Western Professor Receives NEA Grant

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Acting Chairman Marianne Carter recently announced 15 new awards, including a $10,000 grant to Western professor Jeffery Taylor, Ph.D., AAA. The grant is part of $724,000 awarded to support research projects that investigate the value and impact of the arts.

Taylor’s report will focus specifically on the economic size of the American art market. Inspired by the report on Arts and Economic Prosperity by the organization Americans for the Arts, Taylor and colleagues on the Crested Butte Creative District Commission are interested in exploring the impact of the for-profit arts economy, which isn’t normally examined.

The report is a direct extension of Taylor’s work with the Master of Art in Art, Gallery Management & Exhibits Specialization (MGES) degree at Western, for which he is the program director.

“Our program is based on preparing students for careers in the art business, so producing large research study on the art market is something that really fits our profile,” Taylor said. “Furthermore, it will be a point of prestige for Western, for the MGES program and for our graduates.”

After publishing the report and presenting the findings at art-related conferences, Taylor hopes the project can continue for years to come. But first, he’s focused on making sure this report gets done right.

“We have a great responsibility to make sure we do it well and produce a report that can stand up to a lot of scrutiny since no one has ever really measure the U.S. art market,” Taylor said. “It’s an enormous opportunity for the MGES program and for Western.”

For more information projects including the NEA grant announcement, go to arts.gov.