Author: Shanahan, James L.

Publication Year: 1979

Media Type: Book

Summary:

Paper presented at First International Conference on Arts and Economics, sponsored by the Association for Cultural Economics, held in Edinburgh, Scotland, August 8-10, 1979. Comment by J. Mark Davidson Schuster appears on p. 305-307. Comment by V. N. Krishnan appears on p. 307.

Abstract:

Paper presented at First International Conference on Arts and Economics, sponsored by the Association for Cultural Economics, held in Edinburgh, Scotland, August 8-10, 1979. Comment by J. Mark Davidson Schuster appears on p. 305-307. Comment by V. N. Krishnan appears on p. 307.

Over the last decade the U.S. government has instituted significant direct support of the arts. As the debate over justification for public support of the arts moved into full swing, the proponents of art subsidy turned the policy debate 180 degrees. The question of what the economy can do for the arts has been reversed to what the arts can do for the economy. This new role for the arts has been presented only in fragments and argued largely by advocates of the arts, not social scientists; however, since most of the arguments relate to the social sciences, there is a need to look at the social science context of the claims.

Arguments for the arts as industry:

1. The arts are a part of the local economic base, providing jobs and income to local residents.
   
   
2. The arts industry involves minimal use of exhaustible resources.
   
   
3. The arts industry will be an integral economic part of the service economy in the postindustrial era.
   
   
4. The arts industry is the single most significant source of amenities that clearly favors the central city economy as a location.

Arguments for the arts as cultural amenities:

1. In reshaping and rebuilding the physical environment in our urban centers, we must take care to apply artistic skills for an aesthetically pleasing and integrated physical fabric. These efforts will enhance and expand the economic objectives.
   
   
2. The availability of artistic and cultural activities and cultural amenities can be a decisive factor in both industrial and population relocation and retention of a rich human resource mix. 
                                                                                                                

Arguments for the arts in education and development:                                                   

1. Arts appreciation encourages consumption patterns that are less wasteful of exhaustible resources and do less harm to the environment than other types of consumption.
   
   
2. The arts can provide the ethnic and cultural glue for neighborhood identity and cohesion - an intangible element of neighborhood revitalization.
   
   
3. The arts can fulfill the human need for relatedness - dependence on others for nurturance, support, and identity - which is important to the emotional well-being and mental health of city residents.
   
   
4. Many of our unemployed and underemployed can be retrained utilizing the arts and artistic skill development.
   
   
5. Neighborhood economies can be strengthened utilizing arts and artists.

In examining the relationship of the arts to urban development, we may minimize some problems of definition if we consider urban development to have three components: 

1. economic, emphasizing the importance of the industry mix for a vital local economy; 
2. physical development, encompassing the importance of the physical environment as the skeleton of the urban fabric; and
3. human development, emphasizing the importance of meeting the total set of human needs.

Obviously, any strategy for setting development objectives requires an integration of these three aspects.

CONTENTS
Economic development.
Physical development.
Human development.
Recent history of U.S. Support of the arts.
Evaluating the claims.
Evaluating the role of the arts in economic growth and development.
References [bibliography].

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Creative Economies