University of Chicago conference to forge a national cultural research policy agenda

Thirty years ago, environmental issues existed without a public policy component. Today, the field of arts and culture is in the same predicament, but the University of Chicago is about to fill that void and perhaps in the process make history.

From Jan. 21-23, the University will sponsor The Arts and Humanities in Public Life Conference, which its organizers hope will be the first step toward creating a policy center for cultural issues.

Scholars, artists, policy makers, philanthropists and critics from within and outside thearts and humanities will gather to question, discuss and ultimately determine the research agenda for public policy on the arts and culture. Conference panelists will include Thomas Krens, director of the Guggenheim Museum; Richard Kurin, director of the Smithsonian Institution Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies; and James Schamus, producer of Sense and Sensibilityand The Ice Storm, and the recently releasedHappiness.

“If people believe that the public has a stake in the existence and flourishing of the arts and humanities, we have to ask what that stake is,“ said Carroll Joynes, Associate Dean of Development and External Relations for the Humanities Division. “Then, we can determine who currently makes decisions about the arts and humanities and who pays the bills. People’s ears suddenly perk up when you put the question that way.“

Time Magazine art critic Robert Hughes will launch the conference with a keynote address that asks the question: In What Sense is Culture in the National Interest? Homi Bhabha, the Chester D. Tripp Professor in the Humanities at the University of Chicago, will respond to Hughes’ argument. Bhabha is the author of Location of Cultureand one of the world’s foremost authorities on international cultures.

The participants will address critical issues such as patronage, copyright in the cyber-age and museums in the age of globalization. “It is nothing less than the formation of a new field of inquiry,“ Joynes said.

“We are trying to show what kinds of questions one can pose for an interdisciplinary convocation of experts,“ Joynes added. “This will be a prelude to what we hope will be a center for research on arts and cultural policy at the University.“

The keynote speech begins at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 21, at the Art Institute of Chicago’s Arthur Rubloff Auditorium, located at 230 South Columbus Drive. The speech is free and open to the public. All other sessions on Friday and Saturday will take place on the University of Chicago campus in Swift Hall, located at 1025 E. 58th St. To register for the conference, call (773) 834-2741.

The conference is sponsored by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Joan and Irving Harris, and the Division of the Humanities and the Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. For more information, call (773) 834-2741.