Film and Media

Economic language and ideas have increasingly found their way into discussions of artistic value and cultural benefit. For better or for worse, the discipline of economics has been the lingua franca of public policy discourse for at least the past fifty years. Sometimes the terms resonate harshly on our ears. How do people in the world of arts and culture answer those who speak this language, who try to value cultural activity in terms of economic multipliers, cost-benefit analysis, quantitative outcome measures and, a current favorite, contingent valuation methodology?

November 2002, 72 pages. Human Interaction Research Institute, 5435 Balboa Boulevard, Suite 115, Encino, CA 91316, 818-386-9137, HIRILA@aol.com

Partnership as an Art Form: What Works and What Doesn't in Nonprofit Arts Partnerships should be required reading for funders who are encouraging their grantees to work more closely together in these difficult economic times.

2002, 79 pages. RAND Corporation , 1700 Main Street, P.O. Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138 (310) 451-7002, order@rand.org

Federal Support for Historic Preservation Fund on Downward Trajectory
In his fiscal year 2004 budget, President Bush proposed $67 million for the Historic Preservation Fund. The Fund is authorized at $150 million, but historically the Congress and Administration have provided in appropriations just one third of the authorized amount.

I am pleased to report on a new initiative to be launched in November 2003. I first got wind of this proposal at an event in Canada House in London where the organizers were sounding out representatives of the arts-on-television community as to their interest and enthusiasm for an annual gathering to be held in different places around the world. This is an initiative of the Banff Television Foundation based in Alberta, Canada and enjoys the support of IMZ (The International Music Zentrum, in Vienna), U.S. Independents (a Washington, D.C.

June 2002, 368 pages (executive summary, May 2002, 21 pages). The Chicago Center for Arts Policy at Columbia College, 600 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60605, 312-344-7985. The executive summary and full report can be downloaded here.

2002, double-sided poster/brochure. The McKnight Foundation, 600 TCF Tower, 121 South 8th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55402, (612) 333-4220.

2002, 108 pages. The McKnight Foundation, 600 TCF Tower, 121 South Eighth Street, Minneapolis, MN 55402, 612-333-4220.

True or false?
• The suburbs have never been as homogenized as their reputation suggested
• Stereotypes about vapidity and uniformity in suburban communities have been left unchallenged
• Suburban arts resources need to expand to meet the needs of growing communities
• The need to enhance the livability of suburban communities hasn't been acknowledged as openly as it deserves

September 11 and Beyond
The following is excerpted from a March 2002 interview with Susan Beresford (president, Ford Foundation) that is included in September 11: Perspectives from the Field of Philanthropy, published August 2002 by the Foundation Center, 79 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10003, 212-620-4230. It is published by permission of the Foundation Center.

FC: It was common in the weeks after 9/11 to hear people say that the attacks had changed everything. Did September 11 change everything?

The summer 2002 issue of the Reader opened with "The Pace of Thoughts" by Rebecca Solnit, a piece about walking — its slowness and its affinity with thinking. Some kinds of understanding simply require slowing down, or as Helen De Michiel said in conversation recently, “Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up.” Her comment made an agricultural reference to the kind of slow, deep watering that ultimately can invigorate, even speed up, a plant's growth.