Less often is the dialogue about strengths - how to protect and build upon them.

That's a shame, because exploiting assets wisely is a key trait of good governance.

The Great Expectations project, which I help lead, has tried to give equal time to what's good about the Philadelphia region. Its latest initiative, The Big Canvas, looks at something that's gone very right for many years.

That something is arts and culture. We're good at that around here, from the world-class organizations like the Philadelphia Museum of Art to the smaller places like People's Light and Theatre in Malvern and Painted Bride Art Center in Old City. We have historic sites, parks, libraries and traditions that other regions can only envy.

In Southeastern Pennsylvania, there are 150 cultural events a day; 83 percent of adults in the region attend at least one every year. Cultural tourism is a pillar of the regional economy. Overall, the sector accounts for roughly 40,000 jobs.

So why The Big Canvas? Why hold forums around the region (five in July, more coming this fall, with a concluding event Dec. 6) to discuss the future of the sector and how it will affect taxpayers' wallets?

Inside the strengths lurk omens of trouble. Nearly half (47 percent) of arts and cultural organizations in a 2006 study operate at a deficit. Staffs strain just to maintain programs, while volunteers are at a premium. A tough economy cuts into revenues.

The more than 300 people who attended this summer's Big Canvas forums sketched other concerns:

Information about what's going on inside this cultural cornucopia is fragmented and hard to access, causing missed opportunities.

Mass transit does a poor job of serving culture-users. (A common grievance: Why do sports fans get so much more service and attention from SEPTA?)

Arts education for youth is under threat.

A sour brew of high costs, snobbery, and a sense of intimidation keeps many from sampling art venues they'd savor if they took a chance.

Government support of the arts is weak.

Evidence for that last view: Local governments provide a puny 3 percent of arts and culture revenues regionally. Smaller places with fewer assets (Denver, Pittsburgh, Cleveland) have set up stable regional cultural funds, fed by earmarked tax revenues.

That leads to the core questions of The Big Canvas: Should the Philadelphia region begin an arts and culture fund of its own? If so, on what should money be spent?

Forum participants gave us hundreds of ideas. Among the neat ones:

Philly Van Go. A system of "culture buses" and "arts trains" would connect arts patrons pleasantly with cultural venues. During the rides, there'd be performances of music and poetry, displays of art and film.

Artists' colonies. In congenial neighborhoods, develop complexes with housing, studios, rehearsal and performance spaces.

ArtWeb 2.0. Create a thorough online clearinghouse for regional arts information.

These and other suggestions are detailed in forum reports you can find at the project Web site: www.greatexpectationsnow.com.

Now, to the fall forums. (See box for the forum schedule and sign-up information.) At these, participants will review and critique four possible arts strategies, which The Big Canvas team will distill from the citizen input over the summer.

Each choice will present a distinct approach to frame the case for more public support of arts and culture, with different actions that flow from that approach.

We hope to have lots of people at the forums, skeptical taxpayers as well as culture vultures. At the discussion's end, you'll get a chance to vote on the four strategies, investing 20 imaginary "Ben Bucks" across the choices anyway you see fit.

The results should give us solid data on what the region's citizens are, or are not, willing to support. We'll report the findings to cultural and political leaders at a concluding event Dec. 6 at the Valley Forge Convention Center.

Help paint The Big Canvas. Yours might be the brush stroke that completes the picture.

Chris Satullo: The Big Canvas: Arts, Culture . . . and Your Wallet

Here is the schedule of fall forums in The Big Canvas dialogue about the future of arts and culture in the region.

The Big Canvas is an initiative of Great Expectations, a program of The Inquirer and the Penn Project for Civic Engagement.

All forums except the first begin with sign-in at 6:30 p.m and run until 9:30.

Advance registration is requested. To register, go to www.greatexpectationsnow.com and click on The Big Canvas link, or call 215-854-5956.

Saturday, Sept. 20 - Pennsbury Manor, 400 Pennsbury Manor Rd., Morrisville. 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Special activities for children during the forum.

Monday, Sept. 22 - Chester County Book and Music Co., 975 Paoli Pike, West Chester.

Tuesday, Sept. 23 - Glenside Hall, Keswick Avenue and Waverly Road, Glenside.

Thursday, Oct. 2 - Greater Plymouth Community Center, 2910 Jolly Rd., Plymouth Meeting.

Sunday, Oct. 5 - Moore College of Art and Design, 20th Street and the Parkway.

Monday, Oct. 6 - Narberth Borough Hall, Haverford Avenue and Conway Avenue, Narberth.

Tuesday, Oct. 14 - Swarthmore College, Science Center, Swarthmore.