A love note to Philly is in the New York Times Art & Design section today. We tipped it off in our Gossip Girls post Monday, but now we have the link–thanks to Dan Shimmel, exec director of Esther Klein Gallery. (SLIGHT CORRECTION: We got a comment first from that alert guy Tim Gierschick with the link, and then we also got emails from the ever-ahead-of-things Rob Matthews and artblog’s own Kelani). The story, by Randy Kennedy, captures Philadelphia’s quirky passions for art, collections and food. Art-wise he focused on the new Steve Powers murals along the Market-Frankford El, FLUXspace, the Fabric Workshop, Fleisher/Ollman, and even took a stab at the ever-elusive Pifas. Good story, although its theory that Mural Arts and the Fabric Workshop engendered the exciting Philly art scene is rather questionable (not to say they didn’t contribute; just that they were part of a much larger picture that includes Pew, and all the other employers of artists–the art schools, the PMA–and the economic advantages of Philadelphia over New York).

SLIGHT ADDITION at 2 p.m.-ish(oh, not so slight after all): I just was looking at my real world New York Times and saw not just that Philly story but three others. One is Holland Carter’s lovely and thoughtful review of the Marcel Duchamp Etant Donnes exhibit at the PMA (I’m going to hear curator Michael Taylor talking about Etant Donnes later today); one is a sweet, personal review of the Stoogeum in Ambler (can you believe there’s a Three Stooges museum right in our own backyard!!!); and the other is a review of another PMA show, Adventures in Modern Art: The Charles K. Williams Collection, a Philly-centric and regional collection of work from the first half of the 20th century.

So right now I have to say, I heart the New York Times!!!