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Not surprisingly Scranton, being a miniature version of Pittsburgh in the opposite corner of the state, is the same way. We have blue-collar roots, having once been a hotbed in anthracite mining, railroading, and the steel industry, yet there's enough of an emerging "fringe" group to start putting the Electric City on the cultural radar.
Our First Friday events are great. Suburbanites head into town and ride a trolley around to various art galleries, cafes, etc. to gawp at art. We host the annual Electric City Film Festival and an annual Jewish Film Festial. We have an annual event known as "Everhart After Dark" in which folks are invited to visit the Everhart Museum, the city's largest art museum, at night in order to experience it in a whole new "light." The Scranton Jazz Festival is quite popular. Several mixed-use projects are proposed that will bring more life to the city's core, including proposed studios for artists. An old industrial mill in the city's Petersburg neighborhood has been converted to loft apartments, and another old lace factory is being slated for an artists' colony. Paul Sorvino plans to soon bring a new film office to Scranton; his first film "The Trouble With Cali", which was set in Scranton, should be premiering sometime in 2008. NBC's "The Office" has brought a lot of notoriety to our city, and our first-ever convention was a huge hit for tourists.
It's amazing the difference that just a few years can make. In the 1990s we were runner-up for "Armpit of America." Just a decade later we're "Wall Street West", "hip", and "Hollywood East", all of which have been used by national publications to refer to the Electric City.
I doubt many of the working class manual workers making $10 an hour are spending much money at the ballet. The supporters are the white collar folks in town.
Virtually all cities support the arts. As questioner2 said, it is the whilte collar workers in these traditional blue collar cities that are the big supporters. Pittsburgh is in an unusual situation in that the population has dropped seriously over the last 50 years, from its peak. So it has the arts facitlities of a much larger city. It also had a great benefactor in Andrew Carnegie. Most every city of a certain size has a playhouse and some museums. That is not to put any place down, just to point out it's not that unheard of.
I disagree, i grew up blue collar and worked in a factory for a while myself. My dad took us to the butler art museum in y-town when i was a kid, not to mention the times we went to see the Packard Band and a few shows at Packard Music Hall in Warren. I think many people think that being blue collar means you have no interest in the arts or that you are uneducated, which was not the case when i was growing up. Maybe we were different though, many blue collar workers in my area worked in the automotive and steel industries where people made well over $20/hour.
Virtually all cities support the arts. As questioner2 said, it is the whilte collar workers in these traditional blue collar cities that are the big supporters. Pittsburgh is in an unusual situation in that the population has dropped seriously over the last 50 years, from its peak. So it has the arts facitlities of a much larger city. It also had a great benefactor in Andrew Carnegie. Most every city of a certain size has a playhouse and some museums. That is not to put any place down, just to point out it's not that unheard of.
Agreed. At its peak Pittsburgh proper was nearing 700,000 residents. It now has barely 300,000 on account of the triple-whammy of economic recession for many years, urban sprawl/white flight, and the simple demographics of having an older-than-average population. I always thought it was neat that a city of 300,000 had such an impressive skyline, but then you have to remember it used to be more than twice as large as it currently is today.
Also, the white-collars of the Scranton area are indeed the ones flocking to and patronizing these arts/cultural events, as they are the only ones who can really afford to. I'm a college student, so I'm likewise on a budget and only hit up the inexpensive cultural treats.
I disagree, i grew up blue collar and worked in a factory for a while myself. My dad took us to the butler art museum in y-town when i was a kid, not to mention the times we went to see the Packard Band and a few shows at Packard Music Hall in Warren. I think many people think that being blue collar means you have no interest in the arts or that you are uneducated, which was not the case when i was growing up. Maybe we were different though, many blue collar workers in my area worked in the automotive and steel industries where people made well over $20/hour.
That last sentence of yours sums up what PittNurse70 and I are thinking. Most blue-collar workers today aren't easily earning $20-$25/hr. (at least not in my area). Folks now who don't go to college and work in the blue-collar sector in my area largely just struggle to pay their bills unless they've chosen to specialize in some sort of skilled trade like becoming an electrician, plumber, mechanic, etc. Joe Somebody working in my area today is likely not going to be able to afford to take his children to the same cultural amenities that his father was able to take him to, and it's a bloody shame.
I disagree, i grew up blue collar and worked in a factory for a while myself. My dad took us to the butler art museum in y-town when i was a kid, not to mention the times we went to see the Packard Band and a few shows at Packard Music Hall in Warren. I think many people think that being blue collar means you have no interest in the arts or that you are uneducated, which was not the case when i was growing up. Maybe we were different though, many blue collar workers in my area worked in the automotive and steel industries where people made well over $20/hour.
I think that is the difference. I grew up in that area, too. Most of the people I knew were not interested in the arts, per se. My own family never went to a symphony or an art museum, but we did go to church a lot and were exposed to music there.
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We have blue-collar roots, having once been a hotbed in anthracite mining, railroading, and the steel industry, yet there's enough of an emerging "fringe" group to start putting the Electric City on the cultural radar.
