ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on institutions that distribute “high” culture via public, or quasipublic, mechanisms. High culture includes the fine arts, such as classical and contemporary visual arts, opera, classical music, and theatre. I discuss art museums, symphony orchestras, and opera, drama, and dance companies. These organizations comprise the “supported arts sector” as they are reliant, to some degree, on public (governmental) funding for their continued operations. After noting the difficulties inherent in the concept of high culture, I discuss the
organizational forms used to distribute high culture, which include nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations, and government agencies. I then look at the public funding of fine-arts institutions and consider several issues facing these organizations. These include the conflict among (internal) missions and the effects of various external pressures. The chapter concludes with a discussion of topics which may be fruitful in the continuing study of public institutions of high culture.
