Humanities and the Arts

Report

Assessing Policies to Curtail the Illegal Trade in Cultural Property

Despite a range of legislative and policy interventions, the trade in illicit art and antiquities continues to flourish, resulting in damage to the arts, scholarship, and heritage. RAND Europe explored new ways of curtailing the illegal trade in cultural property.

Journal Article

Art Sales as Cultural Intelligence: Analysis of the Auction Market for African Tribal Art

This paper examines auction sales of African tribal art for the continent as a whole and by individual nations of origin.

Journal Article

Collecting Cultural Intelligence: The Tactical Value of Cultural Property

This paper defines a framework for the collection of cultural intelligence as a fundamental asset in countering threats to cultural security.

Report

Arts and Humanities Research Provides Wide-Ranging Impacts

The University of Cambridge's arts and humanities research provides many societal benefits, including impacts on academics, policy, and practice. RAND Europe assessed and documented these impacts, which also include the preservation of buildings, languages, and literature.

Commentary

Fighting Terror the Cold War Way

With much talk about how to “win hearts and minds” in the Muslim world, it's surprising that few are looking back to a global contest of ideas that the U.S. and its allies categorically won: the Cold War, write Todd C. Helmus and Dalia Dassa Kaye.

Commentary

The Great Silencing: Intolerance and Censorship in the Arab World

Report

Barriers to the Broad Dissemination of Creative Works in the Arab World

Many analysts have examined the media that violent extremists use to communicate their core messages. Far less research, however, has been devoted to the growing body of creative works produced by Arab authors and artists that counter the intellectual and ideological underpinnings of violent extremism.

Brochure

Arts Brochure

This downloadable brochure features RAND research on the arts, with links to each of the publications on the RAND web site.

News Release

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Should Explore Other Funding Sources, Right-Size Programs

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh needs to explore new ways to secure adequate and stable funding, engage patrons and other stakeholders, and evaluate what services it offers.

Commentary

In Iraq, a Different Kind of Drama Stages a Message of Reconciliation

While female suicide bombers in Iraq have been getting all the headlines, a very different cadre of women has emerged on the scene with the opposite goal of forging peace and paving over the sectarian differences. Above all, these activists want to take back the streets and neighborhoods of their country, write Edward O'Connell and Cheryl Benard.

Research Brief

Emerging Trends in State Arts Policy

This research brief describes an effort carried out to describe and understand the strategies being used by innovative state arts agencies to deal with today's financial and political realities.

Report

Trends and Future Prospects for the Arts Predict Changing Role for State Agencies

State arts agencies — key players within the U.S. system of public support for the arts — face a wide varitey of challenges to their typical roles as grantmakers. The author concludes that future state arts policy is likely to focus more on efforts to develop the creative economy and to grow the audience for the arts.

News Release

Improving Arts Education Is Key to Stemming Audience Decline

Policymakers have underestimated the critical role of arts learning in supporting a vibrant nonprofit cultural sector. Despite decades of effort to make high-quality works of art available to Americans, demand for the arts has failed to keep pace with supply.

Report

Vital Communities: Review and analysis of the research

Presents RAND Europe's analysis of data generated by the Vital Communities programme between October 2005 and August 2007.

News Release

Creative Collaborative Approaches Work to Maintain, Extend Arts Education in Six U.S. Urban Areas

Amid cutbacks in school arts education funding, public and private organizations in six urban regions have collaborated to expand access to arts learning for children in and outside of public school.

Report

Improving Arts Education Is Key To Stemming Audience Decline

Policymakers have underestimated the critical role of arts learning in supporting a vibrant nonprofit cultural sector. Despite decades of effort to make high-quality works of art available to Americans, demand for the arts has failed to keep pace with supply.

Research Brief

How to Cultivate Demand for the Arts

This research brief summarizes a study about what it means to cultivate demand for the arts, why it is important to do so, the role of arts learning in this effort, and arts and education policy changes needed to build future arts audiences.

Commentary

Danish Cartoons Doom Us All

Like two years ago, last week's rage in Pakistan over reprints of cartoons and a forthcoming Dutch film that insult Islam's holy book once again entangles Muslims and the West in a fury over freedom of speech, writes Farhana Ali.

Commentary

Finding Common Ground in an Uncommon Nation

Cheryl Benard and Ed O'Connell write about their time in Syria discovering creative outlets in media, such as how a director in a country known for defending terrorism could produce

Research Brief

Extending the Reach of Arts Education

This research brief describes efforts of six urban centers to expand access to arts education by developing collaborative networks among diverse organizations.