PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART’S FAMOUS STEPS

More money is spent on art in Philadelphia than in any other American city. In fact, about one percent of the total city budget is spent on art. Philadelphia’s art museum houses an unparalleled collection from the Middle Ages onward. It has exhibits from all over the world and has a superb collection from the Orient. It is a palatial structure set in the middle of beautiful Fairmount Park. The museum is the city’s number one tourist attraction and you would be forgiven for thinking that this has something to do with its collection of 500,000 paintings. However, the museum’s popularity has more to do with another form of art, the film. During the film ‘Rocky’, the hero, played by Sylvester Stallone, runs up the front steps of the building while he was training for a fight. Tourists arrive in bus loads, but many don’t even bother to enter the building. They come merely for a glimpse of the scene from the Academy Award winning film, Rocky.