It is a pleasure to be a part of this day and a part of your initiative, Cultural Policy at the Grassroots. My remarks are based on a report I authored for The McKnight Foundation, A New Angle – Arts Development in the Suburbs. The report looks at suburban arts in a metropolitan context and has many parallels for the work that you are doing here in Prince William County.

The intended audience for A New Angle was urban policymakers, funders and arts organizations that needed to better understand art in the suburbs and its relationship to the artistic health of our state - so it is a pleasure to be speaking to part of the suburban choir looking to either solidify or provoke new thinking in your county about the value of the arts.

Before I begin, I need to tell you the "filter" through which I view the information I am presenting; I am a "public” funder. Almost all of the money with which my organization, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, operates comes from the Minnesota legislature. So we operate in a very open manner and our mission is to serve all residents/taxpayers. [p. 1]

Transcript of remarks by Carolyn Bye, Executive director of the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, the Keynote Speaker at Prince William County: Cultural Policy at the Grassroots

It is a pleasure to be a part of this day and a part of your initiative, Cultural Policy at the Grassroots. My remarks are based on a report I authored for The McKnight Foundation, A New Angle – Arts Development in the Suburbs. The report looks at suburban arts in a metropolitan context and has many parallels for the work that you are doing here in Prince William County.