Arts policy and the creative economy

Abstract

Designing arts evaluations that impact policy is critical to the advancement of the field. If our goal is to build our nation’s creative economy, we need to carefully enlist the best research and evaluation to support the levers we choose. A clear example of arts policy that has been influenced by arts evaluation is the work put forth by the National Endowment for the Arts and the California Alliance for Arts Education. This chapter will use these case studies to discuss how evaluation design has shaped policy at the national and local levels. The authors will also discuss implications and future directions of arts evaluation as a burgeoning field of study.