Arts policy research for the next 25 years: a trajectory after Patrons Despite Themselves

This article was presented at the symposium dedicated to the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of Patrons Despite Themselves: Taxpayers and Arts Policy (Feld et al., 1983), held by the Association for Cultural Economics International, Boston, June 2008. It considers "big questions" in arts policy that promise intellectual and social payoff if approached in the spirit that animated the effort behind Patrons Despite Themselves, with special attention to issues that economists might illuminate, namely: (1) Waste of resources; (2) A workable business model for digital media; (3) Increasing the value created through amateur participation; (4) Withdrawal of elites, especially economic elites, from their historic participation in arts governance and support; and (5) Fragmentation of collective patrimony. The associated questions are the same in each case: Why is this happening? Is there a market failure or equity justification for government action? What policies would help?.