Public Arts Funding Research Articles

Neutrality, Cultural Literacy, and Arts Funding

Despite the widespread presence of public arts funding in liberal societies, some liberals find it unjustified. According to the Neutrality Objection, arts funding preferences some ways of life. One way to motivate this challenge is to say that a public goods-styled justification, although it could relieve arts funding of these worries of partiality, cannot be argued for coherently or is, in the end, too susceptible to impressions of partiality. I argue that diversity-based arts funding can overcome this challenge, because it invests in non-excludable infrastructure that fosters cultural literacy. We all have some interest as citizens in living in a society which fosters cultural literacy, seeing as this helps others to understand us, supports us to understand ourselves, and helps alleviate confusion and alienation we feel toward social difference. While some of these benefits can be enjoyed by those who make and consume art, they are also gained by those who don’t, because arts funding affects the makeup of public spaces and the communicative practices we all use to make sense of the world.

Social Exclusion in the Arts: The Dynamics of Social and Economic Mobility Across Three Decades of Undergraduate Arts Alumni in the United States

This chapter presents a broad interdisciplinary literature review linking artists’ economic precarity and need for but resistance to entrepreneurial skills, alongside colonial histories, structural racism, and hierarchies of taste in arts organizations. These themes are complemented empirically by engaging data from the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) to demonstrate indicators of attrition and privilege of arts alumni relative to their participation in the arts workforce. Meaningfully different associations across racial/ethnic groups are uncovered, showing structural exclusion of Black arts alumni in particular, in addition to other intersectional dynamics. This chapter underscores the importance of addressing student debt, the potential of creative pedagogies across the curriculum, and the need for imaginative approaches to renewed public funding of art and artists.

American Perspectives on Public Funding for Artists

In light of recent attention on artists as community assets, what is current U.S. public opinion on public support for artists? After tracing the history of perceptions of public funding of artists in the U.S., we turn to the contemporary moment. Using 2017 and 2019 data from novel national surveys of adults, this study examines opinions about whether artists should receive public funding. Logistic regression results reveal that historic demographic predictors of support for public arts funding also predict contemporary opinion about public funding for artists and, notably, that public opinion is significantly more supportive of public funding for artists when they are seen as collaborators, problem-solvers, and working to bring attention to community matters. These empirical results suggest new means for fostering and supporting artists’ work in local communities.

An assessing the role of public financial policy in the field of culture

Purpose of the research. The main purpose of the article is to improve the methodological support for assessing the role of public financial policy in the field of culture. Methodology. The following methods, which used in the study: logical generalization, synthesis, induction and deduction, dialectical and system-structural methods, comparative analysis, graphical method, etc. Results. It is proved that due to the awareness of the role of culture in society, aspects of state activity to ensure the development of the economy in the field of culture are important. Public financial policy is one of the measures to increase the level of cultural competence of citizens. It is proposed to consider culture as a resource, bearing in mind that it becomes not only a costly area, but also the engine of the economy. Given that the sphere of culture around the world is built on a combination of budgetary and extrabudgetary funding, there are different activities, a significant amount of movable and immovable property, some of which is withdrawn from civil circulation or has restrictions on civil turnover (monuments, libraries, archival funds, museum collections, etc.). The sources of financing of cultural institutions in Ukraine and the distribution of expenditures of the Consolidated Budget of Ukraine for culture and art are analyzed. It is determined that the issues of preservation of cultural heritage should become a factor that will really affect the financial performance of cultural transformations in the country. Practical meaning. It is substantiated that the policy in terms of public funding of culture and art should be based on certain effective areas that reflect the real cultural needs of society. Prospects for further research of the author are to study the impact of budget policy on the state of Ukraine’s cultural heritage.

Effect of publicly funded assisted reproductive technology on maternal and infant outcomes: a pre- and post-comparison study.

Does publicly funded assisted reproductive technology result in improved maternal and infant outcomes? Publicly funded ART in Quebec was associated with reduced risks of preeclampsia, cesarean delivery, preterm birth, low birth weight and other adverse outcomes. Publicly funded ART programs that provide free access to single embryo transfer are known to decrease the rate of multiple pregnancy, but the impact on other pregnancy outcomes is unknown. We conducted a pre- and post-comparison study of 597416 pregnancies conceived between July 2008 and September 2015 in Quebec, Canada, a region where public funding of ART began in August 2010. We included all pregnant women who conceived by ART (n = 14309) or spontaneously (n = 583107) and delivered a live or stillborn infant in hospitals of Quebec. The main exposure measure was conception before versus during the publicly funded ART program. Outcomes included measures of maternal and infant morbidity and mortality. We estimated risk ratios (RR) and 95% confidence intervals for the association of publicly funded ART with maternal and infant outcomes using log-binomial regression models adjusted for maternal characteristics. In this study, 2638 pregnancies were conceived by ART before, and 11671 were conceived by ART, during public funding. Compared with no public funding, ART funding was associated with reduced risks of severe maternal morbidity (RR 0.64, 95% CI 0.50-0.83), preeclampsia (RR 0.55, 95% CI 0.44-0.68), cesarean delivery (RR 0.83, 95% CI 0.77-0.89), preterm birth (RR 0.67, 95% CI 0.60-0.75), low birth weight (RR 0.63, 95% CI 0.55-0.72), severe neonatal morbidity (RR 0.75, 95% CI 0.57-0.99) and neonatal intensive care unit admission (RR 0.65, 95% CI 0.53-0.78). When multiple pregnancies were excluded, ART funding continued to be associated with a lower risk of preeclampsia (RR 0.61, 95% CI 0.48-0.79) and preterm birth (RR 0.85, 95% CI 0.73-0.99). However, ART funding was associated with increased risk of gestational diabetes. We had no information on the type of ART, number of in-vitro fertilization cycles or number of embryos transferred. We lacked data on body mass index, ethnicity and smoking and cannot rule out residual confounding. Our findings suggest that publicly funded ART programs that encourage single embryo transfer may have substantial benefits for a range of maternal and infant outcomes, beyond prevention of multiple births. This study was supported by grant 6D02363004 from the Public Health Agency of Canada. N.A. acknowledges a career award from the Fonds de recherche du Québec-Santé (34695). The authors declare no competing interests. N/A.

Voluntary taxation and the arts

The arts in the USA receive little federal support relative to other developed nations. Because culture and the arts are often viewed as a nonessential role of government, public officials have proposed eliminating public funding for the arts. We examine support for public arts funding using a real-donation experiment (Eckel and Grossman in Games Econ Behav 16(2):181–191, 1996). Real-donation experiments combine elements of a controlled laboratory experiment with the context of a field experiment. In this “giving to the government” experiment, each participant allocates money between herself and a charitable organization supporting either cancer research, education, or the arts. There are two charities within each function: one is a private organization and the other a government agency. Not only do participants donate significant amounts to support the arts generally, we observe significant donations to a government agency that funds the arts. We find similar donation rates to cancer research and education as Li et al. (J Publ Econ 95(9–10):1190–1201, 2011), which provides a measure of external validity. Participants donate less to the arts than to cancer research or education and consistently give less to government organizations than to private charities. However, observing voluntary taxation to support the arts stands in striking contrast to current public policy. Significant predictors of giving include the perceived importance, efficiency, and trust of the organization, as well as gender. Our evidence suggests that current public funding for the arts may be less than optimal.

Passing the Hat to Pay the Piper: Alternative Mechanisms for Publicly Funding the Arts

Public arts funding in the United States is under pressure. As a means of reducing volatility, twenty-eight states instituted alternative funding mechanisms to support a state arts agency. This study assesses the relationship between mechanisms for publicly funding the arts at intermediate levels of government and the health of the nonprofit arts and culture sector. The demography of organizations, an approach to analysis within organizational ecology, is applied to panel data of annual state-level counts from 1994 to 2014. Results of the different mechanisms vary; there is evidence that different mechanisms are correlated with population dynamics. The layering of findings raises additional questions about regional conditions that give rise to alternative mechanisms.

Workshop Negative: Political Theatre in Zimbabwe in the 1980s

In 1980 the Republic of Zimbabwe became recognized internationally as an independent state. This independence marked a shift from white minority rule to black majority rule in the form of ZANU–PF in a transition in government that was fraught with brutal violence, tense negotiations and tremendous hope for the democratic state that would emerge. This article begins with a brief overview of key political-theatre and public-arts funding practices that emerged in the newly independent Zimbabwe in the 1980s and continues with an examination of an influential political play from the era by Cont Mhlange entitledWorkshop Negative(1986). This article's analysis ofWorkshop Negativeconsiders how the economic pressures explored in the play mirror the precarious working conditions that arts-funding models placed on political-theatre practitioners in Zimbabwe at the time.

Learning from Negative Space: Categorizing Success in Arts Policy Entrepreneurship

From its inception in 1965, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has counted on its agency leaders to operate as policy entrepreneurs – working to influence the federal public policy process and advocating for increased public arts funding. Policy entrepreneurship research has largely centered on success stories (Mintrom & Luetjens, 2017), but this does not provide a full picture of policy entrepreneurship. Kingdon (2003) argues that when policy entrepreneurship fails, so does their policy initiatives, but there has not been an investigation into policy entrepreneurship that fully defines and studies policy entrepreneurship failure in context. This investigation identifies three distinct areas where policy entrepreneurs can achieve success: agency leader, advocacy coalition manager, oppositional respondent. Through the lens of policy entrepreneurship with a focus specifically on rhetoric, this study assesses John Frohnmayer, NEA Chairman from 1989 to 1992, as a case of policy entrepreneurship failure. In looking at a case of unsuccessful policy entrepreneurship, this study furthers policy entrepreneurship theory and provide arts and cultural policy scholars with a more nuanced understanding of Frohnmayer’s time as Chairman of the NEA.

Publiczne finansowanie sztuki w kontekście zasady neutralności światopoglądowej państwa – podejście filozoficznoprawne

The aim of the article is to analyze the issue of public funding of art in the context of state’s neutrality principle. In the first part of the paper I present theoretical dimension of the problem of neutral and perfectionist justification for public authorities’ actions. The second part of the article comprises the outline and the critique of a few arguments which justify funding of art from public treasury. I concentrate particularly on Ronald Dworkin’s conception. In summary I present three possible model solutions of the problem of public funding of art.

Normative justification for public arts funding: what can we learn from linking arts consumption and arts policy in Israel?

AbstractThis article studies the socioeconomics of government public expenditure for the arts and the normative foundations of state intervention in the arts. I pose two interrelated research questions: (a) what is the relationship between the public funding of the arts and their consumption? and (b) what mode of justification and what perception of the place of art in society is reflected in this relationship? Based on the philosophical work of Alan Badiou, I develop a novel conceptual framework to delineate three types of normative justifications for the public funding of arts organizations: romantic, didactic and classical. Using data from the public funding of 92 orchestras, theaters and dance troupes in Israel between 1999 and 2011, I estimate a cross-lagged panel data model to study how arts funding both affects and is affected by the levels of consumption of the organizations’ productions. The results of the study show a complex pattern of different relationships between funding and consumption that accord with the three types of normative justifications for public arts funding.

On the Drama of Canadian Public Arts Funding: An Analysis of Justin Trudeau’s Mandate Letter to Mélanie Joly

This article is both an analysis of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s mandate letter to the Minister of Canadian Heritage Mélanie Joly and a call to action to Canadian artists. I argue that, in order to ensure a sustainable and productive realization of Justin Trudeau’s plans for Canadian arts and culture, we, as artists, must construct a clear vision for the importance of arts and culture to the health of our democracy and clearly communicate that vision to government. Unless Trudeau’s promises are embedded in that kind of vision—a universally acknowledged central purpose—his promises create no new security for Canadian artists. Concretely put, we must overcome our inertia, extract ourselves from our current economic context, and reacquaint ourselves with our actual purpose. Why do we make art? Why is it important that we do? We must become agents of our own identities, lives, and livelihoods by changing the conversation about arts and culture in Canada from the bottom up. It is essential and timely that we reconfigure the terms with, and the context within which, arts and culture are currently defined.

How crowdfunding discourse threatens public arts

Crowdfunding platforms, such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo, have been the focus of considerable popular press news coverage in the past few years, with stories emphasizing how crowdfunding can bring indie creative projects into being through monetary contributions from several individuals online. As a method for financing small or risky artistic products unlikely to receive mainstream corporate or government support, crowdfunding has been celebrated in press coverage for “democratizing” the arts funding process. However, these same celebratory claims about crowdfunding giving everyday people a voice in bringing art into fruition eerily echo arguments in the United States by conservative groups to de-fund public arts programs. The very language crowdfunding proponents use may well fuel politicians hoping to unravel public arts funding. This article presents a critical discourse analysis of news coverage about crowdfunding, analyzing the similarities between pro-crowdfunding sentiments and anti-public arts funding advocates. An uncritical embrace of an Internet trend may threaten public funding for the arts by aligning with neoliberal ideological language.

Arts of the states in crisis–Revisiting determinants of state-level appropriations to arts agencies

Clearly, much has happened to the state of public coffers and their ability to finance the arts in the past decade. This study extends Noonan (2007) into the next decade and the “Great Recession” that hit the U.S. (and world) economy–with state public finances severely exposed to the downward economic shock. The emphasis of the empirical analysis here is answering a twofold question: how well have past models predicted the past decade of funding patterns, and how have the funding determinants shifted in recent years. While the previous work found that some predictable patterns (e.g., there is much momentum in funding, demographics and partisan politics matter), there was insufficient evidence to back the claims that SAAs suffer disproportionately during times of fiscal stress. Further, political culture has changed substantially in the US in recent decades. From today's vantage, we can observe how well the older models predict the changes actually experienced. This comparison shows that the severe budget cuts experienced in the wake of the recession were to be expected, but there are some interesting shortcomings in the previous understanding, which points to a shift in the determinants of public arts funding in the U.S.

Art versus cultural entrepreneurship

This article is concerned with the changes in cultural politics in Holland and with radical cuts to public funding of art between 2010 and 2013, wherein it also describes historical reasons that led to the current acute state and, last, but not least, draws parallels to the state of Slovenian theater production. The deterioration of culture, which began, despite the clout and wealth of the state, with the coming to power of a right-wing government, is characterized by the closing of production studios, the disbanding of renowned theater troupes, and up to 80 per cent reductions in the activity of music groups. Let alone the threat to live art and stopping subsidies, these cuts into the flesh of Dutch culture do not even spare national or cultural heritage. As of 1 January 2013, the Dutch Theater Institute has been radically reformed. Its research, archival, international and promotional activities have been terminated. With such a management policy, Holland is entering an era of art on the free market, a struggle for private sources of financing and funding by sponsors, along with the commercialization of art. The consequences are currently unfathomable, but will be long-term and destructive.

Multiple deliveries: The reduced impact of in vitro fertilisation in Australia

The number of twins born in Australia steadily increased from 2420 sets in 1983 to 4458 sets in 2010. At one stage, almost 25% of all twin deliveries in Australia were a consequence of assisted reproductive technologies. To determine the influence of a policy of single embryo transfer (SET) on the rate of multiple deliveries in Australia. We used population data to compare the prevalence of twin and higher order multiple births in women giving birth in Australia before and after the implementation of the RTAC COP 2001 and 2005 revisions for ART units. There was a steady fall in the twin delivery rate for assisted reproductive technologies from 210.4 per 1000 deliveries in 2001 to 84.3 per 1000 deliveries in 2009. In 2009, assisted reproductive technologies accounted for approximately 16% of all twin births from 3% of all conceptions, substantially less than the 24.5% in 2002. The decline in multiple births is multifactorial. However, the fall in the proportion of ART multiple births has paralleled adoption of a voluntary policy of SET within a setting of largely public funding of ART.

My Taxes Paid for That?! or Why the Past Is Prologue for Public Arts Funding

AbstractRecent efforts to cut public funding for the arts and culture sectors in the United States are couched in the need for balanced budgets and fiscal discipline. Lawmakers who support cuts question whether artistic pursuits such as “cowboy poetry” or artistic endeavors that offend or shock some viewers are an appropriate use of public monies in a depressed economy. While the current debate is grounded in a need for balanced budgets and reduced deficits, long-standing unresolved legacies fragment arts and culture policy and leave arts and culture funding vulnerable to additional cuts. The normative implications for the role of the arts and culture sectors in a democratic society need to be considered.

Using the Arts to Pay for the Arts: A Proposed New Public Funding Model

Stipulating that public funding for arts in the United States is inadequate and unstable, the author reviews a series of alternatives to annual Congressional appropriations. Referencing precedents in Canada and Europe, they propose a new system of funding that would rely on a user fee levied on ticket books, art sales, blank media, and downloads. Such a system would need to be enacted just once and would result in an annual flow of grant funds to the arts vastly in excess of the current level. A new role for the current National Endowment for the Arts is discussed, as are logistical and political challenges.

Good and plenty: the creative successes of American arts funding

Americans agree about government arts funding in the way the women in the old joke agree about the food at the wedding: it's terrible--and such small portions! Americans typically either want to abolish the National Endowment for the Arts, or they believe that public arts funding should be dramatically increased because the arts cannot survive in the free market. It would take a lover of the arts who is also a libertarian economist to bridge such a gap. Enter Tyler Cowen. In this book he argues why the U.S. way of funding the arts, while largely indirect, results not in the terrible and the small but in Good and Plenty--and how it could result in even more and better. Few would deny that America produces and consumes art of a quantity and quality comparable to that of any country. But is this despite or because of America's meager direct funding of the arts relative to European countries? Overturning the conventional wisdom of this question, Cowen argues that American art thrives through an ingenious combination of small direct subsidies and immense indirect subsidies such as copyright law and tax policies that encourage nonprofits and charitable giving. This decentralized and even somewhat accidental--but decidedly not laissez-faire--system results in arts that are arguably more creative, diverse, abundant, and politically unencumbered than that of Europe. Bringing serious attention to the neglected issue of the American way of funding the arts, Good and Plenty is essential reading for anyone concerned about the arts or their funding.

Between Avant-Garde and Kitsch: Pragmatic Liberalism, Public Arts Funding, and the Cold War in the United States*

It is among the hopeful signs in the midst of the decay of our present society that we—some of us—have been unwilling to accept this last phase of our own culture. In seeking to go beyond Alexandrianism, a part of Western bourgeois society has produced something unheard of heretofore—avant-garde culture. Clement Greenberg, “Avant-Garde and Kitsch” 6–7Kitsch has not been confined to the cities in which it was born, but has flowed out over the countryside, wiping out folk culture. Nor has it shown any regard for geographical and national–cultural boundaries. Another mass product of Western industrialism, it has gone on a triumphal tour of the world, crowding out and defacing native cultures in one colonial coun­try after another, so that it is now by way of becoming a universal culture, the first universal culture ever beheld.