Bill Ivey: America's Arts Need An Attitude Adjustment

Bill Ivey, a former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (1998-2001) and now director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University, at first seems to position himself clearly in his essay "America Needs a New System for Supporting the Arts," published in February in The Chronicle of Higher Education. He seems to say, in essence, that the problem of underfunded nonprofit organizations, such as theatres, cannot be solved by hoping for new donors or by making new, stronger arguments for government appropriations.

But as Ivey reveals in a Back Stage interview, he is clearly saying something greater—something potentially controversial. If every leader of an arts organization, he asks, "is basically engaged in the same juggling act, simultaneously pursuing artistry, financial success, and some sense of the public interest," then why do arts advocates fret mostly over nonprofits and the problem of money being so hard to come by? Are the arts in America comprised only of nonprofits? What can nonprofit and commercial business models learn from each other? Isn't it time to find out?

"If I had titled it," Ivey says, "I would have called it 'It's Time for America to Reassess Its Approach to Intervening in the Cultural System,' and I use the word 'intervene' rather than 'fund' because I don't know that all questions involving the vitality of America's cultural landscape are all about money."

In fact, he says, the problems of the arts in America are not all money-related. "In the past," he says, "there has been an automatic assumption that if an organization is small that it is less excellent. This allows those who care about culture to use an institution's size as shorthand for quality. I think there's also a point at which, given the array of possible destinations for philanthropy or public money, you bump up against the maximum level of sympathy and support your sector can generate. When institutions compete for limited resources, you end up scaling back operations to ensure survival, which makes it hard to create or be adventurous."

He is especially worried that as fiscal pressures on the arts have grabbed most of the headlines in recent years, signal events on the political and legislative fronts have remained relatively underexplored by the arts community. In his essay, he notes how "the 1996 Telecommunications Act laid the groundwork for the consolidation of radio stations" and how "the Digital Millennium Copyright Act toughened criminal penalties on unauthorized duplication of recordings, films, and software code, and extended the penalties' reach into the homes of average citizens." Both measures, Ivey fears, may undermine the ability of artists and arts organizations to foster creativity.

He also states in his essay that he has been