Arts, Inc.: How Greed and Neglect Have Destroyed Our Cultural Rights | 
| Author: Bill Ivey
Publisher: University of California Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 24866
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.2
ISBN: 0520241126
Dewey Decimal Number: 700.10309073
EAN: 9780520241121
ASIN: 0520241126
Publication Date: May 10, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. 100% money back guarantee. All books shipped from Strand Bookstore, New York City, USA.
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Product Description
In this impassioned and persuasive book, Bill Ivey, the former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, assesses the current state of the arts in America and finds cause for alarm. Even as he celebrates our ever-emerging culture and the way it enriches our lives here at home while spreading the dream of democracy around the world, he points to a looming crisis. The expanding footprint of copyright, an unconstrained arts industry marketplace, and a government unwilling to engage culture as a serious arena for public policy have come together to undermine art, artistry, and cultural heritage--the expressive life of America. In eight succinct chapters, Ivey blends personal and professional memoir, policy analysis, and deeply held convictions to explore and define a coordinated vision for art, culture, and expression in American life.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Arts in America July 13, 2008
Arts, Inc. is a very good book and probably the only one out there that explores the position of the arts--fine, popular, folk, commercial, and non-profit--in the United States. Whether one agrees with Bill Ivey's framing of the American arts scene in terms of "rights" or not, the book raises a set of issues that need to be discussed by citizens as well as members of government (who never seem to engage the arts seriously except when it comes to playing football with the NEA). Each right really focuses on a separate issue, and while there is inevitably some overlap between them, the book is not one idea endlessly repeated. The book reads extremely well and is filled with a good number of compelling examples of why the arts are in peril in the United States today. What is perhaps fundamental in Ivey's take on the arts is that they have a great potential to enhance the quality of life of ordinary Americans--both as art producers and consumers--and this potential is squandered because the arts have been totally left to market forces without any consideration of their relevance to the well being of the nation and its citizenry.
 Should the Government Regulate Art? April 25, 2008
9 out of 15 found this review helpful
In March I attended the Symposium called "The Importance and Value of Art in Health Care". One of the best speakers was Bill Ivey. Since he was such a good speaker I figured he would be a good writer so I ordered the book he just wrote : Arts, Inc.: How Greed and Neglect Have Destroyed Our Cultural Rights
Conclusion: I disagree with his argument that the government needs to do more to protect the Arts. The book is well written and interesting to read, but I just don't agree with the premise.
The crux of his argument is that he arts need the advocacy of government to protect us from the greed of big business. I just can't accept that. The digital era is starting to liberate artists from being dependent on big business.
Most artists these days have websites to reach the public directly. They don't need the government for that.
Artists now have the tools to produce their own finished product without having to rely on a big studio. Musicians can record and distribute their own CDs. Digital tools (cameras, printers, high-speed Internet) have allowed me to run a thriving art business in a remote rural area.
I would argue that the Arts in America are stronger now than they have ever been. One reason for that is that our government for the most part stays out of the way. If we want to ensure that the Arts in America continues to thrive we just need to be sure the government does nothing other than assure artistic freedom.
Note: when I first wrote this review I gave it two-stars, but that is not fair. The writing is clear, the argument is interesting. Just because I don't agree does not justify such a low rating. I would like to raise this to 4-stars. I tried to revise the post can couldn't.
A whole new arena of public policy, defined April 17, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
It's amazing that we've made it all the way into the 21st century without anyone attempting to write about the condition of the entire U.S. arts system and how it connects - or doesn't connect - with the public interest. But Bill Ivey has done it in Arts, Inc., a comprehensive and very readable look at how market forces and an inattentive government have allowed our culture to drift away from public purposes. Ivey is convinced that we can enhance quality of life for all Americans if we assert his six "cultural rights," and I tend to agree. Although I wish the author had spent more time on specific art forms like theater and the art gallery scene, Arts, Inc. includes plenty of eye-popping examples of how we've got things wrong. The book defines a whole new arena for public policy and goes beyond complaining about what we haven't done with art and art making to paint a picture of how a vibrant cultural life can give the U.S. a high quality of life in the coming post-consumerist age.
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