Moral Foundations of Public Funding for the Arts

Michael Rushton teaches in the Arts Administration program in the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, and is Co-Director of its Center for Cultural Affairs.​He is the author of Strategic Pricing for the Arts (2014) and the editor of Creative Communities: Art Works in Economic Development ( 2013), and has published articles on all aspects of cultural affairs, including copyright, freedom of expression, public funding of the arts, the role of nonprofit organizations, tax policy and the arts, authors’ legal rights, and the arts and local economic development, spanning a career in this subject area of twenty-five years.

• 1 Introduction.- 2 The Economic Method.- 3 Liberalism, Neutrality, and the Arts.- 4 Egalitarianism and Public Funding for the Arts.- 5 Communitarianism.- 6 Conservatism.- 7 Multiculturalism.- 8 Keynes’s Grandchildren.

“This should prove a useful book to its intended audience given its clear writing and line of development. In lieu of empirical illustration to drive home the points at hand, Rushton makes very effective use of personal anecdotes that help bring the subject to life. It should also be required reading for cultural economists.” (Samuel Cameron, Journal of Cultural Economics, Vol. 48 (3), 2024)“This convincing, original, and methodologically sound research will interest a wide audience, from medical sociologists and anthropologists, to public health professionals and students working on HIV/AIDS.” (Marlyse Debergh, Lova - Journal of Feminist Anthropology and Gender Studies, issue 44, December, 2023)