Why Arts? Making the Case

Following are a few excerpts from a lunchtime plenary forum at GIA's 2003 conference in Seattle. Melanie Beene led the discussion and encouraged conference participants to share their personal connections to the arts and the arguments they use for funding arts and culture. "There's no unified field theory on why we should fund the arts," she said. "One person's old stale argument might be fresh for somebody else."

John Kreidler

March 2004, 27 pages. Project on Regional and Industrial Economics, Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, 301 19th Avenue, Room 231, Minneapolis, MN 55455, (612) 625-8092, amarkusen@hhh.umn.edu or gshrock@hhh.umn.edu or mcameron@hhh.umn.edu, www.hhh.umn.edu

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Edited by Barbara Rich, Ed.D, Jane L. Polin, Stephen J. Marcus

2003, 164 pages. The Dana Foundation, 745 Fifth Avenue, Suite 900, New York, NY 10151, 212-223-4040, daninfo@dana.org, www.dana.org.

2002, 20 pages. Americans for the Arts, 203.371.2830, www.AmericansForTheArts.org

"When we hear talk about reducing support for the arts," writes Robert Lynch, president of Americans for the Arts, "we should ask: Who will make up for the lost economic activity?" The gist of the message of that group's Arts & Economic Prosperity report is simple and catchy: "the arts mean business."

July 2003, 25 pages. Project on Regional and Industrial Economics, Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, 301 S. 19th Avenue, room 231, Minneapolis, MN 55455, (612) 625-8092

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   The Artistic Dividend (1.6Mb)

The full text of this article is not yet available on this site. Below is a brief excerpt.

Some say the world will end by fire. Others say by ice. Here in Alaska, the land of snow and ice, we're beginning to feel the fire.

In the summer of 2000 the Iñupiat community of Barrow—the farthest north settlement on the mainland of North America—had its first thunderstorm in history. Tuna were sighted in the Arctic Ocean. No one had ever seen them this far North before.

The Animating Democracy National Exchange on Art and Civic Dialogue
Flint, Michigan, October 9-12, 2003

A labor of love for individuals committed to the significance and potential of media, Why FUND Media is a timely and worthy follow-up to a 1984 publication by the Council on Foundations titled How to Fund Media. Editor Karen Hirsch seamlessly brings together a series of separate chapters written by media arts experts who've based their chapter essays on extensive consultations with field representatives and grantmakers, and on historical research.

I. Me, You, and Us: The Rise of Something New