Author: Eells, Richard

Publication Year: 1966

Media Type: Book

Summary:

The Corporation and the Arts is the first detailed examination of the growing relationship between the world of art and the corporate world of business. Through a comprehensive discussion of the nature, aims and scope of the corporation and the arts, Professor Eells illuminates the important common denominators that underlie the social functions of both these institutions.

Abstract:

The Corporation and the Arts is the first detailed examination of the growing relationship between the world of art and the corporate world of business. Through a comprehensive discussion of the nature, aims and scope of the corporation and the arts, Professor Eells illuminates the important common denominators that underlie the social functions of both these institutions.

During the past thirty years corporations have been giving increasing amounts of money to support a steadily widening range of artistic endeavor. Professor Eels refutes the commonly held assumption that corporate support of the arts does not benefit business. He shows that the arts provide a valuable source of self-knowledge and that the corporation-arts relationship can be, indeed should be, mutually advantageous. Equally important, he points out that since the artist's freedom to create is just as essential as the businessman's freedom to innovate, both artists and businessmen have a vital interest in maintaining a free society. Examining the new corporate ecology that has developed in recent years, Professor Eells stresses those arts that contribute to the strength of the total social environment in which private enterprise can be successfully carried on.

In addition to a long-standing concern with the role of the corporation in contemporary society, Professor Eell's experience as a participant in a recent study of the performing arts conducted by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund is reflected throughout the volume. Since the alliance of business and the arts is certain to become more and more firmly established, The Corporation and the Arts will have immediate relevance for the arts, for the business community, and for society: It will remain a pioneering study in he field for years to come.

CONTENTS
Preface.

  1. Two major institutions:

In which it is shown that the modern corporation and the arts are both major institutions of our time that have evolved as near disparates but now approach convergencies with profound implications for both.

  2. What are The Arts?:

In which it is shown that the meaning of art and the scope of the arts must be interpreted wth latitude for the purpose of discovering the vital relationship between these two contemporary institutions: the corporation and the arts.

  3. Freedom of creativity and innovation:

In which the freedoms to create and to innovate are seen as values common to the spheres of art and corporate enterprise, and the conditions of creative freedom in both are inquired into.

  4. The knowing artist:

In which the arts are seen as an indispensible path to knowledge, an instrument of understanding available to the corporate institution but still seldom accepted as such, but increasingly recognized as related to the appropriate goal-value of enlightenment.

  5. Art, business and the moralities:

In which the ethical and esthetic goals of the modern corporation and society are seen to be closely related, requiring those in board rooms and executive suites to reconsider corporate policies that may either deter or aid men to achieve these goals.

  6. The corporate reach for new values:

In which it is shown that the corporation as an institution has moved far from the model of traditional theory toward new and essentially different patterns of organization and action, with certain implications for the relationship between the corporation and the arts.

  7. The dialogue and dilemma of social responsibility:

In which the debate about the social responsibilities of the modern corporation is reviewed, a corporate ecology is indicated, and certain relevant social variables are identified.

  8. New dimensions of corporate donative power:

In which the legality of corporate giving is considered together with its basis in business policy, and corporate support of the arts is seen as an imaginative and advantageous use of corporate donative power.

  9. The future of the corporation and the arts:

In which potentialities of the corporation-arts nexus are examined, with particular reference to the corporation and the three tasks of a high culture.

10. New guidelines for support of the arts:

In which some implications are drawn as to the procedural and substantive aspects of corporate policy as it affects the arts.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Private Sector