Foundations of Cultural Policy

Mark Schuster was among the earliest and most influential scholars of cultural policy in the United States. A professor of urban studies and planning at MIT from 1978 until his death in 2008, he brought the habits of a planner and designer to questions of arts funding, museums, preservation, cultural statistics, public value, and comparative policy.Foundations of Cultural Policy draws on the comprehensive Schuster archive at the Center for Cultural Affairs at Indiana University to contextualize and preserve a carefully selected group of difficult-to-access and unpublished writings. The volume follows three commitments that shaped Schuster’s work: public policy must be justified by a clear public interest; policy instruments must be chosen with close attention to their institutional and artistic effects; and cultural policy must be studied comparatively. Essays on peer review, tax incentives, matching grants, museums, data, heritage lists, and state cultural policy show how these principles work in practice. Editorial framing and new reflections by colleagues and former students situate the selections historically, illuminate Schuster’s distinctive teaching and mentorship, and demonstrate the continuing usefulness of his methods for policy design, implementation, and evaluation. By gathering work previously scattered across journals, working papers, conference proceedings, and gray literature, the book makes a foundational body of scholarship available to a new generation.The collection is intended for scholars, graduate students, instructors, and practitioners in cultural policy, arts administration, cultural economics, urban planning, public policy, museum studies, and nonprofit management, as well as readers concerned with how governments define and pursue the public value of culture.