Voters in Philadelphia will decide next week whether the city's office for arts and culture should become a permanent part of municipal government.

Question 2 on the ballot for election day, 3 November, asks whether the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter should be amended to establish and define the functions of Creative Philadelphia, an office led by a Chief Cultural Officer and charged with promoting the city's arts, culture and creative economy.

At present, Creative Philadelphia exists only by executive order, which means a future mayor could dissolve or reshape it without a public vote. Writing it into the charter would give the office a legal footing that survives changes of administration.

Supporters argue that permanence would let the office plan further ahead, build lasting programmes and give artists and cultural organisations a reliable point of contact inside city government. Critics of charter change in general tend to argue that such questions should be left to elected officials rather than locked into the city's founding document.

The vote comes as American cities weigh how much institutional weight to give their cultural sectors. If the measure passes, Philadelphia will join a small group of cities that have given their arts office the same constitutional standing as other departments of government.

The measure will be decided by voters on 3 November, alongside the year's other contests, and its fate will show how far Philadelphia's electorate wants cultural funding and planning written into the city's basic law. If voters approve, the office's mission to promote the arts, culture and the creative economy will carry the force of the charter itself.