January 20, 2005 | Read Time: 1 minute
Cultural Democracy: The Arts, Community and the Public Purpose
by James Bau Graves
Cultural vitality is being eroded in the United States by the pressures of the marketplace and the oversized influence of wealthy people whose tastes do not reflect those of the larger public, writes James Bau Graves. His corrective is “cultural democracy” — the embrace of local cultures, grass-roots participation in the arts, and the celebration of cultural diversity.
Mr. Graves draws on his experience as director of the Center for Cultural Exchange, in Portland, Maine, to discuss how nonprofit organizations and grant makers can play a critical role in reinvigorating American cultural life. He recommends that foundations lend more support to ethnic communities and local artistic projects. Grant makers should also consider providing longer-term support to help amateur artists who may not be skilled in grant seeking, he says.
Local artists and community leaders should also be given a larger role in shaping the programs that benefit them, Mr. Graves writes. Arts administrators and foundation leaders need to cede some of their authority, and begin to place the interests of those they serve — rather than their own — at the center of the programs they oversee. They must also encourage communications between community members and those underwriting grants, a role that can be difficult for someone whose training is “more likely to be in Renaissance painting or Bartok’s string quartets than in conflict resolution,” writes Mr. Graves.
Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 1325 South Oak Street, Champaign, Ill. 61820; fax (217) 244-8082; http://www.press.uillinois.edu; 256 pages; $45 cloth, $20 paper; ISBN 0-252-07208-1.
