Author: Throsby, C. David

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 Clark C. Abt appears on p. 247.

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 Clark C. Abt appears on p. 247.

Decision making is essentially an exercise in constrained optimization. The distinguishing characteristic of multiple-objective decision making is that optimization is required over more than one domain at a given time. In this paper I apply some multiple-objective methods to arts-funding decisions, that is, to questions of grant allocation among competing artistic or cultural activities subject to an overall budget constraint. The emphasis is on grants, indicating a concern with the deployment of direct financial patronage to the arts from public or private sources. Most of the discussion will relate to public transfers, though the principles are just as applicable to funding by foundations, corporations or individuals.

In the public sphere in countries such as the , Canada, Britain, and Australia, grant allocation decisions are made in several stages. Typically, a central funding agency first determines allocations from a given overall annual budget to boards, programs, or panels concerned with different art forms. These allocations serve as constraints in the distribution of grants by the board committees among competing applicants - companies, projects, and individuals. A further set of allocation decisions by recipients may be required, for example, by performing companies determining the repertoire or program for the forthcoming period. Here the funds from the central agency may be augmented with grants from other public or private donors. At each stage in the distribution it is intuitively obvious that a number of different and often conflicting criteria will be taken into account in reaching a final decision. Hence, the decision-making framework discussed can be seen applying in principle at all stages of the arts-funding decision sequence. (p. 236).

CONTENTS
A general model.
Specification of the model.
Solution procedures.
Conclusions.
Notes.
References [bibliography].

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: International