Public Agency

In the fall 2001, the Center for Arts and Culture, an independent Washington, D.C.-based think tank on cultural policy, began distributing two series of publications. One consists of commissioned papers, part of the Center's Art, Culture and the National Agenda project. The other documents discussion forums convened by the Center. Publications in both series are small-format booklets. Several landed on our desks in quick succession last fall, but production now seems to be moving at a slower pace, allowing us to keep track of each one a little more easily.

2001, 157 pages, $25. The New Press, New York.

Fall 2001, $15 per year, 80 pages. Published by the MIT Press for the Society for Organizational Learning. MIT Press Journals, Five Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142, 617-253-2889, journals-orders@mit.edu. Society for Organizational Learning, contact@SoLonline.org.

I rarely pick up books or journals about business management, but my trusted co-editor suggested Reflections to me on the grounds that several GIA members have forwarded intriguing articles from its pages. I decided to take the plunge.

October 6-8, 2000, 140 pages. Western States Arts Federation, 1543 Champa Street, Suite 220, Denver, CO 80202, 303-629-1166, krista.lewis@westaf.org.

This two-day symposium, convened by WESTAF at the Aspen Institute, was organized around four topics: technology, youth culture, demo- graphics, and politics. The topics were selected to acknowledge the larger socio-political environment within which culture exists. Experts in each field were invited to share their perspectives on important trends and discuss the relationship that their fields either have or do not have with culture.

November 2001, 24 pages. Working Group on International Collaboration in the Arts, Arts International, 251 Park Avenue South, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10010-7302, 212-674-9744, 212-674-9092 fax.

By press time, the Reader had received two booklets documenting discussion forums convened by the Center for Arts and Culture.

Forum on Freedom and Diversity of Expression, moderated by James Fitzpatrick.

Overhaul of Elementary and Secondary Education

On November 12, 2000, a headline on the front page of the Atlanta Journal/Constitution read, "Study finds Atlanta arts community trailing peers." A full-page story in Section A followed. This one headline challenged the city's cherished self-assessment as "cultural jewel of the South" and quietly affirmed the suspicions of many of its artists and cultural workers.

This is the story about the headline, the study, and the volunteer efforts of an incorporated ad hoc group that calls itself the Atlanta Arts Think Tank and that commissioned the landmark study.

Meetings are big business. Or, in other words, talk is not cheap. An economic impact study by Deloitte & Touche LLP demonstrated that conventions, expositions, and meetings generated $82 billion in total direct spending in 1994, supporting 1.57 million jobs.1 Meetings of associations and membership organizations, as opposed to corporate-sponsored events, account for the lion's share of this spending (68 percent). Many of these associations serve the arts and culture.