JONI M. CHERBO is an arts sociologist. She has coauthored American Participation in Opera and Musical Theater and Outside Art: Contesting Boundaries in Contemporary Culture. MARGARET J. WYSZOMIRSKI is director of the arts policy and administration program at the Ohio State University. She is coeditor and contributor to Arts, Ideology, and Politics and America's Commitment to Culture: Government and the Arts.

• IntroductionPart I. Exploring a Changing Landscape1. Mapping the Public Life of the Arts in America2. Toward an American Arts Industry3. Raison d'Etat, Raisons des Arts: Thinking About Public PurposesPart II. The Public and the Arts4. Public Involvement in the Arts5. American Public Opinion About the Arts and Culture: The Unceasing War with Philistia6. The Government and Cultural Patronage: A Comparative Analysis of Cultural Patronage in the United States, France, Norway, and CanadaPart III. Perspectives from Arts Subsectors7. The Career Matrix: The Pipeline for Artists in the United States8. Economics of the Nonprofit Arts: Structure, Scope, and Trends9. Flickering Images: The Business of HollywoodBibliographyBiographical NotesIndex

An important and unique contribution to the literature on the arts in America...one that will stand tall on the shelves for quite a few years to come. - Milton C. Cummings, Jr. (author of The Patron State: Government and the Arts in Europe, North America, an) The essays in this book address the ways in which the practice, perceptions, and expectations about the arts in America have changed. Virtually all of us realize we're inhabiting a different landscape now from that of the art world in the decades following World War II. But few of us in the art world have a clue about what it all means and, more important, where we're headed. The authors have brought a wealth of descriptive information together to enable readers to get a better grasp on what's happening....One of the collection's most notable strengths is that it brings the perspectives of economists, policy wonks, and systems analysts, perspectives that have too often been dismissed or neglected, to bear on questions that have suffered from ethereal or merely academic forms of traditional arts discourse....No one who writes grants or meets with the corporate and civic potentates who control purse strings and public spaces should proceed without [this book] close at hand. (New Art Examiner)