Public Art

New Year's Day, 1980, found Arlene Goldbard living in Washington, D.C. monitoring and reporting on our nation's de facto cultural policy. The fact that Arlene was doing this says a lot about the leadership role that many of us were counting on the federal government to play in leveling the field so that our many U.S. cultures would have an equal chance to express themselves, to develop, and, inevitably, to cross-pollinate. It was a substantial and beautiful vision then, and remains so today.

Artist Rene Yung's presentation of this paper generated lively discussion at a forum of the Arts Loan Fund of Northern California Grantmakers, in October 2006. It was written just as Arlene Goldbard's new book, New Creative Community, was published. Although Yung refers to an earlier publication (Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development, by Don Adams and Gold-bard, 2001), she touches on many of the same themes discussed by the authors of "The Art of Social Imagination" (page 27 in this Reader) and reveals how the ideas have been adopted by an artist in practice.

Over the past forty years, several hundred legal frameworks have been established for cooperative action by governments on ecological issues — treaties such as the Biodiversity Convention, the Climate Change Convention, the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species, and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. How do these relate to art?

Outreach

Collaborative Circles: A Review

Frances Phillips

1996, 142 pages, National Endowment for the Arts, Seven Locks Press, Santa Ana, California, 800-354-5348

Lance T. Izumi is a senior fellow in California studies at the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy. The following text is based on a transcript of Izumi's remarks at a symposium sponsored by the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF). The topic of the two-day symposium was the support of visual artists. It was held in Seattle on December 4 and 5, 1997. The remarks are published here with permission of Izumi and WESTAF.

Hotel-Motel Taxes for the Arts
AMS Planning and Research, edited by Randy Cohen - 1996, 11 pages

Sales Taxes for the Arts
Duncan M. Webb, AMS Planning and Research - 1996, 15 pages

Amusement Taxes for the Arts
Martha I. Dodson, edited by Rachel S. Moore - 1997, 14 pages

Americans for the Arts Books c/o Whitehurst & Clark, 100 Newfield Avenue, Edison, New Jersey 08837, 800-321-4510 ext. 241, www.artsusa.org.

The Arts and the Public Purpose 92nd American Assembly

From May 29 through June 1 of this year, seventy-eight individuals interested in the arts in the United States came together for the 92nd American Assembly at Arden House in Harriman, New York to debate "The Arts and the Public Purpose." The American Assembly was established by Dwight D. Eisenhower at Columbia University in 1950. Each year it holds at least two nonpartisan meetings on topics related to United States policy, each of which gives rise to a book on the subject discussed.

During the summer of 1996, the National Association of Artists' Organizations (NAAO) conducted a series of "regional think-tank sessions" with NAAO members and their constituencies in twelve cities across the country. A concern heard throughout "A Dozen Dialogues" was the need to develop, nurture, and support artists and arts professionals who are new to the field. As an initial response, NAAO brought together ten young people under the age of thirty who were identified by NAAO members as emerging leaders.

Arts Loan Fund: The Northern California Grantmakers Arts Loan Fund (ALF) is conducting a survey of Bay Area arts organizations to determine the reasons for a marked reduction in applications to the Fund. Through the survey, ALF would like to learn: How often have organizations used the program in the past and why have they not applied for loans in the past twelve months? What is the current financial environment for arts nonprofits in the region? How do organizations see themselves evolving during the next several years? Do they encounter obstacles in applying for an ALF loan?