Advocacy and Public Policy

The theme of education in the arts can be found throughout GIA's programs. The role that the arts can play in education is one of four primary themes that will be explored at our 2002 conference, Creative Connections; and the "Bookmarks" column in this issue of the Reader concentrates on "Arts Education Resources on the Web". The following two articles take a look at recent research, specifically research that explores the connections between education in the arts and student learning in other realms.The theme of education in the arts can be found throughout GIA's programs.

Media is pervasive and influences the culture in myriad ways. Technological advances and structural transformations are profoundly changing the way we receive and distribute information, as well as the quality of that information and whether or not we are able to interact with it. Legislative, legal, and regulatory policies that favor corporate interests over the public interest have created an environment where a dwindling number of corporations which control both the content and the means of distribution dominate the market.

2001, 76 pages. New York Foundation for the Arts, 155 Avenue of the Americas, 14th floor, New York, NY, 10013, 212-366-6900.

Culture Counts, published by the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), is the final report on a special initiative entitled, "A Cultural Blueprint for New York City." The document represents the first comprehensive study of cultural life in New York City in nearly thirty years.

April 28-30, 2002, Asheville, North Carolina

In the fall 2001, the Center for Arts and Culture, an independent Washington, D.C.-based think tank on cultural policy, began distributing two series of publications. One consists of commissioned papers, part of the Center's Art, Culture and the National Agenda project. The other documents discussion forums convened by the Center. Publications in both series are small-format booklets. Several landed on our desks in quick succession last fall, but production now seems to be moving at a slower pace, allowing us to keep track of each one a little more easily.

By press time, the Reader had received two booklets documenting discussion forums convened by the Center for Arts and Culture.

Forum on Freedom and Diversity of Expression, moderated by James Fitzpatrick.

I privilege the making of arts as an activity to support, and hence my advocacy for strengthening the creation system. I do not see or define the worth of art on what it delivers, whether what it delivers is audiences, civic engagement, or the "next new art thing." This is not to separate art from context, from the creation and delivery systems, but serves to place the focus on arts as transformative. Art is a passionate force that creates metaphors, images, sounds, and aesthetic experiences. How does one make a policy for transformation?

2001, 43 pages; summary, 8 pages. Arts Education Task Force of Arts for LA, 213-974-1343, Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

May 2000, 92 pages. Council of Europe Publishing; U.S. sales agent: Manhattan Publishing Co., 468 Albany Post Road, Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520, 914-271-5194.

The future seems to me no unified dream but a mince pie, long in the baking...
-E.B. White

It's broccoli, dear.
I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it.
-Caption for a New Yorker cartoon by Carl Rose

2000, 39 pages. Center for Arts and Culture, Washington D.C.