Introduction: Performing Policy

Abstract

Performing Policy demonstrates how a movement in arts and cultural policy begun in the 1990s redefined US artists’ roles in American society and enhanced their prospects for the twenty-first century. What I am labeling a movement can be traced to a vast and still-growing archive of “gray literature,” the policy position papers (aka “white papers”) and scholarly monographs on arts and cultural policy and planning that began appearing in the late 1990s. These documents and the meetings from which they emerged countered the claims of a culture war that dominated the last decade of the twentieth century. Upon the publication of these reports, a number of arts initiatives soon followed. Artist-focused foundations and programs emerged to support artists’ capacity to contribute to vibrant cultural communities. Their progress was charted by their metrics, the “findings” that contributed to more innovations, additional studies, and programmatic evaluations.