Reflections on Cultural Policy: Past, Present and Future

Peter Roberts is a former Canadian Ambassador to the Soviet Union and
author of George Costakis: A Russian Life in Art.

A reader who got no further than the title of this book could be
forgiven for wishing to avoid yet another tale of woe from artists about
the indifference of philistine government. The first page dispels any
such notion.

Beginning in 1987, a group of people got together at the Calgary
Institute for the Humanities. Their aim was to analyze cultural policy
in historical terms, as a concept. The research and most of the writing
was done by eminent academic experts as well as one professional writer.
The energy to make all this happen came from Harold Coward, director of
the Calgary Institute when the enterprise was in hand, and his two
editorial colleagues, Evan Alderson and Robin Blaser, both of whom
contribute superb, if difficult, introductory essays.

Although some essays are more readable that others, each one demands
the reader’s full attention. A standout is John Humphrey’s elegant
and deceptively simple essay on Augustan Rome. This reviewer’s only
quibble has to do with the overuse throughout the book of the term
“postmodern.” This word means different things to different people
(and nothing to many people), and should not serve as shorthand for a
description of the present state of affairs.