ABSTRACT
Cultural policy has played an important role in advancing the professional status of the arts and of artists in the United States since the 1960s. There is a little analysis, however, of how the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) used a variety of policy tools to influence the development of key indicators of professionalization. Using the concept of “explicit administrative classifications” of the arts, this chapter traces how the professionalization of creative sector occupations and organizations has been socially constructed through the policies, procedures, and programs of the NEA. Particular attention is paid to how arts policy tools were used to validate the professional value of the arts and develop the infrastructure of professionalism throughout the nonprofit arts sector. Primary policy tools include grantmaking to expand the structuration and infrastructure of nonprofit art fields, the peer panel system, expanding the network of professional associations, cultivating direct service providers for types of arts organizations, and other mechanisms to support the career development of artists. An extensive collection of public documents has traced these forces for professionalization across three formative decades of the growth of the nonprofit arts and professions in the United States.
