, using the same boundaries as local civic groups use.

DeFelice said the tool will only help expand the cultural and artistic scene in Mayfair and the rest of the Northeast.

“What we try to do in Mayfair is see what they’re doing in other neighborhoods. This tool definitely lets you see [that], ” he said.

Like Baylson, DeFelice said much of the Northeast’s cultural activity comes in the form of creative enterprises out of the home.

“You’d be surprised by how many people make art in their homes. There are a lot of performing arts and film and video [businesses],” DeFelice said.

“The Northeast is underserved culturally and it has been for years, but we’ve been increasing the number of festivals and craft fairs, farmers markets, our Christmas village…there are definitely some interesting things going on in the neighborhood,” he continued.

Baylson said considering how few cultural organizations there are in the Northeast, there is moderate cultural participation happening here, as shown by CultureBlocks’ data.

“[That] might make someone think, “ ‘Well, maybe we need our own theater up here,’ ” she said. ••

Under the neighborhood “profile” tab on the CultureBlocks website, the Northeast Times used the “draw a custom area” tool to see what CultureBlocks lists as cultural assets in each of the following Northeast Philadelphia neighborhoods.

The Northeast Times defined each neighborhood by the same non-overlapping boundaries that civic associations use. For more information about all the neighborhoods, visit cultureblocks.com/tool.html.

Mayfair:

Nonprofit Arts and Cultural Organizations: 3

Cultural Businesses: 25

Public Art: 2

Art Galleries: 0

Cultural Events (Permits): 1

Holmesburg:

Nonprofit Arts and Cultural Organizations: 4

Cultural Businesses: 21

Public Art: 6

Art Galleries: 0

Cultural Events (Permits): 0