Government and culture: New York City and its cultural institutions, 1870-1965

Private resources and private initiative have traditionally been the wellspring for cultural endeavors in the United States. But in the late nineteenth century local government began to support cultural institutions and most particularly museums.;This dissertation explores the relationship between the City of New York and its cultural institutions. It focuses on three institutions: the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the City Center of Music and Drama and the preceding abortive efforts that nevertheless paved the way for its creation; and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.;In 1870 a partnership was established between the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the city by which government officials agreed to furnish a building on valuable public land to the Museum and to appropriate funds annually for its maintenance and operations in exchange for limited public service. The relationship has been complex and dynamic, but its basic structure has remained unchanged and has served as a model for the (more or less successful) development of similar partnerships with other cultural institutions.;Despite the significant allocation of public funds to cultural institutions, the combination of a private sector traditionally hostile to government intervention in cultural affairs--mitigated by the representatives of cultural institutions' willingness to make exceptions for their own organizations--and government officials arguing that the American people's tolerance for public support of the arts is thin, at best, has resulted in the persistence of the peculiarly American system of cultural patronage, in private hands for the most part.