Just as all perceptions are of figures differentiated from a larger background, a play takes place against the background of the audience's knowledge and feelings. While audience members generally bring to a performance a large body of background information--they evaluate the storyline, for example, using a lifetime of personal experience--at…

The report discusses the Ford Foundation's support for the arts in the United States since 1981. The premise upon which the Foundation provides such support is that the arts provide an immediate and intense means of communication, both in the present and across the centuries. A potent reflector and interpreter of values, art illuminates the…

Maintains that music educators have struggled for decades with issues related to a "multimusical culture." Contends that balancing the musical traditions of Western civilization and honoring the varieties of music of cultural subgroups is a major issue in contemporary music education. (CFR)