Engines of Culture: Philanthropy and Art Museums

108 Pages·1995·6.552 MB·English

by  Daniel M. Fox

Engines
of Culture

Engines
of Culture
Philanthropy and
Art Museums
p» ”’ ” *
DANIEL M. FOX
With a new introduction
by the author
Originally published in 1963 by The State Historical Society of Wisconsin for
the Department of History, University of Wisconsin.
Published 1995 by Transaction Publishers
Published 2017 by Routledge
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Library of Congress Catalog Number: 94-11045
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fox, Daniel M.
Engines of culture : philosophy and art museums I Daniel M. Fox with
a new introduction by the author.
p. em.
Originally published : Madison : State Historical Society of Wisconsin
for the Dept. of History, University of Wisconsin, 1963.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 1-56000-173-9
1. Art patronage-United States. 2. Art and state-United States. 3. Art
museums-United States-Management. I. Title.
N5205.F69 1994
708.13'079-dc20 94-11045
CIP
ISBN 13: 978-1-56000-173-7 (hbk)
Contents
Author’s note vii
Introduction to the Transaction Edition 1
1. Museums for the Public 25
2. Impulse and Justification 31
3. Sources of Patterns of Museum Philanthropy 43
Some Patterns of Voluntary Giving 43
Voluntary Service 49
Government Support 51
4. Philanthropy and Museum Policy 59
Museums and Education 59
Museums and Contemporary Art 69
5. Private Desires and Public Welfare 75
Notes 81
Index 93

Author’s Note
I wrote Engines of Culture in 1961 and 1962 for the History of
American Philanthropy project sponsored by the Ford Foundation at
the University of Wisconsin. The text of the 1963 edition is un(cid:59)
changed, except for the correction of typographical errors and a few
changes in the citations.
The new edition is the result of advocacy by several colleagues; Ri(cid:59)
chard Magat, Peter Dobkin Hall and Stanley N. Katz. Irving Louis
Horowitz, president of Transaction publishers, recommended that I write
a substantial introduction to the new edition.
In the first edition I said that my “greatest obligation is to Professor
Merle E. Curti: without his wisdom, kindness and generosity this essay
would have been neither begun nor completed.” For reasons I describe
in the Introduction, this obligation persists after three decades.
Daniel M. Fox
March, 1994
Vll

Introduction to the Transaction Edition
When the first edition of Engines of Culture appeared, in 1963,
neither museums nor American philanthropy were important subjects
for research. Those who studied the visual arts considered artists and
the objects they created to be their proper subjects. Scholars of social
policy emphasized the state and the organized groups that sought to in(cid:59)
fluence it.
Three decades ago I was eccentric to insist that the linkage of philan(cid:59)
thropy and the state in city, state and federal politics was the central
theme in the history and contemporary situation of museums of art. Since
then it has become conventional to consider art a major American in(cid:59)
dustry, like health care, education and defense. In art as in these other
industries, the distinction between private and public action is now am(cid:59)
biguous. Considerable scholarship and journalism describes how public
and non-profit museums have influenced the private market for works
of art, how the education programs of these museums have diffused the
taste that elite Americans wanted people in other social classes to share
or admire, and how both museums and their donors have acquired enor(cid:59)
mous government subsidies.
Because so much has been published on the subject since 1963, I
hesitated when Transaction Publishers, on the recommendation of sev(cid:59)
eral experts on the history and politics of philanthropy, invited me to
introduce a new edition of Engines of Culture. What had I said so many
years ago that should be reprinted? What could I say in an introduction
that might be helpful to scholars who, unlike me, continue to give close
attention to museums?
I persuaded myself that a new edition of Engines would be an oppor(cid:59)
tunity to write for a new audience about the central theme of my career
in government, universities, foundations and scholarship. This theme is
that how power is mobilized and used is the principal problem in public
affairs. I have explored this theme as an activist and scholar in the are(cid:59)
nas of health and social policy. For several months in the early 1960s, I
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