Cultural Policy

The theme of GIA's 2000 annual conference is The Source which refers literally to the beginnings of the Mississippi River and figuratively to the tributaries that together make art happen: the creativity of individual artists, the desire to come together in community, and the impulse to give. Author Paul Gruchow lives in Two Harbors, Minnesota, and writes of the Mississippi from first-hand experience. He is a participant in a GIA preconference, "Artists and the Natural World: Art-Making and Environmental Advocacy." This essay is published with his permission.

2000 reprint edition, first published in 1992, 296 pages, paper. Arts Extension Service Press, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, ISBN 0-275-94054-3

2000, 122 pages; Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF), Denver Colorado, 303-629-1166.

1999, 316 pages, $22.50 (softcover); New York University Press, New York and London

1999, 128 pages; National Arts Journalism Program, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, 2950 Broadway, MC 7200, New York, New York 10027.

There is both good news and bad news in Reporting the Arts, the first comprehensive study of journalistic arts coverage in the United States, recently completed by the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University with funding from The Pew Charitable Trusts.

1998, 344 pages, $18; Critical Press, Gunk Foundation, New York.

The beautifully-restored Southern Theater in Columbus, Ohio served as classroom May 5 and 6, 2000 for "Going Global: Negotiating the Maze of Cultural Interactions," the fourth Barnett Arts and Public Policy Symposium hosted by the Ohio State University College of the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council. The two-day symposium is named for Lawrence and Isabel Barnett who established the Barnett Endowment at OSU, which funds the biennial symposium.

A recently released study of giving in Hawai'i confirms what many culture and arts groups in the state already know — it's hard to raise money! A local firm, SMS Research, conducted the study for Hawai'i Community Foundation in spring 1999. Titled Hawai'i Giving Study 1999, the study's purpose was to better understand charitable giving among Hawai'i residents.

Throughout human history, certain cities and regions have come to be regarded as pinnacles of human creativity and innovation. Sir Peter Hall, in his landmark book, Cities in Civilization, examines the underlying conditions that led to the emergence of "cultural crucibles" in Athens, Florence, London, Vienna, and Berlin.

The need to better understand and articulate the broad societal value of arts and culture is at the heart of a discussion among a growing circle of arts grantmakers and scholars in the U.S.