Academic insights for the cultural sector
Interdisciplinary.
Bite-sized.
Relevant.
For researchers and practitioners.
Interdisciplinary.
Bite-sized.
Relevant.
For researchers and practitioners.
Cultural Participation is Civic Participation By Nelsen, Matt Broadening the definition of "civic participation" to include arts and culture—with dramatic results. |
The Social Impact of a Night out at the Concert Hall By Malone, Kerri Investigating whether attending concerts makes people more civically engaged. |
Reevaluating the Social Worth of Community Arts Participation By Nelsen, Matt Facing the problem of how to measure the impact of the arts on a community's social well-being. |
Sociopolitical Music-Making By Malone, Kerri Latino immigrants are abstaining from traditional forms of American civic participation, choosing instead to address their everyday challenges in a less traditional way: through music-making. |
The Global Academy Awards: Cultural Policy in Transnational Film By Malone, Kerri The policies and content characteristics that reveal how and why Hollywood dominates the global film industry. |
Foreign Media and Competitive Hubs of Cultural Influence: The Case of Malawi By Nelsen, Matt Considering how national, regional, and international media compete to shape local culture. |
Artist Exchange and the Predicaments of Public Funding in the Post-9/11 Era By Nelsen, Matt Reignited interest in U.S.–Middle East cultural exchange programs is hindered by new funding regulations. |
Controversy’s Precarious Position in Dutch International Cultural Policy By Nelsen, Matt Maintaining a positive national image abroad at the expense of free artistic expression. |
Keep it Local! The Importance of Place in Arts-Driven Urban Development By Nelsen, Matt Metro areas with prominent cultural industries are often used as transferable models for economic development. Yet, urban developers should be wary of overgeneralization—local characteristics matter. |
Customizing Policy for Creative Cities in Three Steps By Malone, Kerri The gap between creative city theory and practice too often produces ineffectual policy. City policymakers can begin to close this gap by using a novel three-step approach. |
What’s Great about the ‘Good City?’ By Nelsen, Matt Creative cities have major economic clout, but the arts also play an important role beyond driving urban development: they create 'good cities' that foster inclusive urban communities. |
Problematizing Cultural Events in Europe’s Tourist Cities By Malone, Kerri The shortcomings of programs that use cultural events to boost a city’s reputation and tourism industry are numerous. A better solution may be smaller, “everyday” cultural events and experiences. |
Looking Back while Moving Forward: What’s Next for Urban Arts and Culture Research? By Nelsen, Matt The past decade of policy research has addressed the role of arts and and culture in driving urban economic development, but what's next? What arts-related questions still need to be explored? |
Understanding the Postdigital Museum By Rugg, Gwendolyn Digital technology in museums has become normative — it's time to focus less on the tech and more on what that means for museums' strategies and structures. |
Testing Technology: How Augmented Reality Helps Museum Visitors Appreciate Paintings By O'Malley, Michael K. A study compares the learning effectiveness of an art museum augmented-reality guide platform with that of a common audio guide. |
Free Music Streaming Boosts Megastar Concerts Without Stealing CD Sales By Fleming, James A French survey determined that streaming services such as Spotify or YouTube boost attendance at concerts without negatively affecting physical CD sales, but effect isn't the same for all artists. |
Natural Experiment Finds Arts Broadcasts Boosted Live Audiences By O'Malley, Michael K. In 2009, the Royal National Theatre was the world's first theater to broadcast a performance in movie theaters, and it actually boosted their live attendance numbers. |
Survey Shows Digitizing Record Labels Adapt to the “Long Tail” By Fleming, James Record companies utilizing digital technologies do not necessarily sell more units, but they do release more albums, consistent with Chris Anderson's vision of the Long Tail — but with some surprises and caveats. |
Where Knowledge Workers Want to Live and Why By O'Malley, Michael K. When choosing where to live, what's more important: proximity to cultural facilities, schools, and the office, or housing price and neighborhood socioeconomic level? |
Why Do Artists Report Higher Job Satisfaction? By Fleming, James Artists are more satisfied with their work than non-artists, and the reason cannot be explained by differences in income or working hours. Artists' job satisfaction likely stems in part from the nature of artistic work itself. |
Making Connections: The Key to Success in the Popular Music Industry By Rugg, Gwendolyn The most innovative musicians are not necessarily the most inherently talented, nor are they the ones with the most resources at their disposal. Network theory helps explain how innovation happens in music. |
Who Identifies as an “Artist”? Arts Professionals Are Surprisingly Divided By O'Malley, Michael K. A significant number of survey respondents said they work in an arts-related occupation but do not consider themselves to be professional artists. The reason why could change the way cities try to attract creative workers. |
Instilling Innovation: An Economic Defense of Arts and Crafts By Rugg, Gwendolyn This study examines the impacts of childhood exposure to the arts on eventual professional innovation in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). |
What’s the Art School Version of Entrepreneurship Training? By Rugg, Gwendolyn Business school curricula cannot simply be imported to art schools. So how do you incorporate principles of entrepreneurship into artistic training? |
Creative City Case Studies By Fleming, James - O'Malley, Michael K. - Rugg, Gwendolyn Toronto, Scranton, Denver, Barcelona, Madrid, Brisbane, Melbourne, Beijing, and Glasgow |
Creative Contradictions: How Urban Development Strategies Can Harm Creative Industries By Fleming, James In "Creatives in the City: Urban contradictions of the creative city," Elsa Vivant, a professor at the Université Paris Est Marne la Vallée, asks how the strategies of urban revitalization hamper the development of a creative economy. |
Arts Festivals and Their Cities: How to Think About a Complicated Relationship By Rugg, Gwendolyn Cecile Sachs Olsen at Zurich University of the Arts examines cultural policy as it relates to festivals, arguing that the primary aim of most current policy is to charter economically profitable, tourism-boosting, and image-enhancing festivals, while overlooking their potential for cultural impact. |
Making Planning Creative: ‘New Conceptual Spaces’ for Art and Policy By O'Malley, Michael K. In their article, "Getting Creative with the 'Creative City'? Towards New Perspectives on Creativity in Urban Policy," Thomas Borén and Craig Young address the need to understand how public officials deploy the concept of creativity within urban policy contexts and to close the gap between policymakers' and creative practitioners' definitions of creativity. |
In Toronto and Austin, Standard Creative City Language Belies More Complex Models By Fleming, James In his article, "Cultural Economy Planning in Creative Cities: Discourse and Practice," University of Texas professor Carl Grodach examines the influence of theoretical models for cultural or creative economies of two cities, Toronto and Austin. |
Arts, Brought to you by Hollywood, iTunes, and Nintendo By Surh, Gregory M. In "Using the Arts to Pay for the Arts: A Proposed New Public Funding Model," Indiana University lecturer Michael Wilkerson argues that current policies and practices concerning public funding for the arts in the United States are inadequate and unstable, and a new model is needed. |
Support for Public Culture: An Impossible American Dream? By Surh, Gregory M. In "Public Culture in America: A Review of Cultural Policy Debates," Professor Dustin Kidd of Temple University summarizes the range of justifications that have been used in support of public culture since the 1980s. |
Arts Advocacy in the Facebook Age By Gibbons, Catherine K. Julie Hawkins, a professor at Drexel University and formerly of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, paints a picture of how arts advocacy efforts might be adapted to the changing economic realities in her article "Leveraging the Power of Individuals for Arts Advocacy." |
School-Level Arts Advocacy By Surh, Gregory M. In "Arts Education Advocacy: The Relative Effects of School-Level Influences on Resources for Arts Education," Peter Miksza draws on data from the 2009-2010 National Center for Education Statistics to determine the conditions in schools that affect arts education. Adequate funding and specialized arts teachers are essential for quality arts education, and Miksza focuses on what factors help predict these resources. |
Arts Education: Chicken Soup for the Brain as Well as the Soul By Surh, Gregory M. In his article "Seismic Shifts in the Education Landscape: What Do They Mean for Arts Education and Arts Education Policy?" Professor F. Robert Sabol of Purdue University argues that the skills and critical capacities of creativity, collaboration, problem solving and empathy that are honed through involvement with the arts are essential ones for the economy and society of the 21st century. Nevertheless, arts educators find themselves in the difficult situation of having to justify and advocate for the existence of arts education within American schools in an era in which test scores, particularly in math and English, are the primary tool of evaluation and accountability. |
Bridging the Gap: Community-Focused Arts Education Policy By Gibbons, Catherine K. Kate R. Fitzpatrick, Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Michigan, argues that Chicago's system of local school control has resulted in a lack of funding for arts education. However, with some tweaking, the system of local school control could provide a compelling alternative for school systems. |
Positive Evidence for Arts Education Legislation By Gibbons, Catherine K. In his article "Music in U.S. Federal Education Policy: Estimating the Effect of 'Core Status' for Music," University of Maryland professor Kenneth Elpus reviews Goals 2000: Educate America Act, a piece of federal legislation passed in 1994 that declared the arts a core subject in American schools. |
Letter from the Editors By Farrell, Betty - Anderson, Will The Cultural Policy Center is pleased to present the first issue of a new online publication for the cultural sector. The Digest identifies important academic research that is often inaccessible, due to paywalls or jargon, and presents it in summary form for a broad audience of scholars, practitioners, and policymakers. |