What do the prospects for arts and culture policy look like at the local and community level? In this paper, the authors explore the boundary crossings that are often necessary when dealing with the arts outside the formal or institutional realm. They address this dichotomy by suggesting that informal arts practice may have a significant role to play in the development of policies that value arts and culture building, and that ignorance of the place of informal arts in America hinders a more democratic direction for a cultural policy.

The authors argue that a better understanding of the informal arts could lead to more successful policy strategies in such areas as arts advocacy and arts education, social capital and community development, civic participation, and democratic access expansion. Understanding the role of the informal arts in peoples lives could serve to maximize strategies in support of all of the arts.