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A new cultural policy proposal has just been launched by a working group of artists who first came together on May 12, 2009, at a White House Briefing on Art, Community, Social Justice, and National Recovery. The founding endorsers of Art & The Public Purpose: A New Framework include public artist Judy Baca of the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC); Jeff Chang, author of the hip-hop history Can’t Stop Won’t Stop; Heinz Award winner and Roadside Theater Artistic Director Dudley Cocke; Arlene Goldbard, speaker and author of New Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development; MacArthur Fellow and Dance Exchange Founding Artistic Director Liz Lerman; United States Artists Wynn Fellow and Urban Bush Women Founding Artistic Director Jawole Zollar, and dozens of others.

They took on the challenge of using plain, concise language to convey the necessity of a major new investment in art’s public purpose, one that reflects the values of democracy and equity they cherish. This framework is the result, calling for “a bold new investment in culture, a policy recognizing that culture holds the key to a future we can believe in,” and putting forward five key concepts that “hold the key to cultural recovery and its role in national recovery.” The project website features an online petition, a way to share stories of culture and community, and information on how to promote the framework and seek endorsements from organizations and officials. Framework supporters hope that gathering individual and organizational endorsements, circulating the framework for discussion, and encouraging people to place the topic of art’s public purpose front and center will create receptivity for a new Works Progress Administration for the arts and other urgently needed public investment in cultural development.