Deconstructing U.S. Arts Policy: A Dialectical Exposition of the Excellence-Access Debate

Summary

---

McNeely and Shockley examine the impact of the "excellence versus access debate" on arts policy in the US. They contend that "although political rhetoric might posit goals of diversity and democratization, access to the arts is held moot without attendant 'cultural capital' for meaningful participation and consumption."

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

Deconstructing U.S. Arts Policy: A Dialectical Exposition of the Excellence-Access Debate

DISCUSSIONS OF ARTS POLICY HAVE OFTEN TURNED ON TWO CENTRAL PRINCIPLES: excellence and access. These principles have typically been framed as opposing policy motivations, and a great deal of political debate over public support for the arts has concerned related goals as conflicting issues. This has been particularly true in the United States, where the very role and value of the arts have been questioned in an environment of increasing social and cultural commodification. In contrast to positions found in most other "developed" countries, public support for the arts in the U.S., as a policy issue in and of itself, has been fraught with controversy.1 In recent years, beyond reductions in support for the arts in the U.S., there have even been proposals to eliminate public arts support altogether-even though studies have shown that spending on arts programs produces considerable social and economic returns and that elimination of support for the arts is exceedingly shortsighted (Kinzer, 2003).

Although the excellence-access debate was not new, this binary framework took on special significance beginning with the eruption of the "culture wars" in 1989 and today represents the core of U.S. arts policy discussions. The excellence-access controversy reflects a politicization of the arts, blending complex questions of public patronage and cultural ideology (cf. Wyszomirski, 1995).2 For example, what are the expectations for the arts as part of the public sphere? What are the cultural and political implications of approaching the arts in terms of access as opposed to excellence, and vice versa? What are the implications of such thinking for the meaning of art and the artist today and for their role in society?

Furthermore, as policy issues, excellence and access can be framed as fundamental matters of democracy, with surrounding rhetoric invoking challenges and claims of freedom, rights, individualism, and participation. Related assertions require an understanding of the nature of the relationship between excellence and access as democratic principles and of political and economic power in determining possibilities for public support of the arts. In other words, who decides and determines excellence and access (and for whom), especially in a shifting political and economic climate? What are the related implications tied to who makes related policy ...

See the full content of this document

---