Bridges, Translations and Change: The Arts as Infrastructure in 21st Century America

The arts in America are at a crossroads. As the nation contends with its neglected infrastructure, a stumbling economy and a world in transition, priorities are rapidly shifting. The pressures of self-interest, always a strong force in this country, are building as our resource and leadership deficits become more obvious. Hard times mean hard choices, and increasingly America is saying no to its cultural resources. By continuing down this road, the cultural community stands to lose a great deal more, both economically and politically. This is a great loss for America.

The U.S. stands on the edge of a new frontier—a world both at home and abroad, that is in flux and out of balance. This dynamic environment will need more than a strong will and muscle to come to terms with its problems and contending forces. The new frontier is a complex global society that will demand the power of the imagination and the forces of regeneration to meet its challenges.

For America's artists and cultural institutions this is a time of great opportunity. We can offer more than a colorful banner and a theme song in support of this quest. We bring our untapped capacities as bridge builders, translators and problem solvers. We bring the language and technology of transformation. To rise to this challenge, though, we must ourselves rediscover and reinvest in the transformative power and spiritual integrity of our work.

What follows is my contribution to the ongoing discussion of the future of the arts in 21st Century America. All too often discussions of this sort are carried on as though the arts were not connected to the world beyond the studio or the stage. In my opinion, this separation is both a cause and a by-product of the marginalization of the arts in America. With this in mind, I begin with a brief overview of America on the verge of the 21st Century. This is followed by a discussion of the current state of the arts and a series of arguments and strategies aimed at revitalizing the field.

"The study of chaotic systems has revealed a totally unexpected order. When chaotic systems are plotted, graphically elegant geometric patterns emerge... demonstrating an underlying symmetry. The hidden order cannot be guessed at by studying a system's parts—it appears only as a property of the whole."

With each passing month the chaotic dance of world events seems to be intensifying, building momentum. The globe is shifting beneath our feet in ways that would have seemed inconceivable just two or three years ago. Each morning's headlines leave us shaking our heads. "What's next?" we ask. "World order! What order?"

Early explorers imagined America as an island, a geographic impediment on the way to the Orient. Although they were mistaken in a literal sense, throughout our history we have maintained an "island-like" attitude about our place in the world. Our evolving power, and geography, have allowed us the luxury of choosing our connections.

Our island status has been tied to a world order that no longer exists. In the course of the past half-decade we have witnessed revolutionary world change. Dramatic events such as the collapse of communism. popular reform in eastern Europe, and the rise of Moslem fundamentalism have overturned the global chessboard. In the aftermath, America finds its triumphal "checkmate!" drowned in the cacophony. In our moment of victory the chessboard has been discarded. In its place is a new world game, or series of games, that are being designed and played simultaneously in Sarajevo, Tokyo, Tbilisi, Madrid, Bhagdad, Mexico City and elsewhere.

America, the lone remaining "superpower," must now learn to operate in an environment of shifting, toppling, and even flattening hierarchies-a world where information technology, multinational finance, world famine, ethnic conflict and ozone depletion are but a few of the interconnecting threads in the emerging global fabric. Two hundred fifteen years ago America declared its independence from the old world. For the second American revolution to succeed, we must reimagine ourselves not as a separate island, but as one of many cells in a complex multi-celled organism.

While we were watching the transformation of the world on CNN, the U.S. has undergone a metamorphosis as well. The dramatic shift in population from north/east to south/west, the move from an industrial to a service- and information-based economy, the ongoing deterioration of our human services, education and public works infrastructures, our wide-spread political disaffection, and our emergence as the globe's first truly multicultural society, are but a few indications of the monumental changes taking place.

The real revolution in America, though, is rooted in our struggle over changing values. Very little of what was considered the cultural norm during the first half of the 20th Century has not been altered in one way or another. As we begin the last decade of the century, the debate intensifies over such core issues as: the loss of the nuclear family, the changing roles of men and women, the definition of right and wrong, our relationship to the earth, the distribution of wealth, freedom of expression, the importance of cultural identity and much more.

Some see the changes that have taken place as a disintegration of the basic tenants of the American cultural fabric. To others, we are finally grappling with the gap between our stated ideals and the entrenched self-interest of the established power structure. In some sectors this questioning of values has precipitated a rekindling of the American spirit of creativity and innovation. In others the response has been defensive and reactionary.

Regardless of point of view, the movement, the change, the transformation, is inexorable. At home and on the world stage, America is in its "middle passage." We are pulling away from the old shoreline. As the grip of hierarchy, patrimony, and monoculture slowly fades, there is both jubilation and fear. Conflict is inevitable. But, beyond the rough seas, great opportunity awaits for those who wield the power of the creative process.

It is against this fluid backdrop of dynamic political and cultural transition that American artists must begin to reevaluate and reassert the role of the arts in our society. Given the dismal political and economic condition the field finds itself in, this may not seem the best time for plotting a cultural coup. How, one might ask, do we move forward when we are suffering a deepening of what a 1990 FEDAPT report termed the "Quiet Crisis"? I say we have no choice. In 1992 the crisis is no longer quiet. The choice is now between sinking or sailing, and that's no choice.

Before we begin arguing our case, we should be honest with ourselves about the status of the arts in this society. Among industrialized nations, America is among the lowest in its per capita expenditures for the arts. In fiscal year 1992 the aggregate legislative funding level for state and territorial arts agencies had receded to 84 cents per person. This is 2% below the 1987 level. Unemployment in the field is difficult to measure, but among workers identified by the Department of Labor as professional artists, the rate is 40%. This, of course, does not include the thousands of artists who are identified in labor statistics as food servers and house painters. Worse still, the decline of arts education has impoverished the next generation of American artists and audiences.

Stepping back from our most recent battles over freedom of expression and diminishing funding, we need to understand that these difficulties are the symptoms of a deeper and more troubling American condition. This country does not have an historic commitment to a democratized culture. Our Puritan "forefathers" considered the secular arts to be an instrument of the devil and our earliest industrialist patrons related to culture as elitist decoration. Simply put, a devotion to the arts does not run in our blood as it does in other cultures. A recent Harris Poll concluded that Americans may be willing to provide more support for the arts. Despite this positive conclusion, the average American has not demonstrated a willingness to invest in the arts as a part of the community infrastructure alongside roads, parks and police protection. Undeniably the arts are an American extra.

Changing this state of affairs will require more than turning up the volume on an old tune. Unfortunately, some still argue that the "inherent goodness" and "civilizing capacities" of the arts are all that is needed to justify their support. Before we utter these words one more time, I think we have to ask ourselves if we have adapted too well to our marginal status. Do we truly believe this is all the arts have to offer? These lines are spoken in the language of the arts ghetto-a separate, depleted space on the edge of the community. If we are to leave the ghetto, we must change the way we define and articulate our place in society, we must embrace the belief that the health of the community requires a strong creative presence at every level.

"In our modern world the artist is tempted simply to do stunts in order to attract attention. But the true task of the artist is to discover her or his relationship to a community, a community often in desperate need of the artist's power to see the world anew."

-Historian Page Smith, from the forward to Art in Other Places: Artists at Work in America's Community and Social Institutions

As we seek to reestablish the vitality of American community life we must turn our attention to more than bricks and mortar and job programs. We must acknowledge that there is more to a community than geography. Each community has a character, a spirit that rises from its citizens and determines the quality of its life. This essential element does not emerge from the structure of laws or codes or buildings. It comes from man's most powerful capacity-the ability to synthesize and innovate and make new-the power of creation. Our creativity mediates the tension between the need both to assert our uniqueness and to link to others. Its power allows each of us to make our own one-of-a-kind mark in the sand, using aspects of past marks, adding new elements, linking ourselves to those who have come before and those who will follow. It is a simple thing, easily called up in the right conditions, easily stifled.

The challenges of the next century must be met by citizens with enormous energy and a well developed capacity for imaginative discipline. Our communities need creative pioneers, adept at risk taking, challenging assumptions and questioning conventional wisdom. This is the domain of the artist: listening, translating, borrowing and synthesizing. The creator takes the old and new and links them. He or she celebrates the common threads and the dissonance, reflects our triumphs, our pain, our folly, creating fresh images and giving new vision. This is the creative process. This is the territory of the artist.

There are many among us who know this well. The native peoples of this land and our Asian and Central and South American neighbors have much to teach the American "mainstream" about the powerful place culture can occupy in society. For them, the creative forces are not separate, or extra, they are essential. Ironically, these cultural traditions are considered by many in this country to be an exotic curiosity, best kept separate from the "mainstream."

The time has come to give everyone in our community an opportunity to know and experience creativity as our most powerful human capacity. The time has come for all of us to discover this power beyond the realms of entertainment and decoration and investment. We must recognize how our neglect of, and disdain for, our creative capacities has contributed to many of our social problems. Together, let us rewrite our cultural dictionary and democratize our cultural hierarchies. Let us speak of a new cultural continuum, a 21st Century alliance of artists, arts organizations and an expanded array of community partners, working to build a New American Aesthetic.

The following are summaries of six arguments and associated strategies in support of the reintroduction of the arts into our community infrastructures. Taken separately, most of them are not new. Their newness has more to do with their perspective than with actual content. Rather than advocating from a position of self-interest, this approach speaks to the perspective of community members as they inevitably ask the question: "How will the arts contribute to our meeting the social, political and economic challenges facing our community?" This approach takes the position that arts supporters cannot and will not find a place at the table until they are able to communicate that the arts are a powerful resource that can be used for everyone's benefit.

"Without creative personalities able to think and judge independently, the upward development of society is unthinkable..."

ECONOMIC IMPACT: Numerous studies show the consistent and dramatic positive economic impact the arts have had on communities large and small. Recent research shows that each dollar spent on the arts generates three to four dollars in non-arts expenditures. Other research has further demonstrated that the arts are a magnet for large corporations and an effective and economical catalyst for the revitalization of urban centers. Rural arts providers, as well, make the case for the arts as particularly useful tool for both economic and social development, particularly in depressed areas.

The selling of cultural destinations, urban and rural, has become a core marketing strategy in the tourism industry. Beyond tourism and community renewal, the arts are big business. In California, the state with the largest economy, the arts and entertainment industry is the third ranked economic segment, generating $3.5 billion in wages subject to taxation.

FUTURE LEADERSHIP: In recent years, the top executives of America's leading companies have complained about the lack of creativity and problem-solving abilities exhibited by entry level workers, managers, engineers and scientists. Similar sentiments are also being voiced in the public sector, where one often hears talk of a leadership deficit. Government and business leaders alike have invested millions of dollars in training programs designed to increase the creativity and teamwork of the American work force.

Education in the arts, for young and old alike offers access to the kinds of skills our next generation of workers and leaders will need. These skills include: harnessing and synthesizing the qualities of logic, organization, flexibility and insight; creative teamwork; learning that problems are opportunities not obstacles; learning to discipline the imagination to solve difficult problems; and learning that "failure" is a functional aspect of discovery.

Since the publication of A Nation At Risk: The Imperative for Education Reform, educators, parents, and civic leaders have sought reforms in education. In response, school systems nationwide have placed a greater emphasis on the generally accepted "building blocks" of basic education: math, science and the language arts.

A 1989 Assembly Office of Research report, Arts Education In California: Thriving or Surviving?, cites evidence that "a more balanced approach" emphasizing "the arts as well as basic skills" would be more "advantageous." The report also cites "evidence that suggests that in schools where students perform above average academically, they also receive a richer dose of visual and performing arts courses."

Other studies suggest that the arts offer an alternative for success and respectability for students who struggle academically, particularly learning disabled and ESL students. Indications are that the discipline and self-esteem these students acquire often carries over to their study of other academic subjects and provides motivation to stay in school.

The fact of the matter is that education in the arts is a curricular necessity. The creative process is the means we employ to put our basic skills to use. The problem solvers of the future-the explorers, scientists, engineers who will confront tomorrow's challenges- require more than the basics of math, science and language. They need hands-on experience, manipulating the tools of change-taking chances, challenging convention, taking on the impossible.

Educators are only just beginning to acknowledge the complex mix of human intelligences and learning styles. In this context, arts education is educational reform. The pedagogy of the future should not be just arts inclusive, it should be arts-based. Teachers should know and employ the creative process in everything they do. Arts-based education is the laboratory for harnessing the power of the intellect through the discipline and vision of the creative process. Arts-based education will support the growth of the imagination and creativity as tools students must employ to succeed in a complex society.

"...the ichnography of the Great Goddess arose in reflection and veneration of the laws of nature.... The message here is of an age of harmony and peace in accord with the creative energies of nature which, for four thousand prehistoric years, anteceded the (next) five thousand-a period James Joyce has termed the "nightmare" (of contending tribal and national interests) from which it is now certainly time for this planet to wake."

-Joseph Campbell, from the Forward to The Language of the Goddess by Marija Gimbutas

The ichnography to which Joseph Campbell refers is the symbolic vocabulary embodied in European and African Neolithic art. Although the written language we use daily evolved from these symbols, we no longer recognize these shared roots. The marginalization of the arts in this country has separated the American "tribes" from a powerful common language. As change gives rise to protective and reactive responses, we must rediscover the power of the arts to translate cultural difference as a common bond. We must also acknowledge and learn from those artists now working as agents of community change and builders of bridges.

As these bridges are built, we should focus on the strength inherent in our growing diversity. In her book, Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural America, writer/critic Lucy Lippard describes the changed face of America as an "ajiaco"-the flavorful mix of a Latin American soup in which the ingredients retain their own forms and flavors. She describes this new model as "fresher and healthier; the colors…varied; the taste…often unfamiliar" that "calls for an undetermined simmering period of social acclimation."

Many artists in America, particularly those in California, are beginning to manifest the new American aesthetic. Their work is the product of a media age, in which, for the first time, cultural interaction, influence and change have not been tied to man's ability to move physically from place to place. These artistic dialogues and collaborations are models for the new ways we will have to interact as global citizens.

During the last decade the arts have been dramatically transformed through the introduction of new technologies. In areas such as film, video, music, design and holography, new technologies adapted by artists have produced innovative applications and opened new markets.

As inventors, artists are a breed apart. They are unencumbered by the practical constraints experienced by their more product-minded counterparts. Hardware and software in the artist's hands are merely a technical means to an aesthetic goal. The commercial feasibility of a given solution is often not relevant. But, as has been the case with the artistic exploration of special effects technology and computer graphics, new and unexpected applications emerge. In some ways, the interface of the arts and technology has created an unintended research and development arm for commercial high tech concerns.

The roles of the artist and the technological innovator are often interchangeable. In his book The Paradox of the Silicon Savior, Grant Venerable points out "that the very best engineers and technical designers (in the Silicon Valley) are, nearly without exception, practicing musicians."

In education, the melding of the arts and technology provide a unique training ground for the high-tech demands of the 21st Century. Innovative curricula in video, electronic music, and computer graphics provide an opportunity for students to experience technology as a creative resource. This provides students a particularly accessible and non-threatening way to learn and explore their possibilities. These new technologies are complex tools that will require increasingly facile and creative minds to put them to their best use. Students who are familiar with the creative applications of new and emerging technology will be an invaluable resource in the new industrial age. John Scully, Chairman and CEO of Apple Computer, Inc., speaks forcefully on this point: "As a chief executive of a technology company that thrives on creativity, I want to work with people whose imaginations have been unleashed and who tackle problems as challenges rather than obstacles. An education enriched by the creative arts should be considered essential for everyone."

"They speak of changes; changes in attitude, changes in self image and often changes in behavior. They say it is as if some new power, positive, creative and constructive, had at long last forced itself into their consciousness, an expression from the heart and soul of the artists's experience."

-Senator Henry Mello, from the catalog for 1988 prison art exhibition, Light From Another Country

Artmaking-the study and practice of the creative process-is inherently empowering. Each day the artist engages the muse, he/she does battle with the new and unexplored. All artists-student or master, young, old or infirm-are creative pioneers and adventurers. The challenge is to work honestly, with self-discipline, owning the success or failure of one's endeavors.

In the early '70s, a time when traditional arts education was beginning its decline, many professional artists began to look to society's neglected corners for a new constituency. The results of their work with youth at risk, people with physical and mental disabilities, prisoners, patients, seniors and others have shown that the arts can make a significant positive impact in the lives of these largely forgotten citizens. In California, the establishment of permanent comprehensive arts programming by the Departments of Corrections, Youth Authority and Mental Health is testimony to the effectiveness of these efforts.

The variety of problems being addressed by the increasing numbers of artists engaged in this work has valuable implications for educators, social service providers, and community leaders. Artists working and succeeding in these "other places" have generated a new technology for problem solving, communicating, building self-esteem and much more. A significant body of research in the field shows the practice of the arts is, in itself, a healing, transformational, therapeutic activity that, in some cases, may be more effective than traditional approaches. Documentation further shows the arts to be an effective and cost-beneficial resource for reducing violence, recidivism and psychopathology.

"The artist as shaman becomes a conductor of forces that go far beyond those of his own person, and is able to bring art back in touch with its sacred sources.… (The shaman) develops not only new forms of art, but new forms of living."

In the dying shadows of the prehistoric ritual fire, the shaman beseeches the gods on behalf of the gathered tribe. The year's final hunt is about to begin. The future of the community rests on the potency of the shaman's powers.

Today, although the artist has been cast out from the center of community life, he/she continues to sustain a vital link to the transcendent-to provide the imaginative sustenance and vision for the quest for truth and meaning, beyond the material. The artist, says psychologist James Hillman, "bears sensate witness to what is fundamentally beyond human comprehension."

The trivialization of the arts in America has produced many negatives. But none has been so damaging as the undermining of this connection between man and the artistic illumination he needs to explore the transcendent. Losing it, Hillman continues, "diminishes our ability to love the world." Our alienation from and abuse of what artist Isamu Noguchi has called "our temple," the earth, is but one symptom of this condition. The artist at work in these realms mediates the moral, the rational and the spiritual; the artist sensitizes us to the presence of social and material toxicity.

There is no doubt that a new artistic process has started asserting itself in response to what many feel is a spiritual vacuum. Critic Suzi Gablick sees great hope in the work of artists such as Anselm Keifer and Joseph Beuys, who have "placed primary value on (the artist's) function as a…bridge builder between the material and the spiritual worlds. Beuys and Keifer are part of the long but largely ignored history of "artist shamans" working in a century that has been dominated by science and material progress.

As we tire of our fascination with material flash and velocity, the need intensifies for the aesthetic bridge to what Alexis de Tocqueville termed "the mystical forces that govern ordinary events." A connection, he declared, which is "functionally necessary to society." In the Greek cosmology the gods could not appear in the material world without the presence of Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, love, and fertility. She made manifest the divine mind. In the 21st Century, that presence will be needed as never before, as we continue to lift the veil on the mystery of creation and struggle to stop ourselves from destroying our temple.

The following is by no means a definitive list. These strategies are offered rather as a stimulus to further brainstorming, debate and, hopefully, action.

1. EXPAND THE ROLE PLAYED BY CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS IN OUR COMMUNITIES. Begin exploring new working relationships with the non-arts service providers in the community. Help funders leverage their investment in the community by enlisting their support for partnerships between the arts and other human services. Make the case for the arts as an essential human service.

2. LEARN FROM THE SURVIVORS IN OTHER FIELDS. Look beyond the non-profit world for new and efficient models for managing, marketing and communicating. Pay particular attention to innovative strategies used by entrepreneurs and small businesses that have grown despite the recession.

3. FIND THOSE IN OUR COMMUNITIES OUTSIDE OF THE ARTS WORLD WITH WHOM WE HAVE NATURAL AFFINITIES. We should be exploring our common ground with those working in support of ethical business, saving the ecology, and freedom of expression.

4. EXPAND THE CONCEPT OF ARTISTS' RESIDENCIES BEYOND SCHOOLS, SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. Establish residencies as the laboratory for new ways for artists to interact with their communities. Consider new venues such as factories, condominiums, zoos, the unemployment office, neighborhoods, individual homes and the halls of government. Document and publish the results.

5. CONFOUND THE "SPECIAL INTEREST" STEREOTYPE by building advocacy alliances with non-arts human services providers. Explore the creation of mutually beneficial relationships with unlikely allies at the local and state level. Use respected non-arts community leaders to lead advocacy initiatives. Adopt advocacy strategies used by other highly successful advocates.

6. IDENTIFY THOSE NATIONAL ISSUES that have a direct bearing on the immediate and long term health of the field. Join with those who are advocating positions that are in our long term self-interest. Issues with significant impact on artists and arts organizations include: national health insurance, civil rights, immigration reform, education reform, AIDS and many others.

7. ESTABLISH FORUMS FOR DISCOURSE and problem solving between and among artists and scientists, engineers, politicians, economists, philosophers, etc.

1. REWRITE THE DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN CULTURE. Examine and question the vocabulary and prevailing standards of American culture. Consider how our language reflects and supports our marginal status. Use language that reflects the dynamic nature of our communities, our country and the world. Invite others in our communities into the discussions. Recognize that the process of the defining of cultural norms is ongoing.

2. CONDUCT RESEARCH ABOUT THE STATE OF THE ARTS and artists in America and the impact they are having on our communities. Use the results to create a regularly published American Cultural Almanac.

3. TAKE THE POSITION THAT CREATIVITY IS A BASIC AND POWERFUL HUMAN CAPACITY, that the exercise and expression of our creativity is crucial for the health of individuals and communities, and that the arts are the laboratory for the development and understanding of the creative processes.

4. LEARN FROM OUR ELDERS. Those we consider newcomers to our communities actually bring older, far more inclusive cultural traditions with them. As these traditions take root here they form a new American aesthetic. Work to protect them from domination, co-option and expropriation.

5. PROVIDE TRAINING FOR ARTISTS AND ARTS EDUCATORS ON THE WIDE RANGE OF ROLES ART CAN ASSUME IN COMMUNITY LIFE. Quash the notion that true artists are alienated and aloof and uninvolved.

6. MAP THE CULTURAL ECO-SYSTEM. Recognize that there is a cultural eco-system that we have allowed to operate out of balance. Know that every time we justify our existence or gain a foothold at the expense of others in the cultural community we undermine the integrity of the whole system.

1. MAKE THE CASE FOR THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF THE CREATIVE PROCESSES AS A CORNERSTONE OF EDUCATIONAL REFORM. Collect and disseminate information about the success of arts-based education as it is practiced in magnet schools and in Waldorf schools. Establish local initiatives for arts-based reform. Pass legislation to provide an incentive and support for such local projects.

2. DEMOCRATIZE OUR CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS. Decentralize the controlling forces of cultural power. Institute policies and funding guidelines that emphasize local and regional cultural empowerment. Recognize that public attitudes towards the arts are in large part determined by cultural arbiters who have a self-interest in the market-defined notions of artistic quality and success. Recognize that the status of artists in society profoundly affects the quality and content of art.

3. IDENTIFY OURSELVES AS CO-CONSPIRATORS IN OUR OWN DEMISE. Resist the tendency to self-define according to the marginal condition we find ourselves in. Recognize that in times of scarcity we fight each other out of fear. Reject the cannibalization of funding categories as resources diminish in the public sector. Refrain from intramural fights over scarce funding and understand that the real problem is the community's unwillingness to invest in its cultural resources.

4. TOPPLE THE HIERARCHIES. Replace the notion of cultural hierarchies with the idea of a cultural continuum. Resist the temptation to categorize and self-marginalize-separating fine from folk, classical from traditional, and monocultural from multicultural. Broaden and enrich the definition of artistic excellence through inclusion and education.

5. CHALLENGE OUR MISSIONS. Reexamine the missions of artists and arts organizations in a complex and changing world. Consider how "the work" contributes to the common good. Consider the arts as an essential human need as we reframe our missions.

6. EXPAND THE DEFINITION OF "PUBLIC ART" beyond the realm of the public artifact. Adopt the position that citizen/artist collaboration, integration and activism are necessary components for true community ownership of artistic endeavors. Include areas such as urban planning, ecology, science and mass communication as new contexts for public art.

7. PROMOTE AND SUPPORT THE WELL BEING OF THE INDIVIDUAL ARTIST as a cornerstone of arts policy. Recognize that the inability of many of our finest artists to make a living wage practicing their art is an issue of freedom of expression.

William Cleveland is the director of The Center for the Study of Art and Community.

The Arts and Business Council Inc., Critical Issues and the Arts, New York, 1991.

Brooking, Dolo, Pathway to Community Culture, A Cultural Empowerment Plan for the Condominium Association of 803 Victoria Street, Carson California, CSU Dominguez Hills, 1991.

California Confederation for the Arts, Arts California Advocacy Kit, Sacramento, 1988.

California State Legislature, Toward A State of Self Esteem: The Final Report of the California Task Force to Promote Self-esteem and Personal and Social Responsibility, Sacramento, 1990

Cleveland, William T., Art In Other Places: Artists at Work in America's Community and Social Institutions, New York, Praeger Publishers, 1992.

Cleveland, William T., The California State Summer School for the Arts and Some Thoughts on Advocacy for Arts Education. Communicator: The Journal of the California Association for the Gifted, Volume XXI, Number 3, 1991.

Focke, Anne, Artists and Economics: Notes from the Headlands, an unpublished essay, 1991.

Gambitas, Marija, Joseph Campbell (forward), The Language of the Goddess, Harper and Row, New York, 1989.

Gelburd, Gail, De Paoli, Geri, The Transparent Thread: Asian Philosophy in Recent American Art, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1990.

Harrington, David M., CSSSA Talented Research Project: An Overview, unpublished paper.

Kelly, Owen, et. al., Another Standard: Culture and Democracy, The Manifesto, Comedia Publishing Group, London, England, 1986

Lippard, Lucy., Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural America, Pantheon Books, New York, 1990.

Lipsey, Rodger, An Art of Our Own: The Spiritual in Twentieth Century Art, Shambhala Publications, Boston, 1988.

Mello, Henry, J., comments from the exhibition catalogue for Art and the Prison Crisis.

Moore, Thomas, The Planets Within, The Astrological Psychology of Marsilio Ficino, Lindisfarne Press, Stockridge Mass., 1982.

National Commission of Excellence in Education. A Nation At Risk: The Imperative for Education Reform, 1983.

Thompson, S., A. Sun, and L. Beattie. (CA State Assembly Office of Research report), Arts Education in California: Thriving or Surviving?, 1989.

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Bridges, Translations and Change: The Arts as Infrastructure in 21st Century America

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