The Big Canvas

The Big Canvas will ask the region's citizens how they use its arts and culture assets, how they value them, what steps they'd favor to preserve and enhance them, and how they'd be willing to pay for all this.

The goal: A regional cultural strategy that citizens will support because they helped craft it, a strategy that reflects their values. The yield from this initiative will be presented to political leaders at a Big Canvas Confab in the fall.

Help us paint The Big Canvas well. The project begins in July, with a round of five citizen forums around the region.

We invite you to help us get the project off to a rousing start. Get more details or sign up to attend here.

(Illustration by Tony Auth)

A City That Works

Mayor Nutter and his top aides have promised to use input from A City That Works forums to help shape performance standards and customer-service expectations.

Find out what citizens were talking about from the discussion-group reports. Then check out what our citizen bloggers had to say.

A new home for the GE blog

The Great Expectations blog has moved to a new address:
www.philly.com/philly/blogs/greatexpectations

So, update your online bookmarks so that you can continue to join in the discussion. All entries prior to June 19 will continue to be located at our former blog site.

Great Expectations illustrator wins Graphis Gold Award

Tim Ogline has received the Graphis Gold Award for a selection of pieces that were part of the Great Expectations Citizens Agenda. His entry included his work for the following topics: art and culture, city services, crime, the environment, and ethics. You can see all of his contributions to the Citizens Agenda here.

A full list of winners can be found at the Design Annual Web site.

The "Hopes and Fears" film contest

Great Expectations challenged area filmmakers to tell us their hopes and fears for Philadelphia. Watch the entries by the finalists and let us know your favorite via our online poll.

The winner as chosen by the judges was "A prayer for Philadelphia" by Richard Power Hoffmann.

On the blog

In the last year, the blog has featured entries on issues and events ranging from the elections to the forum for civic leaders to the Citizens Convention. Take a look back through the archives to see what you might have missed, or what comments have been added since you last looked. Then, add to the dialogue with your own.