|
Ann
S. Gray The Cultural Policy and the Arts National Data Archive is charged with creating an infrastructure to promote responsible examinations of the key issues in policy studies dealing with the arts. But what are the key issues and who are the key players? Policy is often strictly limited to the notion of "public policy", but in the case of cultural policy and the arts, the private and not-for-profit sector is frequently the arbiter of means and content. Although there are many organizations that promote artistic activities, public funding for the arts has never been large nor has it been of much concern to the general public except in cases of controversies that usually involve some aspect of religious indignation. Unlike other regions where culture and arts have long been regarded as national or regional assets, an anti-intellectual and anti-cultural tendency within the U.S. democracy has regarded the arts as an elitist pursuit for a minority of wealthy families and social climbers. While Europe acknowledges the importance of heritage and centers of cultural activities and has several projects to develop and regularize cultural statistics, studies within the United States have been confined to infrequent surveys of public participation and various attempts to measure the culture industry using national surveys and censuses. Within the academic sector, the field is limited to a handful of scholars who consistently collect and write on the topic. This paper will examine that field and the current resources that are available as well as those that we hope to make public. Ann S. Gray |