The Public Life of the Arts in America
The Public Life of the Arts in America
The Public Life of the Arts in America, Revised Edition
Art and entertainment constitute America’s second-largest export. Most Americans—96%, to be exact—are somehow involved in the arts, whether as audience participants, hobbyists, or via broadcast, recording, video, or the Internet. The contribution of the arts to the U.S. economy is stunning: the nonprofit arts industry alone contributes over 857 billion dollars per year, and America’s fine and performing arts enjoy world-class status.
Despite its size, quality, and economic impact, the arts community is not articulate about how they serve public interests, and few citizens have an appreciation of the myriad of public policies that influence American arts and culture. The contributors to this volume argue that U.S. policy can—and should—support the arts and that the arts, in turn serve a broad rather than an elite public. Indeed, increased support for the arts and culture equals good economic and trade policy; it also contributes to the quality of life and community, and helps sustain the creativity of American artists and organizations.
By encouraging policy-makers to systematically start investigating the crucial role and importance of all of the arts in the United States, The Arts and Public Purpose moves the field forward with fresh ideas, new concepts, and important new data.
An 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.
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.
MARGARET J. WYSZOMIRSKI is director of the arts policy and administration program at the Ohio State University. She is coeditor and contributor to Arts, Ideology, and Politics and America's Commitment to Culture: Government and the Arts.
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
