The Humanities, Arts, and Culture
The American Academy was founded to promote the pursuit of knowledge and the education of citizens in all fields of knowledge. Since 1780, the Academy has advocated for the importance of the humanities, arts, and culture in American society, and has called on both private citizens and the nation’s government to help foster advances in these areas.
Today, the Academy conducts research and develops policy recommendations to advance the humanities in academic scholarship and in the public sector, to dis- play the importance of the arts in society, and to enrich the nation’s cultural life. By bringing together scholars, artists, and leaders from both the public and private sectors, Academy programs in the Humanities, Arts, and Culture put practitioners and scholars in conversation with individuals from other disciplines, ensuring that the arts and humanities are valued in all areas of civic life.
Projects in this area demonstrate the value of the humanities, arts, and culture to the nation’s security and prosperity, and call attention to the role played by work in these fields to enriching the health of communities and the daily lives of its citizens.
THE HUMANITIES, ARTS, AND CULTURE
Program Advisory Group
Richard Brodhead
Duke University
Colin Dayan
Vanderbilt University
Johanna Drucker
University of California, Los Angeles
Tom Gunning
University of Chicago
Gish Jen
Cambridge, MA
Jacqueline Jones
University of Texas at Austin
Mary Kelley
University of Michigan
Jane McAuliffe
Library of Congress
Jahan Ramazani
University of Virginia
Oscar Tang
New York, NY
Maria Hummer Tuttle
J. Paul Getty Trust
Pauline Yu
American Council of Learned Societies
PROJECT
Commission on Language Learning
In 2014, a bipartisan group of members of Congress asked the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to undertake a new study of the nation’s language education needs. Four members of the United States Senate–Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin), Mark Kirk (R-Illinois), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) – and four members of the House of Representatives – Rush Holt (D-New Jersey), Leonard Lance (R-New Jersey), David Price (D-North Carolina), and Don Young (R-Alaska) – signed two letters requesting that the Academy provide answers to the following questions:
How does language learning influence economic growth, cultural diplomacy, the productivity of future generations, and the fulfillment of all Americans? What actions should the nation take to ensure excellence in all languages as well as international education and research, including how we may more effectively use current resources to advance language attainment?
In response to this request, the Academy created the Commission on Language Learning. The Commission’s final report, America’s Languages: Investing in Language Education for the 21st Century, offers concrete recommendations to improve access to as many languages as possible, for people of every age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic background.
On February 28, 2017, the day of the public release of America’s Languages, Representative David Price (D-North Carolina) introduced the World Language Advancement and Readiness Act, a bill cosigned by eighteen of his colleagues. The act pro- poses three-year competitive grants to support local and state school districts that want to establish, improve, or expand innovative programs in world language learning. Subsequently, the Commission’s final report has influenced several additional federal bills and has been cited in Congressional “Dear Colleague” letters in defense of federal funding for Title VI education programs and Fulbright-Hays Fellowships. It has inspired curricular reviews on college and university campuses and is providing an intellectual foundation for the Lead with Languages public campaign organized by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Representatives of language and learned societies, education advocacy organizations, government agencies, and international business are now collaborating as the America’s Language Working Group to advance the Commission’s recommendations. The group’s first product, a call-to-action called “Bridging America’s Language Gap,” has been endorsed by nearly two hundred leaders and institutions from a variety of sectors. The call-to-action is posted on the Commission’s website.
Commission Chair
Paul LeClerc
Columbia Global Center-Paris, Columbia University
Commission Members
Martha G. Abbot
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
Mark Aronoff
Stony Brook University
Jessie “little doe” Baird
Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project
David Chu
Institute for Defense Analyses
Dan E. Davidson
American Councils for International Education; Bryn Mawr College
Nicholas B. Dirks
University of California, Berkeley
Brian T. Edwards
Northwestern University
Karl Eikenberry
Stanford University; U.S. Army, ret.
Rosemary G. Feal
Modern Language Association of America
Carol Gluck
Columbia University
Nancy McEldowney
Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State
Philip Rubin
Haskins Laboratories; formerly, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
Rubén G. Rumbaut
University of California, Irvine
Marta Tienda
Princeton University
Kenneth L. Wallach
Central National Gottesman Inc.
Diane P. Wood
U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
Pauline Yu
American Council of Learned Societies
Project Staff
John Tessitore
Julian Kronick
Esha Senchaudhuri
Funders
Henry Luce Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
PROJECT PUBLICATIONS \\ COMMISSION ON LANGUAGE LEARNING
America’s Languages: Investing in Language Education for the 21st Century (American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2017)
The State of Languages in the U.S.: A Statistical Portrait (American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2016)
PROJECT
The Humanities Indicators
The Humanities Indicators are descriptive statistics that chart trends over time in aspects of the humanities that are of interest to a wide audience and for which there are available data. The Indicators provide data on a diverse array of topics pertaining to the role of the humanities in the contemporary United States. These topics are organized into five major parts:
- Part I. Primary and Secondary Education in the Humanities: These Indicators cover national measures of achievement at the primary and secondary school levels; high school course-taking; and the characteristics of primary and secondary faculty.
- Part II. Undergraduate and Graduate Education in the Humanities: The Indicators in this section focus on the types of courses undergraduate and graduate students take and the degrees they receive, and consider both preparedness for graduate school and the conditions of graduate education.
- Part III. The Humanities Workforce: These Indicators describe employment in humanistic settings and occupations, with emphasis on postsecondary faculty, and also the career paths of those with undergraduate and graduate degrees in the humanities.
- Part IV. Humanities Funding and Research: These Indicators include data on federal, state, and private funding for the humanities, as well as on support for academic research.
- Part V. The Humanities in American Life: The topics currently treated in this section include humanistic skills and practices, such as reading and multilingualism; support for and utilization of various humanistic institutions, such as libraries and museums; and public attitudes toward the humanities.
In addition to regular updates to the existing content, the project also develops original research, including a survey of the humanities in community colleges (reported in fall 2018) and a survey of humanities activities in the general public. Over the course of 2017, material from the Indicators was cited more the 70 times in the media, in publications ranging from Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle of Higher Education to The Wall Street Journal and Time.
The Humanities Indicators are accessible at www.humanities indicators.org.
Project Director
Norman M. Bradburn
NORC at the University of Chicago
Advisory Committee
Jack Buckley
American Institutes for Research
Jonathan R. Cole
Columbia University
John Dichtl
American Association for State and Local History
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Cornell University
Michael Hout
New York University
Felice J. Levine
American Educational Research Association
Esther Mackintosh
Federation of State Humanities Councils
Judith Tanur
Stony Brook University
Steven Wheatley
American Council of Learned Societies
Project Staff
Paul Erickson
Carolyn Fuqua
Robert B. Townsend
Funders
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
National Endowment for the Humanities
Peck Stacpoole Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation
Sara Lee Corporation
The Teagle Foundation
With advice and assistance from:
American Academy of Religion
American Council of Learned Societies
American Historical Association
American Philosophical Association
American Political Science Association
College Art Association
Federation of State Humanities Councils
History of Science Society
Linguistic Society of America
Modern Language Association of America
National Communication Association
National Humanities Alliance
Society for Biblical Literature
PROJECT PUBLICATIONS \\ THE HUMANITIES INDICATORS
The State of the Humanities 2018: Graduates in the Workforce & Beyond (American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2018)
The State of the Humanities: Higher Education 2015 (American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2015)
The State of the Humanities: Funding 2014 (American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2014)
PROJECT MEETINGS \\ THE HUMANITIES INDICATORS
Planning a Survey of the Humanities and the Public
December 5, 2017
New York, NY
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation asked the Humanities Indicators project to design a survey of public opinion regarding the humanities. The project convened two meetings with leaders from the humanities communities in New York City and Washington, D.C., to discuss potential topics and questions, which were developed subsequently into a test survey for cognitive interviews.
Participants
Norman Bradburn, Chair
NORC at the University of Chicago
John Paul Christy
American Council of Learned Societies
Paul Erickson
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Carolyn Fuqua
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
John Garnett
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Christine Henseler
4Humanities; Union College
Paula Krebs
Modern Languages Association
David Laurence
Modern Languages Association
Alan Liu
4Humanities; University of California, Santa Barbara
Hunter O’Hanian
College Art Association
Valerie Paley
New York Historical Society
Kathy Rosa
American Library Association
Judy Tanur
Stony Brook University
Robert Townsend
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Steven Wheatley
American Council of Learned Societies
Planning a Survey of the Humanities and the Public
December 7, 2017
Washington, D.C.
Participants
Norman Bradburn, Chair
NORC at the University of Chicago
Amy Ferrer
American Philosophical Association
Jim Grossman
American Historical Association
Sunil Iyengar
National Endowment for the Arts
Stephen Kidd
National Humanities Alliance
Elise Lipkowitz
National Science Board
Esther Mackintosh
Federation of State Humanities Councils
Jane McAuliffe
Library of Congress
Lynn Pasquarella
American Association of Colleges and Universities
William Rivers
Joint National Committee for Languages—National Council for Languages and International Studies
Jeffrey Thomas
National Endowment for the Humanities
Ann Wise
Phi Beta Kappa
Advisory Committee Meeting
January 13, 2018
Washington, D.C.
At the annual meeting of the Advisory Committee for the Humanities Indicators project, the participants reviewed the previous year’s updates to the website and the news coverage the project received. The committee also discussed planned revisions to the site for the coming year and made recommendations related to upcoming projects, such as the National Inventory of Humanities Organizations, the survey of the humanities in community colleges, and the upcoming third iteration of the Humanities Department Survey.
Participants
Norman M. Bradburn
NORC at the University of Chicago
Jack Buckley
American Institutes for Research
Jonathan R. Cole
Columbia University
John Dichtl
American Association for State and Local History
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Cornell University
Paul Erickson
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Carolyn Fuqua
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Michael Hout
New York University
Felice J. Levine
American Educational Research Association
Esther Mackintosh
Federation of State Humanities Councils
Judith Tanur
Stony Brook University
Jeffrey Thomas
National Endowment for the Humanities
Robert Townsend
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Steven Wheatley
American Council of Learned Societies
PROJECT
Commission on the Arts
In February 2016, the Academy began holding a series of conversations on the possibility of forming a national Commission on the Arts. Since then, the Academy has held twelve conversations in eleven cities around the country with groups of arts leaders, funders, and practicing artists. These conversations engaged a range of Academy Members with an interest in the arts.
The consensus among participants in these meetings was that the Academy could play an important role in the national conversation on the arts, as long as the Commission was given a tightly focused mandate and that it made an affirmative case for the importance of the arts in the life of a twenty-first-century democracy.
The most salient recommendation from the sounding meetings was that an Academy commission ought to focus on the role of the arts in American life rather than on the state of the arts. Numerous studies exist that chart attendance at art museums, measure the economic impact of the arts on particular cities (or on the nation), or track changes in school attendance and graduation rates relative to the number of art classes avail- able. But participants in the sounding meetings stressed that there was no national conversation taking place about what the arts can do that other forms of communication cannot, and about why that matters, both for the health of individuals and our communities.
Overall, these sounding conversations made clear that artists and arts institutions play a crucial role in building resilient communities, fostering cultural empathy, overcoming social isolation, and cultivating creativity and innovation. They also play an enormously important role in individual lives. Everyday Americans find solace and meaning through making music, or writing poetry, or painting – indeed, the scope and the significance of individual participation in the arts in the course of daily life are crucial to maintaining cultural traditions and simply creating joy. These factors are more difficult to measure than economic impact or school attendance, but they are areas where the arts play a distinctive role.
The Academy convened a planning committee to evaluate feed- back from the sounding meetings, craft a clear mandate for the Commission, and identify potential outcomes that would inform a proposal for the full Commission. The Academy’s Council and Board approved the proposal in April 2018, and the Commission will be moving forward over the course of the coming year.
Planning Committee
Louise Bryson
J. Paul Getty Trust
Julie Burros
Department of Arts and Culture, City of Boston, MA
Katherine Farley
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
John Lithgow
Actor
Kevin Young
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library
Laura Zabel
Springboard for the Arts
Project Staff
Paul Erickson
Julian Kronick
Natoschia Scruggs
Esha Senchaudhuri
Funders
The Ford Foundation
The Getty Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The Kresge Foundation
Roger and Victoria Sant
PROJECT MEETINGS \\ COMMISSION ON THE ARTS
Planning Committee Meetings
August 3, 2017
American Academy
Cambridge, MA
October 5, 2017
American Academy
Cambridge, MA
March 28, 2018
teleconference meeting
The Planning Committee reviewed feedback from the sounding meetings, discussed areas of focus for the Commission, responded to drafts of the proposal for the Commission, and provided suggestions on the Commission’s leadership, membership, and timeline.
Sounding Meeting
January 19, 2018
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Bentonville, AR
Academy staff traveled to Bentonville for a conversation hosted by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Participants discussed the role of the arts in Northwest Arkansas and the particular challenges facing the arts, artists, and arts education in a rural area. This discussion added to the Academy’s understanding of the role of the arts and the place of artists in communities outside of major metropolitan areas, which informed the final proposal for the Commission.
Participants
Rod Bigelow
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Megan Bolinder
NorthWest Arkansas Community College
John Brown III
Windgate Charitable Foundation
Charlotte Buchanan-Yale
Museum of Native American History
Diane Carroll
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Simone Cottrell
Artist’s Laboratory Theatre
Paul Erickson
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Bernice Hembree
Musician, Smokey & The Mirror
Bryan Hembree
Musician, Smokey & The Mirror
Katy Henriksen
“Of Note,” KUAF; “Ozarks at Large”
Matt Herren
Symphony of Northwest Arkansas
Erin Hogue
The Walmart Foundation
Jeannie Hulen
University of Arkansas
Steve Jenkins
NorthWest Arkansas Community College
Debbie Jones
Bentonville Schools
Sharon Killian
Art Ventures NWA
Julian Kronick
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Peter B. Lane
Walton Arts Center and Walmart AMP
Mary Ley
Arkansas Arts Academy
Octavio Logo
Artist
Peter MacKeith
University of Arkansas
Martin Miller
TheatreSquared
Joe Randel
Walton Family Foundation
Michael Riha
University of Arkansas
Paul Savas
Trike Theatre
Eve Smith
Artist; Arts Center of the Ozarks
Sounding Meeting
January 22, 2018
New Orleans Center for the Gulf South at Tulane University
New Orleans, LA
This sounding meeting served as another opportunity to hear from artists, scholars, and arts administrators in smaller communities and those outside of major coastal metropolitan areas. This meeting enriched the final proposal for the Commission by providing perspectives on the complex interplay between commercial pressures and political engagement in artists’ careers, the role of individuals and institutions in the arts, and the importance of arts education.
Participants
Bruce Sunpie Barnes
Musician, Ethnographer
Willie Birch
Artist
Rachel Breunlin
University of New Orleans
Courtney Bryan
Tulane University
Joel Dinerstein
Tulane University
Paul Erickson
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Denise Frazier
New Orleans Center for the Gulf South at Tulane University
Gia Hamilton
Joan Mitchell Center
Julian Kronick
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Zachary Lazar
Tulane University
Bryan Lee Jr.
Colloqate Design; Arts Council of New Orleans
Deborah Luster
Photographer
Stephanie McKee
Junebug Productions
Elsie B Michie
Louisiana State University
Aurora Nealand
Musician
Mónica Ramirez-Montagut
Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane
Kathy Randels
ArtSpot Productions
Sonya Robinson
Arts Learning Consultant
Ama Rogan
A Studio in the Woods, A Program of Tulane University
Maurice Carlos Ruffin
Author
Nick Slie
Performer, Producer, and Cultural Organizer from Mondo Bizarro
Rebecca Snedeker
New Orleans Center for the Gulf South at Tulane University
Monique Verdin
Documentarian
Sounding Meeting
January 29, 2018
Neubauer Family Foundation
Philadelphia, PA
This sounding meeting focused primarily on the role of K-12 arts education in an urban environment, using as a case study a framework for the presentation of arts content in the Philadelphia Public Schools that was developed in partnership with the Neubauer Family Foundation. The meeting, with its focus on K-12 education, added a valuable dimension to the Com- mission’s proposal and to the program staff’s understanding of the issues surrounding arts education.
Participants
Dan Berkowitz
Neubauer Family Foundation
Sarah Cooper
Pennsylvania Ballet
Becky Cornejo
Neubauer Family Foundation
Paul Erickson
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Carolyn Fuqua
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Naomi Gonzalez
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Liz Grimaldi
Fleisher Art Memorial
Robert Hauser
American Philosophical Society
Pheng Lim
Folk Arts Cultural Treasures
John Lithgow
Actor
Frank Machos
Office of Arts and Academic Enrichment, School District of Philadelphia
Lisa Murch
Mural Art
Mike O’Bryan
The Village of Arts
John Orr
ArtReach
Jean-Michel Rabate
University of Pennsylvania
Christine Witkowski
ArtistYear
Previous Sounding Meetings
February 5, 2016
Los Angeles, CA
March 28, 2016
New York, NY
May 11, 2016
Chicago, IL (two meetings)
September 12, 2016
Washington, D.C.
September 26, 2016
Cambridge, MA
November 17, 2016
San Francisco, CA
January 13, 2017
Miami, FL
February 10, 2017
St. Louis, MO