Cultural Policy and Participation
This class examines public and private policies and structures that impact cultural production and participation. This includes a consideration of rationales for and against public support for culture, how policies have promoted and/or impeded cultural production and consumption, advocacy efforts by organizations in the cultural sector, and relations between governmental policy and private initiative.
Discussion of governmental policies will be complemented by a consideration of research on factors promoting engagement in the arts, arts engagement and other forms of civic engagement, and efforts by cultural organizations to attract and engage audiences. Attention will also be given to the implications of new technologies, legal regulations, globalization, international relations and cultural policy. The class will focus primarily on the United States, but includes comparisons to, and examples from, other countries.
The class is relevant to those interested in understanding current relations (and proposals for new relations) between arts and cultural institutions and artists and their wider public context.
Student assessment will be based on course requirements, including: Class attendance and participation; an essay on one week’s readings (3–4 pp. ds), and questions and an in-class presentation based on the essay; cultural policy/participation analysis (3-5 pp. ds), final applied research paper on a topic related to cultural policy and/or participation (10-12 pp. ds).
Assigned reading for this course is moderate in level for a graduate seminar, and is drawn from a variety of sources to encompass the varied topics covered and multi-disciplinary nature of the material. We will be using Canvas.