Understanding the Arts and Creative Sector in the United States

2008, 214 pages. Published by Rutgers University Press, 100 Joyce Kilmer Avenue,
Piscataway, NJ, 08854, (732) 445-7762, www.rutgerspress.rutgers.edu

The arts and creative sector is one of the nation's broadest, most important, and least understood social and economic assets, encompassing both nonprofit arts and cultural organizations, for-profit creative companies, and community-based artistic activities. The thirteen essays in this book demonstrate why interest in the arts and creative sector has accelerated in recent years, and the myriad ways that the arts are crucial to the social and national agenda. Leading experts in the field show how arts and cultural policies are used to enhance urban revitalization, to encourage civic engagement, to foster new forms of historic preservation, to define national identity, to advance economic development, and to regulate international trade in cultural goods and services.