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What Makes Art a ‘Public Good’?
Setup
Why is there resistance to the idea that public funds should be used for art? What does it mean for the stewardship of cultural and educational organizations and the support of individual artists? And how does the relationship between non-profit and commercial culture impact how we value the creative sector?
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Arts
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As one of the foremost reporters of his generation, Nicholas Kristof has been witness to century-defining events and atrocities around the world. How has he managed to weaponi...
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In “Mindset Matters,” Daniel R. Porterfield advances the argument for the value of undergraduate education and suggests ways to improve education for new generations. Three co...
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Amid seismic shifts in the entertainment world, Oscar-, Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning Brian Grazer has managed to keep pivoting to new ways to tell stories in movies, TV and...
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In the last 30 years, conglomerates from Amazon to Netflix to Spotify have changed the way we interact with media, books, fashion and music. Creatives are struggling to mainta...
![Vagabond of Song](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/7eea29da-ea74-4516-b211-776d628c7f8a/53821145355_6b0d6d5891_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C311%2C5975%2C3361&w=400)
Hurray for the Riff Raff is more than Alynda Segarra’s musical moniker; they spent their youth hopping trains across America, capturing that life in youthful poetry then and a...
![What Images Teach About Racial Justice](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/b952ab2d-c640-4a57-8279-6c7d03238fb9/53820187272_5aeee651ba_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C242%2C4650%2C2616&w=400)
Images communicate truths, and also lies. Learning to pay attention to photographs can help us discern. An art and cultural historian and a visual artist host a master class o...
![Creativity in Confinement](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/5817dd14-bfd6-49b1-b658-02ccfd2bfa4d/common.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C430%2C8256%2C4644&w=400)
When people in prison are given creative outlets, the impact is life-changing. Hear from a hip-hop artist setting up prison recording studios, an architect designing more huma...
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The Walton Family Foundation’s latest research with Gallup shows that young people need a sense of purpose in school and work to feel happy—and the right adult mentors and gui...
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Whether as Elaine Benes from “Seinfeld” or Selina Meyer from “Veep,” Julia Louis-Dreyfus delivers laughter. But in the upcoming film “Tuesday,” she communicates with death — i...
![Echoes of Time in Type](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/a0a8f949-e84c-4dd4-90fa-fa22b81a0f3d/53819113811_fa4c876577_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C245%2C4651%2C2618&w=400)
You may not know what typeface this sentence is written in, but typography is crucial to how we convey, process and retain information. How has the form evolved? Hear from des...
![Raised by Hollywood](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/f4cbcde9-0ecf-4991-87f1-04612ce76564/53815514942_0719f738aa_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C5888%2C3313&w=400)
Maybe all of us feel like we’ve been raised by Hollywood, but being raised in Hollywood is a different kind of drama. Actor, producer and director Griffin Dunne joins friend (...
![A Radical Vision: Art for All in America](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/0a7e8ded-eaa5-45ff-b952-de3caf6a17cf/radicalvision.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=600&q=80&rect=1667%2C0%2C2666%2C3999&w=400)
Here’s a radical proposal: Make access to the arts free for everyone. Leaders on a mission to bring Americans into art spaces discuss the transformative power of the arts, and...
![The Real Women of Shakespeare’s England](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/cc44397d-a3af-4329-8c45-4925b95839ef/53816971471_9beb512833_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C242%2C4650%2C2616&w=400)
Rosalind, Viola, Portia and Beatrice are unforgettable roles in Shakespeare’s plays. But there were real women behind these characters — women who spoke out against patriarchy...
![The Architecture of Social Division](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/6b33d4ba-e714-4570-bb8d-f66138b7cd51/53817140325_6d82dc2ecf_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C430%2C8256%2C4644&w=400)
Architecture doesn’t just build edifices; it shapes societies. Even as transportation infrastructure creates and locks in racial inequality, there is hope that intentional des...
![Read with Jenna](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/7e0f72c3-1d78-4fe3-8ae5-178acf0904d7/53814494128_dbe2df981d_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C1204%2C5504%2C3096&w=400)
Join NBC's Jenna Bush Hager as she discusses her Read With Jenna July book club selection with its New York Times bestselling author. Explore the epic love story and thriller,...
![Academia at a Crossroads](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/84db7fff-d2f7-4f59-9e67-0ab4f888b774/academia.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=600&q=80&rect=1292%2C0%2C2067%2C3100&w=400)
Academia is beset by challenges related to free speech, admission policies, donor pressures and soaring costs. University leaders are simultaneously negotiating these minefiel...
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Shakespeare's plays, rich with political intrigue, power struggles and ethical dilemmas, provide profound commentary on the nature of governance and leadership — and draw unse...
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What if the threat to American democracy came from within our own military? “War Game,” a 2024 Sundance Official Selection documentary, imagined just such a scenario and conve...
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In the aftermath of the sentencing of disgraced FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, celebrated author Michael Lewis shares new insights about the spectacular downfall of SBF, whom he s...