Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

This study aims to investigate how a state arts agency could employ collaboration and technology to improve efficiency and legitimize its funding support by conducting a case study of Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC), which is Massachusetts's designated state agency that provides grants and services for cultural organizations, schools, communities, and individual artists. Research has shown that arts and culture not only being integral to life but also instrumental when coupling with other social policies such as, education, economy, development, and many more (Mowlah, Niblett, Blackburn, & Harris, 2014; Gibson, 2008). However, public funding for the arts and culture continues falling into victim of the existing political mood dominated by fiscal conservatism with emphasis on curbing governmental spending and it often becomes the target of government budget cut. It has been pointed out that private sectors are unlikely to support the arts and culture for the major public values they represent, including excellence, conservation, access, innovation, pluralism and diversity, and participation, and therefore the role of government should be to support those public values that are largely underserved in the marketplace (DiMaggio, 1987).

Qualitative interviews were conducted with a total of 33 individuals who are stakeholders related to the work of MCC. The sample includes key personnel from the agency, executive staff at other governmental and non-governmental entities with whom it interacts or collaborate, selective legislators, and key staffers from the grantee organizations, such as nonprofit arts and cultural organizations as well as youth service organizations. The in-depth interviews revealed several key themes that might present opportunities for other public agencies to be effective and efficient in their work. One major theme indicates that use of data in a dataset set up with other collaborators helps the agency track funding level in order to effectively report the economic impacts of its grants. Second, while the agency’s ability to directly fund nonprofit organizations may be restrained by its annual budget, it emphasizes services in the form of consultancy and knowledge sharing. Such services provided were seen instrumental to the stakeholders in the cultural sector. Third, the agency has adapted various forms of technology especially in social media, including lisertv, online blogs, online training, youtube, podcast, and twitter, to reach potential stakeholders. The use of technology improves its efficiency and promotes communication among stakeholders. Lastly, collaborations with other governmental and nongovernmental partners help enhance its footing in the political process. These include collaborative research with local foundations, as well as promoting engagement between nonprofit organizations with legislators to ensure that the agency stays visible in the policy process.

References

DiMaggio, P. (1987). Can cultural survive the marketplace? In P. DiMaggio (Ed.), Nonprofit enterprise in the arts: studies in mission and constraint(pp. 67-92). Cary, NC: Oxford University

Gibson, L. (2008). In defence of instrumentality. Cultural trends, 17 (4), 247-257.

Mowlah, A., Niblett, V., Blackburn, J., & Harris, M. (2014). The value of arts and culture to people and society. Manchester, UK: Arts Council England.