NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Steven J. Tepper will join the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University this fall as associate director, announced Bill Ivey, director of the center.
Tepper, who will also be an assistant professor of sociology at Vanderbilt, leaves Princeton University, where he was deputy director of the Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He has served in that capacity at Princeton since 1998.
"Steven is a top policy specialist with a solid feeling for today’s cultural landscape," Ivey said. "We’re delighted that he’s now part of the Curb Center team."
Tepper calls the Curb Center "the only place in America where I can dedicate myself to study and analyze the cultural life of this country from the perspective of both public and private policy."
"Vanderbilt is poised to help lead the nation in these conversations, and I’m thrilled to be a part of the center."
Tepper holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations and Latin America from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; a master’s in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; and a doctorate in sociology from Princeton. His research interests include cultural policy and public and private support for the arts and humanities; cultural conflict; social conditions for creativity and innovation; and community, public space and civil society.
Marian Godfrey, director of Civic Life initiatives at The Pew Charitable Trusts, has worked with Tepper on several cultural policy research projects.
"He is both a superb scholar and a highly effective and entrepreneurial project manager-a rare and valuable combination of skills," Godfrey said. "I am confident that in his new capacity at the Curb Center, he will make many important contributions to the field."
Tepper says that he is "convinced that Bill Ivey and the Curb Center are asking all the right questions about the arts in America: How is culture and entertainment disseminated to most Americans, and who has control over the avenues of distribution? Who controls access to and ownership of our heritage? Do corporations and the government operate in the best interest of our citizens in terms of their policies and practices when it comes to art and culture?"
Tepper says the transinstitutional model of the center, which is set up to be inviting to a wide variety of participants from communities in and outside of Vanderbilt, is key. Recruiting diverse teams of participants for Curb Center projects will be one of his priorities.
"The future success of the Curb Center will very much depend on the insights and talents of the Vanderbilt faculty and cultural leaders throughout Nashville," Tepper said.
The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy was established in 2003 as the first university-based policy program to fully engage the American cultural policy system. It is funded by a $2.5 million endowment from music industry executive Mike Curb and the Curb Family Foundation. It is led by Ivey, who was chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts from 1998 to 2001.
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
Jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu