Arts Policy & Administration

Many studies have examined the impact of the arts on educational outcomes, physical and mental health outcomes, local economies, and community well-being. Yet considerably less attention has been given to the impact that participation in the arts has on civil society. This study seeks to remedy this gap in the literature by examining the effect that audience-based arts participation and direct arts participation have on three measures of civil society. We rely on data from the General Social Survey, which offers information on the arts participation behavior as well as person contributions to civil society of a random sample of adults living in the U.S. (n=2,765). Multivariate analysis is used to estimate the effects of audience-based arts participation, as well as direct participation in the arts on three dimensions of civil society: civic engagement, social tolerance, and other-regarding behavior. We find strong evidence that the arts enhance civil society; individuals who have bo...

Art and design are at a crossroads in higher education. The choices we make now will affect the future of our disciplines. How will we move forward, making productive changes that enhance our position as vital and valued contributors to the mission of our colleges and universities?

Funding Bodies is the first scholarly study of NEA to focus specifically on dance. It departs from a choreographic question: How have federal grant guidelines rewarded specific patterns of dance practice and production? Drawing upon archival documentation of NEA narratives, program eligibility guidelines, and standards of evaluation as well as testimony from past and present insiders, Wilbur's work theorizes endowment as an economic and practical struggle by people with differential power and competing investments in the production and professionalization of dance. The book's structural critique highlights internal debates around funding policies—with an emphasis on inclusion, race, region, and class—during the first half-century of the Endowment's history. Practically-speaking, its cultural analysis also credits the bureaucratic angling of dance grant makers from the early "boom" years through successive administrations and economic highs and lows. A history of dance funding tools and their practical use by people in power, Funding Bodies traces the disciplinary force of US arts policy through the workplace performances of generations of dance organizers. With a wealth of detail and previously untold stories, this institutional history brings clarity to the complex processes that underlie the continuing struggle to achieve equitable resource distribution and parity of opportunity in American dance.

**Publication of this open monograph was the result of Duke University’s participation in TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem), a collaboration of the Association of American Universities, the Association of University Presses, and the Association of Research Libraries. TOME aims to expand the reach of long-form humanities and social science scholarship including digital scholarship. Additionally, the program looks to ensure the sustainability of university press monograph publishing by supporting the highest quality scholarship and promoting a new ecology of scholarly publishing in which authors’ institutions bear the publication costs. Funding ˙from Duke University Libraries made it possible to open this publication to the world.**

What is the relationship between cultural policies and the state of the arts in Singapore? The State and the Arts in  Singapore: Policies and Institutions, a volume of essays edited  by Terence Chong, answers this question through contributions from scholars, theorists, art administrators, critics, practitioners and journalists familiar with the cultural and arts sectors of Singapore.

Formulating an adequate definition of 'art' has been one enterprise of philosophy that has plagued all those who attempt it. Yet, the project of defining the term has many merits, especially when it comes to definitions for the purposes of arts policy and arts management. In these areas of activity where art figures centrally, the absence of a definition may have consequences for effective policy and management strategies. This article ponders the necessity for a practical definition by posing the question: is art a fruit or a vegetable? This allusion to a question that might be posed about the garden tomato draws attention to the fact that while (for tomatoes) there is only one correct scientific answer, the practical answer depends on our own purposes; whether we are talking about tomatoes or art. With the case of the United States and two of its federal agencies as concrete examples, this article explores what a practice-based definition of art would look like and what advantages it might bring for the practical purposes of policy and management.

Civic engagement is a core principle in efforts to establish the arts as an integral component of daily life, particularly in the context of community. In defense of the value of arts instruction and participation as part of a core curriculum for K–12 students, and the inclusion of the arts in daily community life, is the argument that the arts help to foster citizenship and promote democratic government. A number of challenges exist, however, for teaching of arts-based civic engagement. They include lack of formal training for instructors in political science fundamentals, definitions of civic engagement in the arts that deemphasize political engagement, overreaching claims about the arts and their effects, and lack of teaching materials that connect the arts to political science basics such as workings of government institutions or the processes of public policy. This chapter addresses these challenges by drawing on examples from courses in arts policy and community engagement taught by the author. Student samples, course assignments, and teaching recommendations are included.

The effective evaluation of the impact of culture has become of paramount importance due to increasing pressure to justify investment in response to government and public pressure. The Cultural and Creative Industries sector, is currently defined in terms of wide-ranging sectors and dimensions: health, education, sport, tourism, leisure, media, the built and natural environment, public sector, industry, and business. This necessitates the evaluation of the CCIs in terms of multi-factorial, wide-ranging, and cross-sectoral contributions: to cultural vitality, the sustainable quality of life, regeneration, legacy, social cohesion, diversity, and economic prosperity. Coherent evidence for such impacts, the evaluation of evidence in response to strategic priorities, enhances political dialogue. This is fundamental to self-learning, to professionalism, and to advocacy for culture from within the sector.

However, evaluation models and academic research suggest that impact evaluation, whether single or cross-sectoral, is caught up in a myriad of limitations. Research and analysis frameworks are underdeveloped. Data collection is in its infancy and where it exists is beset with the problem of deficits, a lack of robustness and baseline levels, inconsistent methods and discontinuity. The potential to detect trends is limited and research is forced to resort to commercial data. Correlation is confused with causation, research with advocacy. The isolation of the cultural sector is profound and results in a lack of joined-up policy. As Oakley (2004) and DPA (2002) argue, effective evaluation requires consistent data collection, coherent frameworks and collaborative research. The lack of quality management data and of balance between instrumental and intrinsic evidence weakens culture’s self-advocacy.

Mapping the sector and baseline data reconnaissance need to be addressed urgently. These need to be studied through the concept of connectivity: a holistic approach to experience, participation and support. Data, both instrumental and intrinsic, are needed for measuring the integration of cultural input into other areas of life and society, allowing the construction of indicators and dimensions. The design of coherent frameworks requires the effective correlation between policy objectives and expected outcomes.

Comparing approaches to measurement, as this study bears out, is a first step towards assessing the potential contribution of different models. However, there is no ‘one size fits all’. Each of the four models offers different opportunities:

 The Arts and Culture Indicators Project, ACIP, (Jackson et al 2006) measures the quality of life and cultural vitality adopting an all-inclusive definition of cultural participation, including opportunity and support. The model offers a clear and consistent system of procedures for data reconnaissance, collection, and mapping. Tiers of data are ordered according to their instrumental and intrinsic value. ACIP produces a holistic and transferable framework for measuring the quality of life in communities. Evidence produces an objective and snapshot comparison, allowing cross-sectoral and longitudinal evidence to emerge. The framework facilitates the measurement of correlation and trends.


 Impacts 08 – the Liverpool Model (Garcia et al 2007) represents a holistic model for evaluating culture-led regeneration. It measures the contribution of culture as a catalyst for the transformation of an urban community and offers longitudinal evidence for the legacy of cultural policy. Its focus is on improved perception and the analysis of press coverage. The model has the potential of being transferred to similar time-related events and contributing to the prediction of socio-economic, environmental and cultural trends. Longer-term legacies of culture within communities can be evaluated in response to a policy vision. ‘Impacts 08’ benefits systems for information management, data collection, and organizational learning. Its relevance to the evaluation of the long term impact and legacy of the Cultural Olympiad and 2012 Olympics in the SE could therefore be significant.

 I&DeA (2007) measures sustainable performance improvement in Local Authority sport and cultural services. It employs the European Foundation for Quality framework to benchmark performance in response to central government expectations. The scheme produces a peer league through self-assessment benefiting organizational learning, improved planning, and service delivery with local outcomes for local people.  This would lead to a sustainable improvement of the public service sector for sport and culture in the SE. The model could be transferred to other public sectors.

 Morris et al (2007) review the government’s Public Value Score Card of Indicators measuring delivery on PSA 3 and 4 by the public Museums and Galleries sector and set out to establish a transformational partnership between government and Museums and Galleries sector.  ‘Balancing the Scorecard’ follows consistent and explicit review procedures with a focus on balancing the scheme’s predominant instrumental evaluation with arguments in favour of the need for intrinsic indicators. Using Maslow’s hierarchy of motivations its outcome is a model, FABRIC, a system of recommendations for coherent and balanced performance evaluation. Its evidence could contribute to the design of an evaluation methodology that recognizes the balance between instrumental and intrinsic connections and the construction of Performance Indicators.

This article studies the socioeconomics of government public expenditure for the arts and the normative foundations of state intervention in the arts. I pose two interrelated research questions: (a) what is the relationship between the public funding of the arts and their consumption? and (b) what mode of justification and what perception of the place of art in society is reflected in this relationship? Based on the philosophical work of Alan Badiou, I develop a novel conceptual framework to delin-eate three types of normative justifications for the public funding of arts organizations: romantic, didactic and classical. Using data from the public funding of 92 orchestras, theaters and dance troupes in Israel between 1999 and 2011, I estimate a cross-lagged panel data model to study how arts funding both affects and is affected by the levels of consumption of the organizations' productions. The results of the study show a complex pattern of different relationships between funding and consumption that accord with the three types of normative justifications for public arts funding.

Many studies have emerged in recent years examining the impact of the arts on
educational outcomes, physical and mental health outcomes, local economies, and community
well-being. Yet considerably less attention has been given to the impact that participation in the
arts has on social behaviour that promotes a civil society. This study seeks to remedy this gap in
the literature by examining the effect that both audience-based arts participation and direct
participation in the arts have on three measures of civil society. We rely on data from the
General Social Survey, which offers information on the arts participation behaviour of a random
sample of adults living in the USA (n ¼ 1.341). Multivariate analysis is used to estimate the
effects of audience-based arts participation as well as personal participation in the arts (creating
art) on three dimensions of civil society: Civic engagement, social tolerance, and other-regarding
behaviour. We find strong evidence that the arts enhance civil society. Both audience-based
participation in the arts and personal participation in creating art are linked to higher levels of
civic engagement, higher levels of social tolerance on some dimensions of the measure, and
higher levels of other-regarding behaviour. Our findings have important implications, in that they
demonstrate a strong association between the arts and individual-level social outcomes that
contribute to the health of civil society.

AN ONLINE COLLOQUIUM HOSTED BY THE CHIEF ALBERT LUTHULI RESEARCH CHAIR ON 8-9 JULY 2022.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:
PROF DANIELLE FOSLER-LUSSIER (OSU)

SPEAKERS:
MR ADAM GLASSER, MS KEANAN JAFTHA (UFS), DR CHRIS JEFFERY (UNISA), DR SOYISO KHETOA (WITS), MR GLENN MASOKOANE, MS ROSHNIE MOONSAMMY, DR AKHONA NDZUTA (UNISA), MR JONATHAN SHAW (WITS/IBILION), DR KGOMOTSO THELEDI (WITS), PROF. CHITJA TWALA (UFS), MR THEMBELA VOKWANA (UFH), AFRICA RISING MUSIC CONFERENCE

Q: What do you WISH was talked about openly regarding career paths after college? A: How to file taxes as a small business, how to write practical contracts for everyday gigs, and how to make cold calls for a broad variety of gigs. Turns out the real world is NOTHING like how my professors described. I'm starting to wonder what planet they grew up on. 1 Higher education faces an increasingly contradictory set of priorities shaped by external expectations and changing realities. First among these is the drive to increase access to higher education. As President Barak Obama said, Education is an economic issue when nearly eight in 10 new jobs will require workforce training or higher education by the end of this decade. Education is an economic issue when we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that countries that out-educate us today will outcompete us tomorrow. 2 This is all the more important when we realize that a high school education is no longer seen as sufficient preparation for the job market. Unlike old-fashioned vocational education, high school-level career and technical education doesn't really prepare people for jobs directly after high school. While the stated end goal of K-12 education in America is for students to be " college and career ready, " the reality is the existence of career-ready high school graduates is a myth. The expectation that high school produces career-ready adults in a 21st century economy is unrealistic and counterproductive. It has become clear that, for today's students to be prepared for tomorrow's jobs, all pathways must lead to a credential with labor market value, such as a certificate, associate's degree or bachelor's degree. Good jobs that only required a high school education, in blue-collar fields and the military, have declined, while the jobs that took their place in fields like health care, information technology and business services require more than a high school education. 3 Despite the evident mandate to provide more students with a college degree, serious questions about the quality and outcomes of degree attainment plague higher education arise, looking askance at the imbalance between rising costs, poor graduate rates, and long-term alumni outcomes. For decades, Washington has focused almost exclusively on defraying the cost of college for families as tuition sticker prices have increased. But the time has come for a new national conversation to address the far more serious and fundamental problem: how to significantly increase the quality of college education while lowering the actual cost. Take the 1.2 million students who will begin a four-year college in 2015. Based on current statistics, only 39% will graduate with a bachelor's degree in four years, with 41% failing to graduate in six. Forty-four percent will not find work that requires a four-year degree, 25% will graduate with over $30,000 in debt, and a shocking 36% will demonstrate no meaningful gains in critical thinking. 4

Réuni à la manufacture des Gobelins en 1825, l’atelier de tapis de la Savonnerie voit sa production marginalisée avec l’instauration de la Troisième République : trop fragiles et luxueux, ils ne semblent guère convenir aux usages du nouveau régime. L’administrateur de la manufacture de tapisserie des Gobelins et de tapis de la Savonnerie, Alfred Darcel, décide alors d’employer les ouvriers de la Savonnerie à la fabrication de tentures murales en attendant l’extinction progressive de l’atelier. Trois décors somptueux voient alors le jour : deux tentures d’après des cartons de Charles Lameire pour l’église Sainte-Geneviève (Panthéon) et le palais de l’Élysée et une tenture d’après Jean-Baptiste Lavastre pour la Bibliothèque nationale. C’est cette production inédite que cette étude se donne pour but d’étudier et de faire connaître, correspondant à un intermède éphémère mais unique dans l’histoire des tentures murales.

What are the stakes in saving the NEA, today? Departing from the recent legislative back-and-forth between President Donald Trump and Congress over the budgetary future of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), this performance analysis of the NEA’s 31 March 2017 meeting of the National Council on the Arts reveals the complex political posturing that undergirds federal support for the arts in US culture.

If arts attendance is used to activate social comparison processes that strengthen group boundaries, it could help maintain or even increase conflict between different social groups as they are seen as opportunities to openly celebrate that resources are unequally shared in society. This article explores whether levels of education, income and occupation affect the likelihood of attending artistic events in Panama, one of the most unequal countries in Latin America. Using a binary logistic model, it models this likelihood testing two hypotheses. First, it is assumed that these drivers work as “sticks” that affect separately arts attendance. Then these variables are binned as a composite variable or bundle of sticks that proxies for group membership. Given the incipient state of cultural data and analysis in the field in Panama, the article seeks primarily to contribute to the theoretical conversation on art policies in small countries with high levels of inequality and the effects on economic disparity of efforts to increase attendance to artistic events.

This report, an outgrowth of the 2013 Bellagio conference, “Cultural Connections: Engaging Muslim-Majority Nations and the West,” reviews some of the issues, challenges, opportunities and suggestions circulating among various stakeholders before offering a new intervention: an Index of important projects within the field, and an analysis of the interconnections between its members. The Index, generated from both archival and survey methods, identifies and describes 121 artistic projects that facilitate artistic exchange between artists of Muslim-majority countries (in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa [MENA] and from Central, South, and Southeast Asia, and artists from those diasporas) and U.S. audiences. While this report does not include a comprehensive mapping, it was designed to show the features of a diffuse field of artistic engagement, including the identification of resource-rich and –poor members within it, and the connections among its constitutive organizations, funders, and artists, and the projects they support.