Invisible Cultural Policy in America

This presentation will draw from her latest (open access) publication (Edward Elgar, 2025). The talk will examine the often-overlooked role of the U.S. government in shaping cultural life. She will explore how public administration fosters a pluralistic cultural landscape through multilevel governance and diverse democratic values. Focusing on the arts, humanities, and historic preservation, the talk traces key legislation that legitimised federal involvement and the evolution of cultural federalism across national and state agencies. To illustrate this process, the presentation provides national examples of programming as well as cases from Oregon, Minnesota, Maryland, and New Mexico. It also highlights intellectual debates that influenced shifting interpretations of cultural domains. Amid this fragmented governance, the concept of a pluralistic public culture emerges as a unifying principle aimed at strengthening democracy.

Following the presentation, a Q&A will be chaired by Dr Kim-Marie Spence, AMCP, School of Arts, English & Languages at QUB.

Light refreshments will follow the talk.

This event is open to all and particularly relevant for those interested in public policy, cultural policy and public culture. Attendance is free but booking is required due to limited capacity.

This event is made possible with the assistance of the School of Arts English & Languages through the Arts CDRG.

Speaker bios:

Eleonora Redaelli is a Professor at the University of Oregon specialized in American cultural policy and currently is serving as a Dean of Faculty at IES Abroad in Rome. After working for public and private institutions in the cultural sector in Italy, she earned her Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. She coordinated and taught in the Arts Management program at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. She has been visiting professor at American University (Rome), Shandong University (Jinan, China), University of International Business and Economics (Beijing), and visiting scholar at Tshwane University of Technology (Pretoria, South Africa), University of Ottawa (Canada), Politecnico di Milano (Italy), Aarhus University (Denmark). Her work appears in several leading journals such as International Journal of the Arts in Society, City, Culture and Society, Urban Affairs Review, Cultural Trends, Journal of Planning Education and Research, Policy Studies, Urban Geography, Journal of General Education, and Cities. With Palgrave, she has published Arts Management and Cultural Policy Research (2016), co-authored with Jonathan Paquette, Connecting Arts and Place. Cultural Policy and American Cities (2019), the edited volume Visiting the Art Museum: A Journey Toward Participation (2023). With Edward Elgar she recently published Invisible Cultural Policy in America: How Public Administration Shapes Culture (2025).

Kim-Marie Spence is a Lecturer in and Subject Lead of Arts Management & Cultural Policy in the School of Arts Management & Cultural Policy at QUB. Her research focus is Non-West cultural industries and cultural policy with a focus on reggae/dancehall and K-pop. She studies the political economy of cultural industries giving attention to nationality, location and race. Likewise, she has an interest in creative city policies, given the urban focus and locus of creative industries. Her work links work in cultural and arts management, cultural policy, music industry, cultural labour, and decoloniality.

Kim-Marie has significant experience in the international arts and cultural sector and cultural policy. She was previously Film Commissioner/Head of Creative Industries of Jamaica. Additionally, she has consulted and worked in Australia, Jamaica, the UK, and India ( in addition to her own personal experience of living in 11 countries) - which serves to inform her world perspective on the cultural industries and the importance of positionality, location and the North-South spectrum in this scholarship. She is also currently Advisory Board member of the Journal of Cultural Economy.

For details on location and accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/queen-s-university-belfast/access-guides/lanyon-building-senate-room

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