{"id":4659,"date":"2026-03-04T07:42:05","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T15:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=4659"},"modified":"2026-03-04T07:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T15:42:07","slug":"reading-eleonora-redaellis-invisible-cultural-policy-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2026\/03\/reading-eleonora-redaellis-invisible-cultural-policy-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading Eleonora Redaelli’s Invisible Cultural Policy in America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This recent book is open access, here<\/a>. And my full review in the International Review of Public Policy<\/em> is also open access, here<\/a>. My review begins:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

There is an old joke: An American tourist is visiting Oxford for the first time, and on his first morning signs up for a guided walking tour. The group sees the Ashmolean Museum, the Bodleian Library, the beautiful college quadrangles, and they pass beneath the Bridge of Sighs, before finally going for a pub lunch at the Lamb & Flag. At lunch the tourist asks the guide: but when will we get to see the University?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

American cultural policy is something like our tourist\u2019s experience. Despite observing the various publicly funded granting agencies, charitable foundations, individual donors who receive tax-preferred status, tax credit schemes to promote commercial film and television production and music recording, and local investments in cultural infrastructure, we are still left asking: but where is the cultural policy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eleonora Radaelli is a professor in the School of Planning, Public Policy, and Management at the University of Oregon. \u2026 In Invisible Cultural Policy in America<\/em>, she seeks to solve the problem of where exactly an observer can discern the nature of American cultural policy and why it is, for the most part, \u201cinvisible.\u201d \u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Arts administration and policy folks, especially those with a public administration focus, should check it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Footnote: A version of the Oxford anecdote is in Gilbert Ryle\u2019s A Theory of Mind<\/em> (1949).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cross-posted at https:\/\/michaelrushton.substack.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This recent book is open access, here. And my full review in the International Review of Public Policy is also open access, here. My review begins: There is an old joke: An American tourist is visiting Oxford for the first time, and on his first morning signs up for a guided walking tour. The group sees the Ashmolean Museum, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4659","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-issues","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-1d9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":636,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/04\/arts-policy-research-is-expensive\/","url_meta":{"origin":4659,"position":0},"title":"Arts policy research is expensive","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"April 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In an earlier post I talked about how firms with a large set of distinct items to sell - a cable television provider with many channels; a museum with many rooms - would find it most efficient to offer only a package deal to customers, with no a la carte\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"expensive reading","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/journals-219x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":702,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/04\/arts-policy-research-is-expensive-a-contrasting-view\/","url_meta":{"origin":4659,"position":1},"title":"Arts policy research is expensive: a contrasting view","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"April 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In an earlier post I noted the high expense of \"gated\" academic journals, and questioned why the global network of research universities has continued to use a system where academics produce research articles (sometimes at high cost), serve as peer-reviewers, and as editors, without renumeration, and then pay publishers significant\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"this costs real money","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Printing-For-Beginners-VI-Correcting-Proof-Proof-r-168-250x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1260,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/04\/free-pricing-and-access\/","url_meta":{"origin":4659,"position":2},"title":"Free pricing and access","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"April 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Scotland has a policy of free university tuition. Today The Guardian reports: The research by Lucy Hunter Blackburn, a former civil servant with the Scottish government, estimates that free university tuition and the cuts in grants to lower-earning students means middle-class families and students will be \u00a320m a year better.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"free for whom?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/oldcollege_header2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/oldcollege_header2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/oldcollege_header2.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3818,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2025\/07\/should-we-subsidize-arts-consumers-art-producers-or-neither\/","url_meta":{"origin":4659,"position":3},"title":"Should we subsidize arts consumers, art producers, or neither?","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"July 2, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"My friends Joanna Woronkowicz and Doug Noonan have started a new venture, Arts Analytics, where they hope to bring more extensive, and shared, use of data into arts policy thinking, and also to spur discussion. A recent post of theirs asked what is actually an old question in the arts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4607,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2025\/11\/we-dont-need-an-alt-cultural-policy\/","url_meta":{"origin":4659,"position":4},"title":"We Don’t Need an Alt Cultural Policy","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"November 4, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"In\u00a0a recent post\u00a0comparing the White House\u2019s proposed \u201ccompact\u201d with universities to the situation facing the nonprofit arts in the United States, I wrote: The administration\u2019s interventions into the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian museums have received a lot of press, and these \u201canti-woke\u201d interventions have a lot in common with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2118,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2016\/10\/what-arts-legislation-do-we-want-then-a-call-for-suggestions\/","url_meta":{"origin":4659,"position":5},"title":"What arts legislation do we want then? A call for suggestions","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"October 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A few days ago blog neighbour Doug McLennan lamented that Congress seems to have no interest in arts-related legislation, with no bills coming to floor on which we could even guess at how elected officials actually weigh the arts as a matter of national importance. 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