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Author Uy, Michael Sy, author

Title Ask the experts : how Ford, Rockefeller, and the NEA changed American music / Michael Sy Uy
Published New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2020]
©2020

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 263 pages) : illustrations, maps
Contents Defining excellence, quality, and style: consultants as contributory experts -- Gatekeeping from within: grantmaking officers as interactional experts -- Pluralism and public-private relationships in the field of cultural production -- The Rockefeller Foundation, the University New Music Center, and "foundation music" -- The Ford Foundation, matching grants, and endowment building -- The National Endowment for the Arts, the U.S. Bicentennial, and the Expansion Arts and jazz/folk/ethnic programs
Summary "From the end of the Second World War through the U.S. Bicentennial, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Ford Foundation granted close to $300 million (approximately $2.3 billion in 2017 dollars) in the field of music alone. In deciding what to fund, these three grantmaking institutions decided to "ask the experts," adopting seemingly objective, scientific models of peer review and specialist evaluation. They recruited music composers at elite institutions, professors from prestigious universities, and leaders of performing arts organizations. Among the most influential expert-consultants were Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss, and Milton Babbitt. The significance was two-fold: not only were male, Western art composers put in charge of directing large and unprecedented channels of public and private funds, but in doing so they also determined and defined what was meant by artistic excellence. They decided the fate of their peers and shaped the direction of music-making in this country. By asking the experts, the grantmaking institutions produced a concentrated and interconnected field of artists and musicians. Officers and directors utilized ostensibly objective financial tools like matching grants and endowments in an attempt to diversify and stabilize applicants' sources of funding, as well as the number of applicants they funded. Such economics-based strategies, however, relied more on personal connections among the wealthy and elite, rather than local community citizens. Ultimately, this history demonstrates how "expertise" served as an exclusionary form of cultural and social capital that prevented racial minorities and non-dominant groups from fully participating"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Description based on online resource; title from web page (Oxford Scholarship Online, viewed on October 20, 2020)
Subject National Endowment for the Arts -- History -- 20th century
Rockefeller Foundation -- Music patronage -- History -- 20th century
Ford Foundation -- History -- 20th century
SUBJECT Ford Foundation fast
National Endowment for the Arts fast
Rockefeller Foundation fast
Subject Music patronage -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Government aid to music -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Cultural policy
Government aid to music
Music patronage
SUBJECT United States -- Cultural policy -- History -- 20th century
Subject United States
Genre/Form Electronic books
History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2020008328
ISBN 9780197510476
0197510477
9780197510452
0197510450
9780197510469
0197510469