Advocacy and State Cultural Policy



May 6, 2002 - 12:00pm to 3:00pm

The University of Chicago Gleacher Center, 450 North Cityfront Plaza Drive

Jonathan Katz, CEO, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies

In dialogue with Lawrence Rothfield, Associate Professor of English, Faculty Director, Cultural Policy Center, the University of Chicago

State government support has been for some time an increasingly important revenue stream for the arts, culture, and the humanities in the United States. Advocacy at the state level for the arts has been a particularly marked success, reflected in budget allocations surpassing the growth rate of state government overall. What is the infrastructure for advocacy at the state level? What works best and what are future challenges? What lessons learned from state-level culture advocacy apply to other levels of public sector advocacy and to increasing resources for cultural activities in general? Dr. Katz and Professor Rothfield will discuss these issues in light of the CPC grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts to carry out an initial study of the cultural policy network in the state of Washington.

Read a transcript of Katz's presentation.