The Curb Center for Art,
Enterprise, and Public Policy

Launched in April 2003, The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt is the first university-based, nonpartisan policy program to fully engage the American cultural policy system.

With generous support from Vanderbilt University and the Mike Curb Family Foundation, the research center is dedicated to designing a new road map for cultural policy in America. By focusing research and conversation around the entire arts system -- from small nonprofit organizations to government to large media industries -- the Center identifies new points of leverage at which innovative interventions can nurture creative work and expand the availability of diverse and vital art and artistry.

The Curb Center’s Washington, D.C.-based initiative, the Arts Industries Policy Forum, is a bipartisan, policy neutral, off-the-record seminar series for senior career staff who serve the multiple agencies and congressional offices that “own” some segment of US cultural policy.  The Policy Forum has conducted expert-advised seminars on a number of timely relevant issues.  Programming is driven by Forum members and reflects current issues appearing on White House, legislative and regulatory agendas. 

The Center administers Vanderbilt’s new initiative, the Mike Curb Creative Campus Program. It affects every student on campus through new courses, faculty, internships, and guest speakers.  A select group of students are chosen as Undergraduate Curb Leadership Scholars, and a fifth-year master’s degree in creative enterprise and public leadership will be launched. In addition, the Center will implement the first national research program on creativity, the arts and higher education.

The Curb Center is headquartered on the Vanderbilt campus, but maintains a strong presence in Washington. The Center's associate director for policy, Paula Cleggett works full-time from Vanderbilt’s Washington Office.