Cultural Policy

Like program officers everywhere, I spend a lot of time immersed in the minutia that pours from one proposal folder after another. How, then, can I keep my eyes on the big picture? Individual programs are evaluated, of course, but how can my colleagues and I measure the overall health of the city's arts and cultural sector? And what about the rest of the city? Where do the arts and artists fit into the city's economy? Our public school system? Housing? My search for the big picture reminds me of the Gauguin painting at the Museum of Fine Arts which asks “Where Do We Come From? What Are We?

The Metropolitan Denver Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD) is a new member of GIA. It is a six-county regional public funding agency, formed ten years ago this coming November. It was created at a time when much public funding was being challenged, if not actively cut back. The formation of the district and its continuing success have been models for a number of other communities.

People are betting on the renewal of Washington D.C. Without doubt, Washington is struggling with profound structural, financial, and governance challenges including the lack of voting representation in Congress. However, another District story is starting to be told — the story of the District as the home of thousands of dynamic and effective nonprofits and others who are renewing neighborhoods, investing in families and cultural life, and bringing life and leadership to the District.

New England Builds Communities through Culture

Building Communities through Culture (BCC) fosters and encourages community-building projects in New England by linking arts and non-arts partners in select areas in the region. Established in 1995 as an initiative of the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), BCC is supported by The Boston Foundation, the Fund for the Arts, and a 1997 NEA grant of $200,000 for Leadership Projects in Underserved Areas.

Landscape dominates Oregon. Its beaches, mountains, and rivers beckon Oregonians to spend their leisure time hiking, skiing, and fishing. Many Portland residents routinely exit the city on weekends, choosing outdoors over urban culture. It is within this enticing natural environment that Portland's arts and cultural institutions must engage their audiences and make their way as financially viable institutions.

To Protect the Powerless in the Digital Age
An Open Letter to Foundations: To Protect the Interests of the Powerless in the Digital Age, Communications Researchers Need Your Support

The "open letter" has a number of signers.
August 12, 1998. 33 pages. The Civil Rights Forum on Communications Policy, 818 18th Street, N.W. Suite 810, Washington, D.C. 20006, 202-887-0301, forum[at]civilrightsforum.org.

A critic for The New York Times, wrote about last winter's Perigino exhibit at the Grand Rapids Art Museum in Michigan, "This is perhaps the most important exhibit of the decade, in the least important of places."

Pueblo people believe that the primary and most important relationship for humans is with the land, the natural environment — or the cosmos. In the Pueblo world, the cosmos, the natural environment, and the landscape are synonymous. Humans exist within the cosmos and are an integral part of the functioning of the earth community. The mystical nature of the land, the earth, is recognized and honored. Direct contact and interaction with the land, the natural environment, is sought. In the Pueblo, there are no manipulated outdoor areas that serve to distinguish humans from nature.

What often is lost in cultural policy conversations or research reports about the visual arts world is an examination of how ethnic-specific cultural practices and the dynamics of non-collecting museums and artist-centered organizations keep the art world from be-ing static and dull, from being victimized by the hierarchies of taste or the technocratic aims of cultural managers. Any analysis of the sociology of the visual arts field needs to speak about the relationship between the aesthetic content of a work and the contexts in which different aesthetic inquiries are supported.

During my time in Anchorage with the leaders of state arts agencies, the subject of "public value" was still very much in play. Many state arts agencies had done extensive rethinking and planning around the public values they promote. And new communications strategies and publications were spreading this new word to legislators and constituents.