NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Despite vigorous debate, discussion and research about public participation in the arts in America, our understanding of it remains fragmented and incomplete. The [PC1]Vanderbilt Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy has received a $180,000 grant from the Wallace Foundation to publish a book that will explore this issue.
Curb Center director Bill Ivey and Steven Tepper, deputy director of the Princeton Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies, will lead the project.
"We’re delighted to have this unique opportunity to get a birds-eye view of arts participation in this country," Ivey said. "The grant will result in a volume of essays aimed at enhancing our understanding of arts participation that will hopefully help public and private decision makers better serve audiences."
Research on public participation in the arts has historically relied upon attendance at traditional events such as the theatre and classical music performances. Scholars have more recently begun to examine participation at alternative venues-churches and synagogues, community centers, public parks, on-line-as well as nontraditional art forms.
Yet until now, there has been no attempt to use this research to get a comprehensive picture of arts participation in the United States or to better target public and private investment in the arts.
"People do not consume the arts in silos," Ivey said. "By focusing on particular types of venues, institutions or art forms, we have failed to capture the art experience in America as it is lived by citizens."
The book will use research and data from the National Endowment for the Arts’ Survey of Public Participation in the Arts as well as a wide range of other data and information sources.
"We look forward to the insights and information that will come from mining the existing national data," said M. Chris DeVita, president of The Wallace Foundation. "The resulting publication will help to engage policymakers on the issue of arts participation."
Cultural researchers and experts across the country will contribute chapters addressing three broad themes: understanding existing patterns of cultural consumption and attendance, new approaches to and sources of information on cultural participation, and the implications of new technologies, social change and evolving artistic practices on participation.
"One of our chief objectives is to better understand trends in cultural participation, link these trends to larger social change, and then figure out what this all means for policy makers and advocates who care about the arts," said Tepper.
The Wallace Foundation is an independent, national private foundation established by DeWitt and Lila Acheson Wallace, the founders of The Reader’s Digest Association, to enable institutions to expand learning and enrichment opportunities for all people. The three primary objectives of the foundation are strengthening education leadership to improve student achievement, improving after-school learning opportunities, and expanding participation in arts and culture. For more information, visit: www.wallacefoundation.org .
The Curb Center, created in 2003, is the first university-based policy program to fully engage the American cultural policy system. For more information on the Curb Center, visit: www.vanderbilt.edu/curbcenter.
Media contact: Melanie Catania, (615) 322-NEWS
Melanie.catania@vanderbilt.edu