ABSTRACT

Who funds creative and cultural projects, and why? This insightful book analyses how the arts have been funded in a variety of political environments, helping readers understand how politics and economics intersect to support cultural life.

Employing the UK Arts Council as an historical case study, the author explores the politics of arts funding and how artists and audiences adapt their behaviour around evolving incentives. In focusing on how arts funding has worked in practice, the book allows readers to develop their understanding of economics principles in the cultural sector.

With a balance between historical and contemporary themes, the book provides fundamental insights into cultural economics and policy. As such it is required reading for students and practitioners who want to know how arts funding professionals make decisions.

chapter Chapter 1|14 pages

What to expect from this book

part 1|86 pages

Funding Fundamentals

chapter Chapter 2|16 pages

The lost half-century

What happened to cultural democracy?

chapter Chapter 3|8 pages

Funding

What it means in the context of this book

chapter Chapter 5|39 pages

On cultural economics

Time, money and the value of the arts

part 2|92 pages

A Framework for Funding

chapter Chapter 6|16 pages

The art of the possible

chapter Chapter 7|16 pages

New economies

chapter Chapter 8|17 pages

Old stable economies

chapter Chapter 9|18 pages

Declining economies

chapter Chapter 10|23 pages

Command economies

part 3|46 pages

Funding Failures

chapter Chapter 11|18 pages

Grants for individual artists

On false hope and the false promise of “open access” funding programmes

chapter Chapter 12|26 pages

The grant–exchange continuum

Rent-seeking, proxy purchase and the payment of reparations

part 4|38 pages

Funding Futures

chapter Chapter 13|26 pages

The direction of public policy

chapter |10 pages

Collected chapter abstracts