Supporting the need: A comparative investigation of public and private arts endowments supporting state arts agencies

In American Canvas, Delaware's Arts Stabilization Fund (ArtCo) received national prominence as an innovate method to increase and leverage public and private dollars to support arts development at the state level. Arts endowment formation is not a new phenomenon, North Dakota and Montana both introduced endowments in the 1970s (Warshawski 1998, Barsdate 2000). Additionally, the parallel or companion foundation as endowment strategy also has a longstanding presence in public administration. The Indiana Endowment for the Arts, established in 1971, was among the first companion foundations at State Arts Agencies (SAAs) and became defunct in 1984. Additionally, the California Arts Council considered an endowment fund in the late 1960 but was advised against establishing it by consultants Adams & Goldbard (1978).; After the Culture War of the late 1980s to 1990s, SAAs sought to replace reduced federal appropriations as the National Endowment for the Arts's (NEA) funds were no longer available at prior high levels. Unlike in Delaware, most SAA fund development initiatives were created without adequate planning and infrastructural development. Some SAAs pursued passing legislation for their cultural trust endowments and cultural trust funds as in Delaware with ArtCo and in Indiana with the Indiana Cultural Trust Fund (ICTF), while other states developed and expanded companion foundations, 501 c3 organizations, as in Ohio. In 1998, Warshawski reported that nearly a quarter of the states had begun processes to establish arts trust funds and endowments. Within the past twenty years, federal cutbacks, national disaster, and international crisis resulted in more SAAs shifting their foci to their own stabilization and sustainability through public arts endowments (PAE) development.; This investigation is a collective case study of PAE that and reviews of arts management and fund development practices in Delaware, Ohio, and Indiana. Fund development policy and administration fall into three primary approaches that are: Collaborative Management in Delaware; Project Management in Ohio, and Policy Formation in Indiana. Multiple questions are addressed in this research to include: (1) How are PAE defined by SAA, (2) What organizational management and conceptual frames are being utilized in fund development by SAAs, and (3) Are policy and cultural heritage strategies are being used in program innovation and design to attract private donors? Additionally, several research areas are reviewed: (1) conceptual frames or organizational philosophy for trusts and endowment funds formation and implementation, (2) management views and approaches by policymakers and public arts administrators, (3) influences on program designs like Arts Education, Artists Services, Professional Development, Leadership Institutions, and workforce development, and (4) links between financial, social, intellectual, and human capital in endowment formation. Reassessment of technology and its related infrastructures are also essential components in the development of social and financial capital. Yet, technological capacity in fund development remains an issue for future investigation.; This research also introduces Social Pluralism as a conceptual frame to further group and individual understanding about how cultural heritage and individualism are synthesized through ethnic and socio-economic cultural lenses that are complete with group assessment, construction of new practices, and strategies for participating in domestic, international, and global context. Social Pluralism, as an strategic process and application, is based on four tenets: (1) social cooperation, (2) social construction, (3) entrepreneurism, and (4) cultural affirmation. The intent of Social Pluralism is to align operating strategies with administrative practices related to public administration.; Most SAAs share functions of being preserver, conveyor, arbitrator and researcher of culture in their states. As...