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"Performing Policy explains how a movement in cultural policy that began in the 1990s redefined US artists' roles in society and enhanced their prospects for the twenty-first century. In the first years of the century, a series of landmark reports appeared, significantly expanding the nation's understanding of the relevance of arts to everyday life. Broadly, these reports covered issues of changing tastes and consumption habits, the relevance of culture to economic and social stability in communities, and the challenges facing artists and arts organizations in the new economy. Their publication coincided with a number of national initiatives that proposed and modelled new methods of artistic practice and sustainability. Analyzing the political origins and practical applications of recent advancements in arts policy, this book demonstrates how the redefining of artists took place and to what ends. At the same time, Performing Policy proposes a new definition through which artists might be productively acknowledged as co-creators of the nation's arts infrastructure"--
List of contents
Prologue Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: Performing Policy 2. A Politic of Purpose: 'The Arts and the Public Purpose' (1997) 3. New Work Now!: The Austin News Theatre Community (2013) 4. Accounting for Capital: The Creative Capital Foundation (1999) 5. A Survey Course: Teaching Artists and/as Producers 6. Linking Creative Investments: Investing in Creativity (2003 and Leveraging Investments in Creativity (2003-2013) 7. Proposing Place: 'Creative Placemaking' (2010-2014) 8. Conclusion: Power and Capital Bibliography Index
Report
"The volume is a welcome intervention that tracks the complex interdependencies of artistic practice and the infrastructures of its support: public, economic, and social. Most convincingly, the book serves as a vital call to arms for working artists to hone their own infrastructural imaginations and to reimagine their capacities for collaboratively performing policy ... ." (Brandon Woolf, TDR: The Drama Review, Vol. 61 (2), 2017)
"Bonin-Rodriguez's Performing Policy carries the reader through two decades of innovative responses to the 1990s culture wars. ... The book offers something for just about everyone concerned with contemporary arts practice and policy. ... Performing Policy is a unique, precocious, creative, bold, and meticulously researched contribution to our understanding of upheavals and innovation over two decades of American arts and culture." (Ann Markusen, The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society, Vol. 45 (4), November, 2015)
