Just launched today: ClassicTowns.org. The site promotes eleven Philadelphia neighborhoods and suburbs as places to move to when you grow up, or to grow up in. Our task was to turn the designs into a easy to use and sophisticated Drupal site. Site visitors are able to easily find detailed and useful information on the towns, as well as on the classic towns program. Site administrators have a powerful set of tools behind the scenes that allow them to easily add more towns in the future and precisely edit each page while keeping the integrity of the design.

The standout feature of the site is a map of all the towns in the program. Feeding dynamic information from Drupal into Flash we were able to build a simple to use system for showing each town’s information in geographic space. The real power is reserved for the site’s administers. Once they’re logged in they just have to drag and drop a town’s icon to precisely adjust it’s placement on the map.

Classic Towns of Greater Philadelphia was designed by Paragraph Inc. for the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.

More on Philly.com

Mayor Nutter reopened the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy and introduced the new head, Gary Steuer, last week. The “Creative Economy” part of that title has been added with this reopening, and it’s a title that could place a new focus on the true contribution Philadelphia’s arts & culture community has, not only on quality of life, but on the economy of the city. For as much as Philly is steeped in history and sometimes has some antiquated perspectives and laws on the books, we are continually connecting with forward-thinking people working on innovative projects. Philly is a city I find extremely stimulating from a creative perspective (one of the reasons we set up shop here 7 years ago).

The new director of the arts & culture office is Gary Steuer, a New Yorker with a long list of credentials in arts administration.  Will his outsider perspective breath new life into the community and the economy?  Or will he miss what our city’s cultural community is all about and move in the wrong direction?  Only time will tell, but the Mayor’s move to re-establish the office is exciting and promising.

Read about Steuer in the Inquirer and City Paper.

Got a story to tell? Longtime Canary client, First Person Arts, recently announced a new competition for memoir and documentary artists. First Person Impressions invites artists to tackle the first person story through three artistic mediums: the written word, video, and photography. Artists are challenged to find universality in the personal, make the exotic familiar, shock and amaze, or pause to reflect, all while crafting an engaging and true tale around a slice of real life. Everyone with a true story is encouraged to enter. Submissions for the competition are now being accepted through August 15th.

Check it out online here: www.impressions.firstpersonarts.org.

Mayor Michael Nutter keeps his word to support the Arts in Philadelphia and will announce tomorrow the incoming Chief Cultural Officer for the City of Philadelphia and the establishment of the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy and the Mayor’s Cultural Advisory Council.

They’re inviting the cultural community to attend the press conference on Friday at 11am in the Mayor’s Reception Room - City Hall, Room 202. “Enter City Hall at the NE corner (JFK and Juniper), sign-in at the
security desk and head up to the second floor.”

We’re looking forward to hearing more about this here at Canary.  Stay tuned.

Derek Sivers of CDBaby.com recently sent out an article called “How to Call Attention to Your Music.” He says, “This is my best advice to help every musician sell more music, win more fans, and have the music business open its doors for you.” Many of the tips here are relevant beyond the music industry and can be carried over to other types of promotional campaigns; universal ideas like “be a real person,” “be different,” “think from their perspective” when contacting people, and “If you target sharp enough, you will own your niche.”  Check it out here.

This is how Philly celebrates Independence Day. Our best-known Ben Franklin impersonator and a Betsy Ross impersonator get married in front of a bunch of tourists while our mayor officiates. And they promote the heck out of it. Brings a tear to your eye, doesn’t it?

I finally joined the Twitter flock this week; Mason has been twittering for a while now.  Follow us on Twitter here: twitter.com/canarymegan and twitter.com/canarymason I am currently ruminating on my Streisand-esque haircut, while Mason is craving cheese.  Oh, how can you resist?