RAND > Reports & Bookstore > Monographs > MG-218

HomeGo to RAND HomeReports and Book Store Popular publications at 40% off AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Document Information

Gifts of the Muse

Reframing the Debate About the Benefits of the Arts

Cover: Gifts of the Muse

By: Kevin F. McCarthy, Elizabeth Heneghan Ondaatje, Laura Zakaras, Arthur Brooks

Faced with intense competition for audiences and financial support, as well as adverse political fallout from the “culture wars” of the early 1990s, arts advocates have increasingly sought to make a case for the arts in terms of their instrumental benefits to individuals and communities. In this report documenting the most comprehensive study of its kind, the authors evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of these instrumental arguments and make the case that a new approach to understanding the benefits of the arts is needed. Critical of what they view as an overemphasis on instrumental benefits, the authors call for a greater recognition of the intrinsic benefits of the arts experience, provide a more comprehensive framework for assessing the private and public value of both intrinsic and instrumental benefits, and link the realization of those benefits to the nature of arts involvement. In particular, they underscore the importance of sustained involvement in the arts to the achievement of both instrumental and intrinsic benefits. This study has important policy implications for access to the arts, childhood exposure to the arts, arts advocacy, and future research on the arts.

See Also:

Support RAND Research — Buy This Product!

Paperback Cover Price: $20.00

Discounted Web Price: $18.00

Pages: 124

ISBN/EAN: 0-8330-3694-7

Free, downloadable PDF file(s) are available below.

Download PDF Full Document

(File size 0.7 MB, 3 minutes modem, < 1 minute broadband)

Download PDF Summary Only

(File size 0.2 MB, < 1 minute modem, < 1 minute broadband)

RAND makes an electronic version of this document available for free as a public service. If you find this information valuable, please consider purchasing a paper copy of the full document to help support RAND research.

Use Adobe Acrobat Reader version 7.0 or higher for the best experience.

Contents

Chapter One:
Introduction

Chapter Two:
Instrumental Benefits: What Research Tells Us – And What It Does Not

Chapter Three:
Instrumental Benefits: Getting More Specific

Chapter Four:
Intrinsic Benefits: The Missing Link

Chapter Five:
The Process of Arts Participation: How It Relates to Benefits

Chapter Six:
Conclusions and Implications

Appendix:
Review of the Theoretical Research

The research in this report was commissioned by The Wallace Foundation and was conducted within RAND Enterprise Analysis.

This product is part of the RAND Corporation monograph series. RAND monographs present major research findings that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors. All RAND monographs undergo rigorous peer review to ensure high standards for research quality and objectivity.

Permission is given to duplicate this electronic document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Copies may not be duplicated for commercial purposes. Unauthorized posting of RAND PDFs to a non-RAND Web site is prohibited. RAND PDFs are protected under copyright law. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit the RAND Permissions page.

The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization providing objective analysis and effective solutions that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.

* RAND research is conducted across divisions, centers, and projects; these organizational components are represented in the "Related RAND Divisions" section above.

Stay Informed Subscribe to RSS Feeds Search RAND Publications View Cart