Author: Von Eckardt, Wolf

Publication Year: 1981

Media Type: Book

Summary:

This book has two related aims. The first is to assure the I am not against the arts but... people (who tend to accumulate wherever budgets are voted on) that they are dead wrong. The second is to persuade those who believe the arts are something extra that they are dead wrong, too. This book, therefore, intends first of all to place the arts and humanities - our culture - into the perspective of everyday life to show that cultural vitality stimulates social and economic vitality. The arts help business, create jobs, and make money far in excess of their cost.

Abstract:

This book has two related aims. The first is to assure the I am not against the arts but... people (who tend to accumulate wherever budgets are voted on) that they are dead wrong. The second is to persuade those who believe the arts are something extra that they are dead wrong, too. This book, therefore, intends first of all to place the arts and humanities - our culture - into the perspective of everyday life to show that cultural vitality stimulates social and economic vitality. The arts help business, create jobs, and make money far in excess of their cost. While this should be obvious when you think about it - or take a fair look at arts activities - it is not obvious to the pro-arts-but people. The short recapitulation of the benefits of the arts might help you to persuade them.|...we have skipped...the statistics and case histories that are often vital to back up the argument. But if you try to save them to meet general needs, they never quite satisfy a specific appetite. Nor do they stay fresh. We have also skipped discussion of the problem that is presently foremost on the minds of people concerned with the arts - money. Again, we believe that enough is being said and written about who should pay and how. This book attempts to explain why.

Artists and arts groups should sit down with local government people and other community groups and, together, figure out what ought to be done. We call this cultural planning, and we argue for it in this book. We argue for nothing more or less than making art - art enjoyment, art facilities, art education, and working and living space for artists - a part of all the other services a community is expected to render. To achieve all this, arts advocates must promote understanding of their aims; advance specific proposals and programs; participate in physical and economic community planning; and organize permanent links between arts groups and city and regional planning agencies. This book does not attempt to sort out the complexities. Nor does it offer guidelines to ply them. It is more in the nature of a pep talk - or call it a sermon. (Introduction, p. i-v).

CONTENTS
Introduction.
The republic's proper concern.
Cultivating culture.
Gods, kings, and taxpayers.
The city beautiful.
Lonely temples.
The marketplace.
Better than new.
Identity.
Profits of planning.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Community Development