Culture is a national resource, the accumulated capital of America's ingenuity and creativity. It is the store of human achievement and memory as well as the font of creativity and innovation. Our cultural capital has become increasingly valuable in a global, knowledge-based economy, and as a key social source as people in the United States and around the world seek to preserve their identities and to understand others.

The Center for Arts and Culture strives to foster a national conversation about America's cultural wealth and well-being. During 2001, the Center will be issuing a series of briefing papers that we hope will deepen the discourse about America's artistic creativity, imaginative spirit, cultural life, and the preservation of its cultural heritage. This paper, the first in the series, focuses on four structural recommendations that are intend-ed to improve federal policy making in these areas. The Center offers these for discussion, debate, and further refinement. We recommend that:

• The President establish a mechanism to advise and coordinate cultural affairs in the Executive Office of the President.
• The Department of State establish an Under Secretary for Cultural Affairs.
• Congress develop more comprehensive and integrated approaches to policies affecting cultural affairs.
• Congress and the President create a National Forum on Creativity and Cultural Heritage.

America's Cultural Capital focuses on four structural recommendations that are intended to improve federal policy making in the arts and culture.