RAND REPORT SPARKS CONTROVERSY
“Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate About the Benefits of the Arts,” a new Rand study, proposes that “advocates become less fixated on what the arts can do for business growth and kids’ math and reading scores, and stress intangibles such as enchantment, enlightenment and community-building,” according to Mike Boehm in the L.A. Times (2/16/05). “Trumpeting the most quantifiable and utilitarian benefits doesn’t address the biggest long-term challenge facing arts organizations: cultivating an arts-savvy public that wants what museums and performing groups offer.” Told you so, says cultural critic Arlene Goldbard (her blog, 2/17/05). “Leaning so hard on art’s secondary effects implied that the argument from its primary purposes had been definitively lost, and this inadvertently lent aid and comfort to the opposition.”
http://www.freenewmexican.com/artsfeatures/10595.html
http://arlenegoldbard.com/blog/archives/archive-022005.shtml