Author: McNulty, Robert H.

Publication Year: 1981

Media Type: Book

Summary:

Paper presented at Conference on the Economic Impact of the Arts, sponsored by Cornell University, Graduate School of Business and Public Administration, held in Ithaca, New York, May 27-28, 1981.

Abstract:

Paper presented at Conference on the Economic Impact of the Arts, sponsored by Cornell University, Graduate School of Business and Public Administration, held in Ithaca, New York, May 27-28, 1981.

Demand and planning for the arts and for other cultural amenities are two sides of one coin. To meet the demand effectively, you have to plan carefully, because arts and other amenities don't exist in a vacuum. For example, in his recent book, The Arts in the Economic Life of the City (American Council for the Arts, 1979), Harvey Perloff found that the arts in Los Angeles were a part of everything from church picnics and ethnic festivals to zoos, parks and the movie business. What's more, thirteen different agencies in the Los Angeles area were involved in managing these arts, but there was no planning, no coordination among these organizations. Nor were arts organizations coordinated with city offices or with other civic groups. What Los Angeles needed was something like a cabinet-level committee to look at arts and all of the other forces that shape the City.

Most of us agree that demand for the arts is there, but that effective planning is not in communities across the country, poor planning and poor bureaucratic identification of cultural planning objectives are stifling developments before they can begin. in some cases, we make the mistake of identifying the demand as one for arts rather than for cultural facilities in general. Communities, by and large, are searching for image and identity; they are looking for ways to make their citizens proud and for ways to attract visitors with money to spend, whether those visitors come from the nearby suburbs or from foreign countries. (p. 88-89)

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Participation, Community Development