Arts Research

In October 2005, the Canada Council for the Arts published preliminary findings in a study, "Comparisons of Arts Funding in Selected Countries." This research on the part of the Council is intended to "support the case that additional arts funding is needed in Canada in order for Canadian arts organizations and artists to thrive and to function on the same level as their peers in other countries." Its findings are available on the Canada Council's web site.

2006, 326 pages. United for a Fair Economy, 29 Winter Street, Boston, MA 02108, 617-423-2148, info@faireconomy.org

A thorough history outlining the ways US government policy has shaped the ways different racial groups have accumulated and maintained wealth with chapters devoted to Native Americans, Latinos, African-Americans, Asian Americans, and Europeans Americans. The concluding chapter offers policy recommendations on ways to share prosperity.

2005, 98 pages. National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture, 145 Ninth Street, Suite 250, San Francisco, CA 94103, 415-431-1391

In celebration of its twenty-fifth anniversary, NAMAC invited seven authors with an intimate knowledge of their subject matter to write about overlooked or neglected media arts histories from around the country. Highlights include "Visions and Hindsights: Seattle's and/or Alternative Art Space 1974-1984" by Robin Oppenheimer and a conversation with activist archivists Andrew Lampert and Rick Prelinger by Melinda Stone.

2005, 65 pages. McKnight Foundation, 710 Second Street South, Suite 400, Minneapolis, MN 55401, 612-333-4220

Carolyn Bye, executive director of the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, writes in the introduction that You Are Here reports on the "small steps" taken by communities in the Twin Cities suburbs since the publication of A New Angle: Arts Development in the Suburbs in 2002. The report features profiles of twelve suburban art projects and a detailed pull-out map showing where to find them and many others.

Beginning in 1999, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) launched a global initiative to strengthen arts education. In 2003, Portuguese delegates to the United Nations called for a global conference to address this aim, resulting in the first-ever World Conference on Arts Education. The World Conference brought together 1,200 artists, educators, policy makers, and researchers from over ninety-seven countries in Lisbon, Portugal from March 6-9, 2006.

The hallmarks of a just and civil society reflect the values of artistic freedom and the rights of free expression. Increasingly these rights are threatened by the "clearance culture" that is found in most creative industries and assumes that almost no quotation can be used without permission from the owner. Fair Use is an important yet often misunderstood legal right.

America is on the threshold of a significant transformation in cultural life. There have been many cultural shifts in recorded history: Gutenberg's invention of the printing press and the rise of the reading public; the growth of a mercantile class and the birth of private art markets independent of the church and the king; the invention of gas streetlights and the beginning of urban nighttime entertainment. The most recent cultural transformation, still with us today, was set in motion on the threshold of the twentieth century.

Under Marian Godfrey's direction, GIA held a pre-conference immediately before its 2005 conference called "New Directions in Cultural Policy Research." As part of that meeting, four well-respected individuals were asked to assess the impact and importance of research in the arts. They were asked to specify the big ideas currently in play and to speculate about the future of those ideas. Predictably perhaps, the four argued for the importance of research to the cultural sector. More surprisingly, they agreed that the platform for cultural research needs serious re-planking.

2005, $16.95. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 212-609-5900.

As a coach and a longtime journalist, I know that the most powerful question is: "What did you learn?" You'll get an answer every time that is real, and relevant.

Civic Dialogue, Arts & Culture
Findings from Animating Democracy
Pam Korza, Barbara Schaffer Bacon, and Andrea Assaf
2005, 312 pages, $24. Americans for the Arts, Washington DC, ISBN-13: 978-1-879903-33-3 (alk. paper)
Available online from Americans for the Arts

Cultural Perspectives in Civic Dialogue
Case Studies from Animating Democracy
Pam Korza and Barbara Schaffer Bacon