Campus Art Museums in the 21st Century: A Conversation

In the summer of 2012, the authors of this study brought together a group of campus art museum directors and outside experts to 'think out loud' about the changes already occurring at campus museums and where new opportunities and roles may be emerging. We hope the resulting paper will further the field's larger, continuing exploration of its roles and potentials through dialogue, research, and experimentation -- an exploration that contributes to the continued healthy evolution of campus art museum practice

Los Angeles County Arts Commission: Public Engagement in the Arts - A Review of Recent Literature

Do all Americans have equal access to the arts? Are the arts accessible and inclusive for all communities? National rates of arts participation as measured by attendance at live benchmark events have been trending down for the past few decades. Consequently, a narrative of arts decline in the US has been largely accepted, even as some accounts show cultural engagement experiencing a renaissance enabled by advanced communication technologies and changing demographics.This report, informed by a review of practitioner and academic literature, charts the concerns of arts stakeholders surrounding public arts engagement since about 2000, beginning with the discovery of a statistically significant decline in benchmark attendance as observed in the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA). It also traces the role of the "informal arts" (folk, traditional and avocational arts) in broadening the definition of arts and cultural participation.Authors Henry Jenkins and Vanessa Bertossi (2007) have suggested that we are living in a "new participatory culture" distinguished by four factors:1. Low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement;2. Strong support for creating and sharing what one creates with others;3. Transmission of knowledge and skills through informal mentorship networks; and4. A degree of social currency and sense of connectedness among participantsThis new culture makes measuring arts participation more difficult because traditional distinctions between amateur and professional, hobbyist and artist, and consumer and producer are blurring. Broadening the definition of arts participation to include leisure time investment in creative pursuits and arts-making helps enlarge the definition of art's value to society (Ramirez, 2000). Expanding our sense of "what counts" initiates new conversations by reframing the old question "Why aren't people attending?" as "What are people doing with their creativity-focused leisure time?" New cultural indicators are revealing the value of arts and culture in people's everyday lives, shifting the narrative about arts participation in the early twenty-first century from decline to resurgence.Even as both the concept and measurement of "engagement" in the arts has evolved over time, the understanding of the purpose of that engagement has varied. For some organizations, engagement has meant creating new inroads to existing programming. For others, engagement has meant developing new programs to capture the attention of new audiences. In 2015, this conversation took a new direction as people moved from talking about engagement as a process to focusing instead on a key outcome: cultural equity and inclusion. In Los Angeles County, as well as across the U.S., arts organizations began to focustheir attention on ensuring that everyone has access to the benefits offered by the arts. Viewed through this lens, this literature review should be seen as a companion – a prequel, even – to the literature review on cultural equity and inclusion published by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission in March 2016

Public Engagement in the Arts: A Review of Recent Literature

In recent years, research has found that across the US, arts audiences are declining while arts participation is on the rise. How can both be true at the same time? This literature review on Public Engagement in the Arts that explores this question. It also delves intothe different ways in which "public engagement" can be defined and practiced,the purposes public engagement has been used for in the arts, andhow the terms "audience" and "participant" have evolved and blurred over time.This literature review also places public engagement in the context of one of the most urgent conversations taking place in the arts and culture field today, that of cultural equity and inclusion. How can we ensure that everyone in our community has access to the opportunities and benefits provided by the arts? As this review discusses, public engagement is one tool available to artists, arts organizations and arts educators to help them work toward that goal

Molecular Gastronomy: A Food Fad or an Interface for Science-based Cooking?

A review is given over the field of molecular gastronomy and its relation to science and cooking. We begin with a brief history of the field of molecular gastronomy, the definition of the term itself, and the current controversy surrounding this term. We then highlight the distinction between molecular gastronomy and science-based cooking, and we discuss both the similarities and the distinctions between science and cooking. In particular, we highlight the fact that the kitchen serves as an ideal place to foster interactions between scientists and chefs that lead to benefits for the general public in the form of novel and high-quality foods. On the one hand, it can facilitate the implementation of new ideas and recipes in restaurants. On the other hand, it challenges scientists to apply their fundamental scientific understanding to the complexities of cooking, and it challenges them to expand the scientific understanding of many chemical and physical mechanisms beyond the common mass-produced food products. In addition, molecular gastronomy forms an ideal base to educate the general public about the basic principles of science and cooking and how they can be utilized to improve the awareness of the role of food and nutrition for the quality of life

Culture and Urban Revitalization: A Harvest Document

Advocates have long argued that the economic benefits of the arts and culture provide a firm rationale for public support. Recent scholarship on the "creative class" and "creative economy" is simply the latest effort to link cultural expression to community prosperity. In contrast, the social benefits of cultural engagement have received relatively little attention, even though -- as we shall see -- they provide a stronger case.We need to avoid a simplistic either-or choice between the economic and social impacts of the arts. People who live in our cities, suburbs, and countryside are simultaneously consumers, workers, residents, citizens, and participants. Culture's role in promoting community capacity and civic engagement is central to its potential for generating vital cultural districts. To separate the economic and the social impacts of the arts makes each more difficult to understand.This document provides an overview of the state-of-the-art literature on culture and urban revitalization. In Part 2, we place the creative sector in contemporary context with a discussion of three social dynamics. The "new urban reality" has restructured our cities by increasing social diversity -- fueled by new residential patterns, the emergence of young adult districts, and immigration; expanding economic inequality; and changing urban form. Shifts in the economic and political environment have changed the structure of the creative sector. Finally, the changing balance of government, nonprofit, and for-profit institutions in social policy development -- the shift to transactional policymaking -- has profound implications for cultural policy and the creative sector broadly defined. These three forces -- the new urban reality, the changing structure of the creative sector, and the emergence of transactional policy-making -- define the context within which culture-based revitalization takes place

Los Angeles Unified School District Arts Education and Creative Cultural Network Plan

This paper describes the 2012-2017 plan for funding arts education in the Los Angeles Unified School District. This mission for this project is as follows: The Visual and Performing Arts are an integral part of the District's comprehensive curriculum and are essential for learning in the 21st century. All LAUSD students, from every culture and socioeconomic level, deserve quality arts learning in dance, music, theatre, and visual arts as part of the core curriculum

Theorising and practitioners in HRD: the role of abductive reasoning

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to argue that abductive reasoning is a typical but usually unrecognised process used by HRD scholars and practitioners alike. Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual paper that explores recent criticism of traditional views of theory-building, based on the privileging of scientific theorising, which has led to a relevance gap between scholars and practitioners. The work of Charles Sanders Peirce and the varieties of an abductive reasoning process are considered. Findings – Abductive reasoning, which precedes induction and deduction, provide a potential connection with HRD practitioners who face difficult problems. Two types of abductive reasoning are explored – existential and analogic. Both offer possibilities for theorising with HRD practitioners. A range of methods for allowing abduction to become more evident with practitioners are presented. The authors consider how abduction can be used in engaged and participative research strategies. Research limitations/implications – While this is a conceptual paper, it does suggest implications for engagement and participation in theorising with HRD practitioners. Practical implications – Abductive reasoning adds to the repertoire of HRD scholars and practitioners. Originality/value – The paper elucidates the value of abductive reasoning and points to how it can become an integral element of theory building in HRD

Generative sound art as poeitic poetry for an information society

This paper considers computer music in relation to broader society and asks what algorithmic composition can learn from the metaphysical shift which is happening in the so-called information societies. This is explored by taking the mapping problem inherent in the use of extra- musical models in generative composition and presenting a simple generative schema which prioritises sound, ex- ploiting the generative potential of digital audio. It is sug- gested that the exploration of such models has more than aesthetic relevance and that the interdisciplinary nature of digital sound art represents a microcosm of an emerging reality, thereby constituting a poietic playground for com- ing to terms with the implications and challenges of the information age

New creative careers: the problems of progression and uncertainty

This chapter presents findings from research which we conducted with participants who were current and former art college students, practitioners in different areas of creative arts and design, and therefore workers in a relatively newly named part of the economy, the ‘creative industries’. Originally identified by New Labour as a significantly successful new sector, they have subsequently received considerable attention from policy-makers and also academic commentators, in the UK and elsewhere. The list of creative industries cited by New Labour (DCMS 2001) also corresponds closely to the subject areas and activities of many art college courses, indicating how these institutions function as a vocational training ground and entry point for the creative industries. In this chapter, we discuss special issues which our research raised in relation to creative working; the implications of our research findings for vocational learners themselves and for course providers, teachers and institutions; sources of advantage and disadvantage for learners, as indicated by our research, and some further implications for those aiming to assist and expand lifelong learning opportunities