Arts, Inc.: How Greed and Neglect Have Destroyed Our Cultural Rights

"Bill Ivey has written a thoughtful and thought-provoking book on the state of the arts in America today. He tracks our loss of heritage and risk-taking and comments cogently on the past culture wars. His discussion of the corporate hijacking of intellectual property is highly articulate and should be read by everyone."--Jane Alexander

"You don't have to agree with all his conclusions to recognize that Bill Ivey's Arts, Inc. is an important book. It's a must-read for all those interested in American art and culture and the public interest in preserving access to our heritage for everyone, and as it contributes to the arts of today and tomorrow."--Frank Hodsoll

"Arts, Inc. is the first comprehensive effort to explore the role and potential of a coordinated vision for art, culture, and expression in American public life. Through strands of personal and professional memoir, policy analysis, for-profit and nonprofit industry insights, and personal conviction, Bill Ivey defines a new canvas for more productive and inclusive conversations on the expressive life of our nation and its citizens."--Andrew Taylor, Bolz Center for Arts Administration, University of Wisconsin-Madison

"Very few observers of the contemporary U.S. and global arts worlds have Bill Ivey's capacity for first-hand examples of how trade representatives, artists, music executives, corporate attorneys, elected officials, non-profit executives and many other participants influence the course of the arts, and in particular, the public's access to the arts. Arts, Inc. is an important work because it asserts, in a very thoughtful and urgent manner, that Americans have a right to a better expressive life."--John Kreidler, retired Executive Director, Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley

"At a time when international polls show doubts about America, our art and culture are a crucial resource for our soft power. Bill Ivey does a wonderful job of explaining the importance of art as a public issue. "--Joseph S. Nye, Jr., author of Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics

"A profoundly important diagnosis by perhaps America's best-qualified critic of the harm to our culture caused by overregulation and inadequate support. Ivey has given us a rich and beautifully written warning about the culture we're losing, and a powerful and historically compelling image of a culture that could be."--Lawrence Lessig, Stanford Law School

"Walt Whitman was democracy's eloquent poet who understood that democracy is not just a form of government but a way of life rooted in culture. Bill Ivey is culture's eloquent advocate who knows that as democracy needs the arts, the arts need the advocacy of government. His manifesto Arts, Inc. is a passionate attack on the commercialization of culture and a plea for a cultural bill of rights that will restore to all Americans their right to a heritage, to creative expression and to a creative life. This is not just a vital book about the arts, but a vital book about democracy." --Benjamin R. Barber, author of Jihad vs. McWorld and Consumed.

"Chairman of the National Endowment of Arts from 1998 to 2001, Ivey brings an informed perspective to a growing chorus of alarm over 'big media, abetted by government, running roughshod over public interest.' An enthusiast for mainstream American culture and the vernacular performing arts (he directed the Country Music Foundation from 1971 to 1998), Ivey demonstrates how the promise of early 20th century mass media-when film, radio and TV produced an unprecedented mass audience and 'enabled America to discover its cultural mainstream'-is being stifled in the era of digital technology. A major mechanism for this is copyright law, which has become less a tool to protect creative enterprise than 'to protect certain industries against competition'; as corporations snap up the rights to works of art, ordinary citizens are losing easy access to their national heritage. Ivey's answer is an official U.S. Department of Cultural Affairs (as well as a 'Cultural Bill of Rights') committed to the idea that the arts are 'key to a high quality of life for all Americans.' With cogent consideration of the stakes for all involved, and some interesting glimpses behind the scenes at the NEA, Ivey has produced a comprehensive treatment of an important subject." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

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.

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 draws on his experience as the former director of the Country Music Foundation and former head of the NEA to untangle the mass of impenetrable law, corporate practice, and sheer carelessness that have threatened to separate Americans from their birthright. Blending strands of personal and professional memoir, policy analysis, and deeply-held convictions, Ivey proposes a new central authority--a Department of Cultural Affairs--dedicated to reclaiming heritage, artistry, and a creative life for all Americans. The first comprehensive effort to explore and define a coordinated vision for art, culture, and expression in American life, Arts, Inc. articulates a powerful new vision to enhance the life of our nation and its citizens.