Guiding Principles

The Arts Industries Policy Forum is an ongoing symposium for Congressional and Federal agency staff.   Through the Forum, constructive dialogue can advance informed public policy affecting the American cultural landscape.

We see American cultural policy as those decisions, practices, regulations, and laws that nurture or constrain creative work, and that facilitate or restrict the availability of art and media.

Forum members set Forum agenda and topics.  Read the full list of 2010/2011 issues and themes: AIPF 2010/2011

Forum topics will fulfill three criteria:

• Be timely
• Address culturally significant public policy issues that can be directly influenced by Forum participants
• Cut across the spectrum of American culture and American art making, engaging the for-profit, non-profit and amateur sectors.

The Arts Industries Policy Forum is nonpartisan and policy neutral.  To enable an atmosphere that fosters candid participation, Forum meetings are off-the-record and confidential — no minutes or proceedings are published.

This participant-driven, information exchange program supports informed government decision making while building community.  Meetings are mostly held after work, though midday luncheons provide additional opportunities for professional development.

Background material will be available on the Forum website.  Policy briefs, background papers and site visit reports provide support for face-to-face meetings of Congressional and agency staff, arts industry leaders, scholars, and cultural policy experts.

While the Forum does not advocate for specific policy outcomes, it is committed to the idea that a vigorous, unencumbered, accessible U.S. arts and media system constitutes a public good.

The Back Story

Apart from a few funding agencies and national museums, America’s cultural interventions are scattered among dozens of Federal agencies and Congressional offices.  To support a coherent conversation about art, media, the cultural landscape, and government policy, The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy initiated the Arts Industries Policy Forum in 2003.

To advance the Center’s mission of aligning cultural policy with America’s diverse, decentralized, and market-driven arts and media system, the Center developed the Forum to enable government leaders from many agencies and offices must come together for a meaningful exchange.

The programs of the Arts Industries Policy Forum are funded by generous grants from the Ford Foundation and the Mike Curb Family Foundation.