Local arts agencies, as leading advocates of cultural equity, stimulate arts participation in thousands of local communities in the United States. Cultural equity “embodies the values, policies, and practices that ensure that all people—including but not limited to those who have been historically underrepresented based on race/ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, socio-economic status, geography, citizenship status, or religion—are represented in the development of arts policy.” Local arts agencies (LAAs) are non-profit or public organizations that support and promote arts participation by facilitating the artistic expression of underrepresented groups in local and national, political and cultural discourses. LAAs, however, vary in their approach and intensity of their pursuit of cultural equity.

In this paper the authors document regional differences in the approaches taken by 55 major U.S. LAAs to the dual mission of pursuing cultural equity and civic engagement and assess the policy implications of the globalization thesis. In making this assessment, they present a university-community partnership (UCP) model for augmenting LAA pursuits of the dual equity-engagement mission.

In this paper the authors document regional differences in the approaches taken by 55 major U.S. LAAs to the dual mission of pursuing cultural equity and civic engagement and assess the policy implications of the globalization thesis. In making this assessment, they present a university-community partnership (UCP) model for augmenting LAA pursuits of the dual equity-engagement mission.