Center: Research Initiatives: The New Policy Landscape

	Art, Culture and the National Agenda

	Research Scan

	Research Grant Program

The Changing Shape of the Cultural Sector
The cultural sector in the United States is particularly complex. It spans not-for-profit organizations, commercial corporations, and informal community activities across the spectrum of the arts and humanities. The sector’s uniquely American funding system includes a mix of earned income, individual gifts, foundation support, direct public sector grants, and indirect government mechanisms. Culture is affected by many kinds of government policies, such as tax laws, charitable exemptions and deductions, and regulations concerning intellectual property and freedom of expression. While researchers have explored some of these issues as they pertain to the arts, we have little analogous information about the humanities.

U.S. cultural industries today produce $60 billion in export earnings and many nations charge that these products are homogenizing the globe. Is consolidation in mass media, entertainment, and publishing constricting choice in these areas? As the world grows more connected and more dependent on its creative industries, we need to know much more about the workings of the cultural sector.

Culture and Everyday Life
Recent controversies have implied a distance between art and everyday life. New technologies are accelerating global interactions and the cadences of distinctive local cultures are changing as they enter a wider world. Policy decisions affect the many ways we experience culture, from community arts organizations and downtown festivals to the effect of investments in cultural centers on municipal budgets and the influence of corporate franchises on independent practitioners. These studies will investigate the connections between policy, global change, and daily culture.

In this dynamic policy environment, the Center must move beyond consideration of the federal funding issues that have dominated public debate. As the pace of change requires expanded inquiry, the Center will examine a range of policy priorities.