Americans for the Arts

Paper presented at the 1986 World Conference on Arts, Politics, and Business, held at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, July 22-25, 1986.

The Montana Cultural Survey represents the cooperation of all segments of the cultural community including libraries, arts, and historical museums, public and private schools, colleges, universities, and arts organization in the state of Montana. This report documents, in part, the impressive growth experienced by Montana's cultural sector during the last fifteen years - a previous study having occurred in 1967. There currently exist almost 1,000 organizations which provide arts and humanities programming and services. The report also examines the economic aspects of cultural activity in

The monograph by the Fund for Folk Culture (FFC) and the Urban Institute is an evaluation of the FFCs Partnerships in Local Culture program, but also identifies general issues and areas of collaboration for traditional artists, community based organizations and the economic development field

The importance of cultural institutions to contemporary revitalization efforts in U.S. cities is attributed to several factors, including cities' dependence on their consumption economies, cultural institutions' interest in improving their surroundings, and cultural institutions' abilities to draw on serious and popular art forms.

The Gross National Product (GNP) figures for the year 1976 through 1981 were revised this summer. Over the six year period, the proportion of total Personal Consumption Expenditures remained about the same despite small fluctuations every year.

The first step of this partnership was to hold an invitational two day retreat in July, 1990, at IBM's Palisades Advanced Business Institute for a small group of diverse arts and business leaders. The purpose was to discuss the depth and nature of problems facing the arts in New York City and to determine if indeed this project should go forward. The group agreed unanimously on the need to address these issues and developed a 12-step plan of action (outlined on page 12) to document the severity of the problems and to address solutions. This status report covers the work to date which has

The field of the creative arts is generally conceded to be an economic disaster area. The objectives of this study are (1) to obtain information about the professional activities of composers, (2) to use this information to identify the major problems facing composer and, in the light of an economic framework, to ferret out reasons for these problems, and (3) to try to formulate some policy suggestions as to how some of the problems, might be minimized or overcome. The study was based primarily on a questionnaire which was sent to the population of 1,560 composers of serious music residing in

The definition of art is further tested in that privately produced art may run counter to the elitist tendencies of traditional art. John Pick describes this phenomenon in the context of London theatre. He notes that drama in the media of television, movies and amateur theatre is thriving.

The Cultural Assistance Center and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have collaborated to study the contribution of the arts to the economy of New York City and the surrounding New York-New Jersey Metropolitan Region.

The basic objective of this study was to provide the Canada Council with a more factual and systematic basis for coming to grips with a host of pressing policy and program issues relative to the future development, management and funding of the nation's ballet and modern dance companies and dance schools.

The authors succeed admirably in puncturing the current mythology of the performing arts which has tended to obscure the underlying realities. Perhaps American idealism has inflated the non-profit arena of the performing arts with an ethical overlay- in contrast to the Puritan motivation of profit-making of the commercial sector, this idealism entertains notions of selfless non-profit activity. The authors set this perspective of wishfulness straight against the sobering reflection of the economics of reality.

The authors examine the market for firearms as collectible items. The authors examine the marketing practices of Samuel Colt over 125 years ago in the production of Colt 1872 revolvers when compared to the 1875 Remington Single Action Army rife.

The authors discuss the contributions of arts and cultural organizations in revitalizing communities in the .

The authors detail some conflicting cultural goals using the city of Florence and its museums as an example.

Special supplement to the Journal of Cultural Economics. Selected papers presented at the conference L'economie du Spectacle Vivant et L'audiovisual, Paris, France, October 15-16, 1985. Together, the papers analyze possible benefits and harms of televised performances on the economic stability of live arts. Long-term financial impact appears to have a far lesser impact than originally hoped.