Mission

The mission of the Center for Cultural Affairs at the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs is to advance the understanding of the place of arts and culture in public life. The center will facilitate a network of scholars and practitioners interested in advancing cultural affairs research, produce high-quality and relevant research on arts and cultural policy and management issues, and serve as a resource to the arts and cultural sector. 

 

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The Center for Cultural Affairs will host the 22nd Association for Cultural Economics International (ACEI) conference in Bloomington, Indiana from 27-30 June 2023. The theme of the conference is Cultural Economics Coming Together: Bridging Distances, Crossing Boundaries

Please check out the ACEI 2023 conference website for more details.

CCA News and Events

What is 'cultural affairs'?

The term ‘cultural affairs’ refers to public engagement with arts and culture. As a field of study, it consists of several subfields, including cultural economics, cultural management, arts management, arts administration, cultural entrepreneurship, cultural policy, and more. Within each subfield, and the larger field of cultural affairs, scholars from various disciplines study issues around public engagement with arts and culture. Disciplines include, but are not limited to, economics, anthropology, sociology, history, geography, neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, folklore, and more. In other words, the field of cultural affairs is interdisciplinary and is made up of various subfields, in which scholars from various disciplines study issues around public engagement with arts and culture.

Artwork credit: Banner artwork by hellocatfood (©Antonio Roberts) via Creative Commons.
Roberts created this piece during a 2014-2015 artist residency at the University of Birmingham,
where he focused on issues surrounding copyright, permission, culture, and art.