Arts Policy Library

Every year, hundreds of research studies, books, evaluation reports, and other texts examining the impact of the arts on individuals and communities are published. In many instances, this literature is the product of an exhaustive investment of hundreds of hours of time and tens of thousands of dollars or more from foundations, universities, or the authors themselves. Yet if only a few dozen or hundred specialists ever actually end up reading the works from start to finish, what is the true impact? Most busy arts professionals, to say nothing of casual observers, don’t have time to make it all the way through even one of these documents, much less evaluate their methodology and put them into context with other research.

Enter the Createquity Arts Policy Library, which has two important goals: first, to bring greater attention to the important ongoing work in the field of arts research; and second, to synthesize (not just summarize) it for a lay audience.

To do this, each text is analyzed in three parts: first, a summary of what it says, boiled down into no more than a few paragraphs; second, an analysis of the strength of its arguments, looking at everything from statistical sampling methods to the relevance of the questions it seeks to answer; and finally, an attempt to deduce what new information the text gives us in light of the other work we’ve already read, picking out broad themes or trends that may be of interest.

You can view all posts in the Arts Policy Library series so far in the space below.

2/10/10: The Search for Shining Eyes (by Guy Yedwab)
Thomas Wolf, “The Search for Shining Eyes: Audiences, Leadership and Change in the Symphony Orchestra Field” (2006)

12/14/09: MASS MoCA and the Revitalization of North Adams (by Ian David Moss)
Stephen C. Sheppard, Kay Oehler, Blair Benjamin, and Ari Kessler, “Culture and Revitalization: The Economic Effects of MASS MoCA on its Community” (2006)
Oehler, Sheppard, and Benjamin, “Mill Town, Factory Town, Cultural Economic Engine: North Adams in Context” (2006)
Oehler, Sheppard, Benjamin, and Lily Li, “Shifting Sands in Changing Communities: The Neighborhoods, Social Services, and Cultural Organizations of North Adams, Massachusetts” (2006)
Oehler, Sheppard, Benjamin, and Laurence K. Dworkin, “Network Analysis and the Social Impact of Cultural Arts Organizations” (2007)

10/8/09: Breakthroughs in Shared Measurement (by Guy Yedwab)
Mark Kramer, Marcie Parkhurst, and Lalitha Vaidyanathan, “Breakthroughs in Shared Measurement and Social Impact” (2009)
(See also: Response to Arts Policy Library: Breakthroughs in Shared Measurement)

9/23/09: Arts & Economic Prosperity III (by Ian David Moss)
Americans for the Arts, Arts & Economic Prosperity III (2007)
(See also: Arts & Economic Prosperity: Cliffs Notes version)

7/24/09: Gifts of the Muse (by Ian David Moss)
Kevin McCarthy, Elizabeth H. Ondaatje, Laura Zakaras, and Arthur Brooks, Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate About the Benefits of the Arts (2005)
(See also: Gifts of the Muse: the Cliffs Notes version, Further Thoughts about Gifts of the Muse)

5/11/09: Reconstructing Florida (by Ian David Moss)
Gerard Marlet and Clemens van Woerkens, “Skills and Creativity in a Cross-section of Dutch Cities” (2004)
Marlet and van Woerkens, “Tolerance, Aesthetics, Amenities or Jobs? Dutch City Attraction to the Creative Class” (2005)
Richard Florida, Charlotta Mellander, and Kevin Stolarick, “Inside the Black Box of Regional Development” (2008)

4/27/09: Deconstructing Richard Florida (by Ian David Moss)
Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community, and Everyday Life (2002)
(See also: Richard Florida Responds)

For further reading ideas and related essays, check out Public Policy and the Arts: Syllabus and Summary from Ian’s spring 2009 independent study at the Yale School of Management.