Performing Policy

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xix

   PDF

2. Introduction: Performing Policy

   • Paul Bonin-Rodriguez

   Pages 1-28

3. A Politic of Purpose: “The Arts and the Public Purpose” (1997)

   • Paul Bonin-Rodriguez

   Pages 29-49

4. New Work Now! The Austin New Works Theatre Community (2012)

   • Paul Bonin-Rodriguez

   Pages 50-70

5. Accounting for Capital: The Creative Capital Foundation (1999-Present)

   • Paul Bonin-Rodriguez

   Pages 71-89

6. A Survey Course: Teaching Artists and/as Producers (2013)

   • Paul Bonin-Rodriguez

   Pages 90-106

7. Linking Creative Investments: Investing in Creativity (2003) and LINC (2003–2013)

   • Paul Bonin-Rodriguez

   Pages 107-126

8. Proposing Place: Creative Placemaking (2010-Present)

   • Paul Bonin-Rodriguez

   Pages 127-141

9. Coda: Performing Policy

   • Paul Bonin-Rodriguez

   Pages 142-146

10. Back Matter

    Pages 147-208

    PDF

This book demonstrates how and why a majority of US artists must now function as producers of their original works, as well as creators. The author shows how, over the span of 20 years, the USA's cultural policy sector radically redefined US artists' practices without cohesively articulating the expectations of artists' new role.

• Theatre and policy
• policy as performance
• accounting
• capital
• community
• creativity
• cultural policy
• news
• politics
• teaching
• theatre
• work

“The volume is a welcome intervention that tracks the complex interdependencies of artistic practice and the infrastructures of its support: public, economic, and social. Most convincingly, the book serves as a vital call to arms for working artists to hone their own infrastructural imaginations and to reimagine their capacities for collaboratively performing policy … .” (Brandon Woolf, TDR: The Drama Review, Vol. 61 (2), 2017)

“Bonin-Rodriguez’s Performing Policy carries the reader through two decades of innovative responses to the 1990s culture wars. … The book offers something for just about everyone concerned with contemporary arts practice and policy. … Performing Policy is a unique, precocious, creative, bold, and meticulously researched contribution to our understanding of upheavals and innovation over two decades of American arts and culture.” (Ann Markusen, The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society, Vol. 45 (4), November, 2015)

"This book provides a much needed perspective about policy from the point of view of an artist who has been actively engaged in policymaking over time. Its range of examples, thoughtful analysis, and diverse perspectives of policymakers, artists, arts administrators, researchers, and theorists, add up to a book that is a catalyst both for dialogue and for engagement." Caron Atlas, Arts and Democracy

'In Performing Policy, author Paul Bonin-Rodriguez provides a much-needed perspective on the artist's role both in cultural policy and in 21st-century American society. Bonin-Rodriguez draws extensively from his own experiences as a performing artist, teacher, and scholar to elevate the role of artists in cultural policy and to document their importance in being at the 'policy table.' His book is timely and relevant, as expectations of artists' roles have been elevated.' - Neville K. Vakharia, Drexel University, USA

'The book is informative in its historical analysis of attempts by altruistic non-artists to build policy structures aimed at ensuring participation in, and support of, artists in our current culture' - Ken Tabachnick,Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, USA

'Writing from an engaging first-person perspective, Bonin-Rodriguez shares the modern history of arts and cultural policies and presents a progression of local- to national-level programs and initiatives, including Austin New Works Theatre Community, LINC, and ArtPlace America, as examples of how artists and groups have designed or are key players in the practice of cultural policy in the communities. The author investigates how policy questions have been formed, who forms them, and how these questions inform and influence artists and society-at-large. This salient book would well serve students of US arts and cultural policies.' - GIA Reader

Paul Bonin-Rodriguez is Assistant Professor in the Department of Theater and Dance at the University of Texas, Austin, USA. As a writer and performer, he researches the political origins and effects of contemporary arts and cultural policies and programs. His articles appear in Artivate: a Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts, Theatre Topics, and a forthcoming anthology on New WORLD Theater. His plays have been published in The Color of Theatre, Jump-Start Playworks, and Text and Performance Quarterly.

Policies and ethics