America's Cultural Capital focuses on four structural recommendations that are intended to improve federal policy making in the arts and culture.

Since the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) of 1966, the federal government has been mandated “to be a good steward in managing the historic resources under its administration.” A large number of federal agencies are responsible for multiple use public lands, national parks, and military installations. Together, they own thousands of archeological sites, historic structures, and millions of historic artifacts and documents that comprise U.S. history and culture. Lack of leadership and funding, along with conflicting priorities, hinder the agencies’ abilities to

Examines the moral, philosophical, and practical issues involved in government subsidy of the arts in the U.S.A. The author describes the Puritan skepticism about art in the U.S.A. and traces the history of subsidy of the arts by the federal government. He describes objections to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the government organization responsible for funding art in the U.S.A., and asserts that these objections are based on the idea that arts are ornamental to society, and that - to the extent that they receive taxpayers' support - artists should be held accountable to

This publication is an abbreviated history of the first 35 years of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the federal agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts throughout the country. It provides a timeline on how the NEA came into being and evolved, and highlights its achievements. This chronology updates earlier versions published on the 20th and 30th anniversaries of the NEA.

Everyone in the arts - producer or director, actor, musician, dancer, or singer; writer, painter, publisher; gallery or museum operator; architect or designer - worries about his or her performance and the collective performance of the organization with which he or she is associated. Therefore, how to measure that performance is not a trivial matter. Some might think that measuring success and failure in the arts would be particularly difficult, particularly problematic. I argue that measuring success and failure in everything is difficult. What is success? What is failure? What are the

This special supplement to both the National Campaign for Freedom of Expression Quarterly and the National Association of Artists' Organizations Bulletin presents reactions to the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 25, 1998 that the National Endowment for the Arts may consider decency in awarding arts grants. The supplement contains a timeline of the eight-year process which led up to the decision and includes brief articles by Ellen Yaroshefsky, Helen Brunner, Tim Miller and Holly Hughes.

Newspapers have been reporting on the surprising and lopsided 8-to-1 vote in NEA v. Finley rejecting a challenge by the arts community to Congressional standards requiring the National Endowment for the Arts to consider general standards of decency and respect for the diverse beliefs and values of the American public in making its funding decision. The inference is that the Court overwhelmingly sided with right wing forces trying to use content restrictions to limit the kind of art that NEA can fund.

On March 10, 1997, Alan K. Simpson served as the lecturer for the annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy presented at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. The Honorable Alan K. Simpson recently retired from the United States Senate, where he was a longtime leader in support of the arts. His outstanding commitment to our nation's cultural agencies extends beyond his role as a Senator to his civic contributions as a dedicated board member, devoted patron and valued advisor to the arts.

Over the past decade, we have been honored to hear from artists and academics, business leaders and policy makers on the subject of how our great nation can maintain and preserve a cultural identity through political, social and economic change. Individually, these distinguished speakers provide personal and professional perspectives which, collectively, inform, inspire and enrich us all. It is my hope that the lecture series compiled here serves as a resource and a reminder of the important role of culture in the lives of individuals, families, communities and in the life of our nation as

The folk and traditional arts field described in this study is enormously complex, encompassing the traditions of literally thousands of communities, but in another way it is quite simple to comprehend. Folk and traditional arts have the aura of authenticity about them: real art by real people who draw their inspiration, technique and aesthetics from traditions as old as the land, as old as home, as old as a family and community.