With the publication of the final report of the ninety-second American Assembly, it is time to offer some observations and thoughts. The ninety-second assembly, and its most recent report, represents a significant stop along the road to full societal recognition and informed investment in the American arts industry. There were, however, two tears in the fabric of the ninety-second assembly and in its final report. One involves definition, the other, inclusiveness.

First, the assembly did not produce a clear, concise, and compelling definition of the American arts industry. Lacking such a definition, we are left with an amorphous, ill-defined sector of American society struggling for self-identity. Thus the arts, in my mind, remain unable to compete effectively in the court of public opinion with clearly defined economic sectors such as business, education, health and science and technology. Having prepared a background paper for the assembly, attended its deliberations, and read its final report, I now offer such a definition: The arts industry, or more properly, the art sector, includes all profit, non-profit and public enterprise including incorporated and unincorporated enterprise as well as self-employed artists, that (a) use one or more of the arts as a primary factor of production, e.g. advertising, fashion, industrial, and product design; (b) use one or more of the arts as a tied-good in consumption, e.g. home entertainment hardware, magazines and newspapers; and/or (c) produce one or more of the arts as their final output, that is, create, produce, distribute, and/or conserve goods and services in the literary, media, performing, visual and/or heritage arts.

Second, although the assembly succeeded in bringing some parts of the profit, nonprofit and public sector arts communities together, it failed to achieve full integration of all market segments of the arts industry. The assembly was dominated by the media and performing arts with much lip service paid to arts education and amateurism. To a degree, this uneven representation reflects a contemporary courtship of the screen by the stage in a period of public sector cutbacks and fiscal restraint. Thus the Disney Corporation was held in high esteem by the live nonprofit performing arts community represented at the assembly because of Disney's success in reversing the traditional path from stage to screen (for example, Beauty and the Beast went from screen to stage). Absent or underrepresented at the assembly were three important segments of the industry - the applied and decorative arts, arts labor unions, and the education-through-art movement.

CONTENTS
Definition.
Inclusiveness.
The applied and decorative arts.
Arts labor unions.
Education through art.
Implications.
Conclusion.

With the publication of the final report of the ninety-second American Assembly, it is time to offer some observations and thoughts. The ninety-second assembly, and its most recent report, represents a significant stop along the road to full societal recognition and informed investment in the American arts industry. There were, however, two tears in the fabric of the ninety-second assembly and in its final report. One involves definition, the other, inclusiveness.