Center for Arts and Culture Awards First Grants
for Original Research

January 16, 2001

Washington, DC - The Center for Arts and Culture is pleased to announce the first recipients of its Research Policy Grant Program. Created to support original research on the issues that affect relationships among artists, cultural organizations, the creative sector and society at large, this program is intended to provide independent research on issues involving culture and public policies. The program was supported by Center funding from the Ford, Rockefeller and David and Lucile Packard Foundations, and in its inaugural year awarded $45,000 to support the work of faculty, independent scholars and graduate students.

More than 100 proposals were received and reviewed by the Center’s Research Task Force. Grants of $5,000 were awarded to four faculty members/teams, and eight graduate students received $3,000 grants. Research findings are due to the Center on September 30, 2001.

Faculty and Independent Scholars:

• Christine Martell, University of Colorado at Denver, to explore the use of special taxing districts as an alternative funding source for arts and cultural organizations.
• Susan Scafidi, Southern Methodist University School of Law, to explore intellectual property and the commodification of culture through a systemic investigation of group authorship and cultural property.
• Elizabeth Strom, Rutgers University at Newark, to examine the development of performance centers and art museums as instruments of urban revitalization.
• Stefan Toepler, Johns Hopkins University and Volker Krichberg, William Patterson University, to investigate whether merchandising activities are an efficient means of earned income for the long-term self-sustainability of museums.

Graduate Students:

• Patricia Dewey, Ohio State University
  Culture and Development in New Democracies of Eastern Europe
• Cora Sol Goldstein, University of Chicago
  The Control of Visual Representation: American Government Policies in Occupied Germany 1945-1949
• Keith Lee, Ohio State University
  Supporting the Need: A Comparative Investigation of Cultural Trust and Endowment Funds at State Arts Agencies
• Candace Matelic, The University at Albany
  Organizational Change in History Museums
• Kelly Quinn, University of Maryland
  Learning from Langston Terrace
• Lisa Sharamitaro,Ohio State University
  An Explanatory Study of the Regional Arts Organizations
• Michael Wakeford, University of Chicago
  Art Education and the "Cult of Creativity" in Post-WWII America
• Herlinda Zamora, University of Texas at Austin
  Latino Museums and Community Involvement in the United States

The Center for Arts and Culture is an independent think tank dedicated to research and public programming on the role of creativity, innovation, and cultural heritage in our national and international life. The Center sponsors public discourse and debate on issues effecting the creative sector and, through its Research Task Force and Cultural Policy Network, encourages original scholarship and research on cultural policy.

For more information: http://www.culturalpolicy.org
For excerpts of the proposals: http://www.culturalpolicy.org/research/grants.htm