Arts as Public Policy: Cultural Spaces
for Democracy and Growth
In Summer in the City: John Lindsay, New
York, and the American Dream, edited by Joseph P. Viteritti | 2014Despite extensive interest in the art of the sixties and its political dimensions, as well as in New York City’s development as a postwar capital of the arts, there has been no close examination of arts policy in the city in this fertile and tumultuous time. Mayor John V. Lindsay brought the arts to the forefront of his vision of urban life by encouraging their expansion across a new geography. This chapter traces a period in which the public function and presence of the arts increased dramatically and shows how Lindsay and his appointees enlisted arts and culture to address demands for greater democracy in the city. The spatial dimensions of Lindsay’s arts policy were twofold. First, he sought to expand access to the arts to a more diverse citizenry by expanding the locations in which they appeared and occurred, especially in public places. Second, with an eye toward regional, national, and international competition, his administration reinforced the physical presence of arts and artists in the city at key sites. The expansion of citizenship and the development of what has variously been called a symbolic or experience economy proceeded as two highly compatible endeavors.
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