Cultural Policy

The Center for Arts and Culture, an independent think tank on cultural policy, began work on its Art, Culture and the National Agenda project in 2000. Scholars, artists, and practitioners from around the country were commissioned to write background papers on the most pressing concerns facing the cultural sector. With nearly 100 papers submitted to the project, the Center's board, research advisory council, and staff, in discussion with leading policymakers, crafted a set of four structural recommendations for the federal government.

Co-sponsored by the Estate Project for Artists with AIDS and the National Association of Artists Organizations, Friday, October 13, 2000, the Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, California

The bus-stop was outside the cathedral. I had been looking at the Mappa Mundi, with its rivers out of Paradise, and at the chained library, where a party of clergymen had gotten in easily, but where I had waited an hour and cajoled a verger before I even saw the chains. Now, across the street, a cinema advertised the Six-Five Special and a cartoon version of Gulliver's Travels. The bus arrived, with a driver and conductress deeply absorbed in each other. We went out of the city, over the old bridge, and on through the orchards and the green meadows and the fields red under the plough.

I would like to begin with a passage from the book Ceremony by the American Indian author Leslie Silko:

1965, Partisan Review, also published in Against Interpretation and Other Essays, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York (1966), 304 pages.

In Susan Sontag's essay, "Styles," published by Partisan Review in 1965 and reprinted in Against Interpretation, a collection of her essays about art, she states:

Cultural Policy Research was the topic of two breakfast roundtables at GIA's 2000 conference in Minneapolis. A combination of scheduled presenters and other participants gave brief summaries of current research underway. The cumulative impact of hearing about so many projects at the same time inspired Reader editors to want to share the reports with our readers. This overview does not pretend to be exhaustive, but rather is a snapshot based on roundtable participation and the ability of the following report contributors to respond quickly to our invitation. We extend many thanks to them.

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.

A Report on the Ford Foundation Initiative
Edited by Mindy Levine

1999, 64 pages. Developed by New England Foundation for the Arts, edited and published by Arts International, ISBN 0-9676467-0-7, 212-674-9744

Policy Perspectives for Individuals, Institutions, and Communities
Edited by Gigi Bradford, Michael Gary, and Glenn Wallach
2000, 364 pages, $18.95 paper. The New Press, New York.