• Mission & Governance
• Services Overview
• How to Get Involved
• Standing Committees
• NCSL Foundation

• Issue Areas: A-Z
• State-Federal Relations
• NCSL Standing Committees
• News from D.C. and the States

• About State Legislatures
• Elections, Campaigns & Redistricting
• NCSL's StateConnect Directory
• Web Sites

• Online Guide to NCSL Services
• Staff Sections and Networks
• Meetings & Professional Development
• Staff Directories

• Meetings Calendar
• Online Registration
• Meetings Home Page
• Legislative Summit

• Bookstore
• State Legislatures Magazine
• NCSL's StateConnect Directory

Arts & Historic Preservation

Updated May 19, 2008

Cultural Policy Project

NCSL is pleased to announce the cultural policy project.

What exactly is cultural policy? Culture, broadly defined includes the arts, folklife, historic preservation and humanities, among other fields. Arts policy is familiar to most lawmakers because every state has a state-level arts agency (although its placement within the state departments varies considerably), but the other domains are not always represented within state-level agencies. For example, state humanities councils are private, nonprofit entities, although they may receive public funds. Statewide preservation offices are nonprofit entities, but state historic preservation offices are part of state government. And folklife might be situated within any number of agencies. Despite these different organizational structures, the totality of a state's involvement with the arts, humanities, historic preservation and related fields can be thought of as the state's cultural policy.

This project is one outcome of a study launched in 2001 by the national culture program of The Pew Charitable Trusts which aims to increase the amount and quality of policy-relevant information about American arts and culture and to make such information widely accessible. The goal of the study was to determine whether and how a future initiative might be shaped around the sharing of mechanisms, ideas and practices in state-level cultural policy. Download a copy of the study Policy Partners: Making the Case for State Investment in Culture.

One of the findings was that success in moving policy forward at the state level requires basic policy supports and capacities, including a deep understanding of the current political and economic climate of a state. Action depends on cultural leaders and elected officials who can link local interests to state-level actions. NCSL has teamed up with the Center for Arts and Culture to help disseminate the findings of this study and get the word out to state policymakers.

The NCSL Cultural Policy Working Group provides a forum for state policymakers to discuss the issues related to moving such an agenda forward. In addition, this group is overseeing the development of three NCSL publications that will help guide state policy around cultural issues.

As an outcome of these discussions, NCSL's Cultural Policy Working Group recently produced Investing in Culture: Innovations in State Policy. This report includes examples of how cultural programs can help states meet general policy goals as well as examples of innovative state cultural policies. For more information about the report, please contact lisa.houlihan@ncsl.org.

Meeting Summary

December 11, 2002 - Washington, DC

If you have any questions about this project or would like more information, please contact lisa.houlihan@ncsl.org.