The Economics of Art and Culture

Charles M. (Mel) Gray is professor of business economics in the Opus College of Business, University of St Thomas, where he has been teaching economics, strategy and nonprofit management to undergraduate and MBA students for more than 30 years. Previously he was a staff economist at the Federal Reserve Banks of St Louis and Minneapolis and for a Minnesota state agency, and he served as executive director of a community development agency. He has been a visiting or adjunct faculty member at Macalester College and the Universities of Oslo, North Carolina, Minnesota, British Columbia and Rochester. He received his BA in Social Science and Mathematics from Hendrix College and his AM and Ph.D. in Economics from Washington University. His primary research interests are the nonprofit and creative sectors, principally the nonprofit arts. He has authored or edited three books, and his publications include numerous articles and book chapters. He currently serves as editor of Nonprofit Management and Leadership, a leading research journal for the nonprofit sector. He has been a consultant to the US Department of Justice, the National Endowment for the Arts, the District of Columbia, several Minnesota state agencies and numerous companies, nonprofit organizations and trade associations.

1. Introduction: definition and description of the art and culture industry; 2. Growth of the arts sector in the United States; 3. Audiences for the arts; 4. Consumer demand: an introduction; 5. The characteristics of arts demand and their policy implications; 6. Production in the performing arts; 7. Firms and markets in the performing arts; 8. Productivity lag and the financial problem of the arts; 9. The market in works of art; 10. The economics of museums; 11. Should the government subsidize the arts? 12. Public and/or private support for the arts; 13. Public policy toward the arts; 14. The arts as a profession: education, training, and employment; 15. The role of the arts in a local economy; 16. The mass media, public broadcasting and the cultivation of taste; 17. Innovation, arts education and the future of art and cuture in the US.