Contact: Keith Donohue, Center for Arts and Culture  202/783-5277
     email: center@culturalpolicy.org

The report recommends that:

• The President establish a mechanism to advise and coordinate cultural affairs in the Executive Office of the President.
• The Department of State establish an Under Secretary for Cultural Affairs.
• Congress develop more comprehensive and integrated approaches to policies affecting cultural affairs.
• Congress and the President create a National Forum on Creativity and Cultural Heritage.

All four recommendations are geared toward bringing together the fragmented approach to cultural policies at the federal level. At present some 200 programs in at least 30 federal agencies deal with cultural matters, and 29 different committees in Congress have jurisdiction over aspects of the nation's cultural life. In the international arena, the United States has no appropriate representative or designee for discussions on cultural affairs.

"Cultural capital," said Gigi Bradford, the Center's executive director, "is becoming increasingly valuable in the modern global society -- not only in terms of the economic value of creativity but as a source for people around the world who seek to preserve their identities and understand others. We believe that government can make a wise investment in cultural capital by first tying together its cultural policy infrastructure."

America's Cultural Capital is part of the Center for Arts and Culture's project called Art, Culture and the National Agenda (ACNA), which seeks to broaden and deepen the national conversation on culture. The Center plans to publish a series of reports on cultural policy issues in late Spring and early Summer 2001.

The ACNA project is supported by grants from the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts, The Open Society Institute, and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The Center for Arts and Culture receives additional funds from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Henry Luce Foundation.