Grant Makers Should Support the Arts for Their Intrinsic Benefits, Report Says

Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate About the Benefits of the Arts, edited by Kevin F. McCarthy, Elizabeth H. Ondaatje, Laura Zakaras, and Albert Brooks, provides a new rationale for foundation and government support of the arts. The report says that policy debates in recent years have focused too often on potential social and economic benefits, such as the improved academic performance of children who take art classes, and job opportunities created by the arts. But those arguments may lack specific evidence and are sometimes based on poor methodology, this report argues. It says that, instead, the arts and culture deserve support because of the contributions they make to the public and private lives of individuals. People derive pleasure from artistic activities, the report says, while the public at large gains from the social bonds created through viewing art and the artistic expression of communal values. The report, commissioned by the Wallace Foundation, offers recommendations for increasing access to the arts based on such a rationale.

Publisher: RAND Corporation, 1776 Main Street, P.O. Box 2138, Santa Monica, Calif. 90407-2138; (310) 451-7002; fax (310) 451-6915; order@rand.org; http://www.rand.org; 104 pages; $20.