This chapter aims to provide context to the practice and study of Arts Management and Arts and Cultural policy making. It outlines some of the history of the subject and advances the proposition that all cases for support of the arts need to be developed by making fine distinctions between the nature of the arts and the context in which they are presented. The authors interrogate the distinction between the practice of the arts and the institutions which both support and house them. They discuss the frameworks and policies which governments put in place, examining some of the institutional flaws exhibited by the present arrangements in state apparatus. They remind the reader of the importance of understanding not only artistic work and the management and support of this but also those for which it is intended: the audience. The chapter also discusses the ways in which education in the subject has evolved and ways in which might be developed.