The Performing Arts And The Public Purse

This Handbook offers a multiform sweep of theoretical, historical, practical and personal glimpses into a landscape roughly characterised as contemporary Irish theatre and performance. Bringing together a spectrum of voices and sensibilities in each of its four sections — Histories, Close-ups, Interfaces, and Reflections — it casts its gaze back across the past sixty years or so to recall, analyse, and assess the recent legacy of theatre and performance on this island. While offering information, overviews and reflections of current thought across its chapters, this book will serve most handily as food for thought and a springboard for curiosity. Offering something different in its mix of themes and perspectives, so that previously unexamined surfaces might come to light individually and in conjunction with other essays, it is a wide-ranging and indispensable resource in Irish theatre studies.

First published in 1998, this volume considers the subject of arts policy as a subject of public policy making proper in UK and Ireland, with a particular focus on theatre as a profession rather than a mere hobby. Previous studies have placed the burden of policy improvements on the arts themselves, looking at what ‘the arts’ can do to be worthy of government funding and favourable policy, and have seen government actions as if they have a uniform effect. This study takes ‘the arts’ out of the abstract and discusses specific ways that diverse activities with even more diverse needs can be best approached with government policy, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of government initiatives. It is aimed at both political scientists and anyone with an interest in arts and cultural policy.

Arts management is no longer a resting place for enthusiastic amateurs or artists with insufficient talent to make the big time. Rather, it is increasingly being recognised as a profession with a set of skills which need to be learnt. Arts Management is a comprehensive handbook for arts administrators working in all art forms and in organisations ranging from small community co-operatives to large national flagships. With extensive Australian case studies, it covers cultural policy, fundraising, legal issues, marketing and public relations, managing people and money and event management. Arts Management is an essential reference for practising arts administrators and students.

Using the economic perspective, this exciting text offers an alternative view to sociological or art historic approaches to art. The issues discussed include: institutions from festivals to "superstar" museums, different means of supporting the arts, an investigation into art as an investment, and the various approaches applied when valuing our cultural properties. This text challenges widely held popular views and, once started, is difficult to put down.

Cultural economics as a field of research involves two areas, culture and economy. These two areas have been traditionally regarded as each other's antithesis. However, the economic aspects of culture have increasingly become a matter of everyday reality for persons working in the cultural field. The economy of culture has always been in the focus of political interest. Political decisions concerning such priority areas as the development of regional institutions, support to the artists and cultural programmes for children and youth have important economic implications. This book deals with a range of topics in cultural economics. It contains original papers by economists workingin the field from 15 different countries and covers a host of both theoretical and practical issues, covering the performing arts, arts marketsand museums. It represents an up-to-date statement of the application of economic ideas to cultural questions.