Description
Book SynopsisDespite its size and its economic impact, the US arts community is not articulate about how it serves the public interest. This book encourages policy makers to investigate the crucial importance of the arts in the US, aiming to to provide new ideas, concepts and data.
Trade ReviewAn important and unique contribution to the literature on the arts in America...one that will stand tall on the shelves for quite a few years to come. -- Milton C. Cummings, Jr. * author of The Patron State: Government and the Arts in Europe, North America, an *
The essays in this book address the ways in which the practice, perceptions, and expectations about the arts in America have changed. Virtually all of us realize we're inhabiting a different landscape now from that of the art world in the decades following World War II. But few of us in the art world have a clue about what it all means and, more important, where we're headed. The authors have brought a wealth of descriptive information together to enable readers to get a better grasp on what's happening....One of the collection's most notable strengths is that it brings the perspectives of economists, policy wonks, and systems analysts, perspectives that have too often been dismissed or neglected, to bear on questions that have suffered from ethereal or merely academic forms of traditional arts discourse....No one who writes grants or meets with the corporate and civic potentates who control purse strings and public spaces should proceed without [this book] close at hand. * New Art Examiner *
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Part I. Exploring a Changing Landscape
1. Mapping the Public Life of the Arts in America
2. Toward an American Arts Industry
3. Raison d'Etat, Raisons des Arts: Thinking About Public Purposes
Part II. The Public and the Arts
4. Public Involvement in the Arts
5. American Public Opinion About the Arts and Culture: The Unceasing War with Philistia
6. The Government and Cultural Patronage: A Comparative Analysis of Cultural Patronage in the United States, France, Norway, and Canada
Part III. Perspectives from Arts Subsectors
7. The Career Matrix: The Pipeline for Artists in the United States
8. Economics of the Nonprofit Arts: Structure, Scope, and Trends
9. Flickering Images: The Business of Hollywood
Bibliography
Biographical Notes
Index
