Webster's Guide
to the Cultural Landscape

IN THIS DOCUMENT...

• How to Use Webster's Guide to the Cultural Landscape
• Sectors of the Cultural Landscape

The "cultural landscape" refers to all the features that together make up our common culture -- the industries, organizations, institutions, activists, funders, and other landmarks on our virtual map. Webster's Guide puts you in touch with groups involved in cultural action and policy-making. Webster's Guide comprises two main sections:

1. Listings of groups and agencies; and

2. Narrative materials describing various aspects of the cultural landscape.

This inaugural installation of Webster's World offers an alphabetical listing of organizations engaged in cultural policy and activist work. Please look over our list, and send us new listings.

Wherever possible, Webster's Guide listings provide links to other Internet-accessible resources -- some which offer listings of their own and other information about parts of the cultural landscape.

As Webster's Guide becomes more complete, we will be introducing topical listings -- of independent media people, for instance, or people working on particular cultural issues. But first we have a lot of building to do to make the listing more complete: for now, just go the master list, using the link at the bottom of this page. Help us by suggesting additional listings, or telling us the kinds of information you need: please send e-mail or snail mail to the address listed at the bottom of every WWCD page.

As soon as possible, we'll install four essays contributed by Adams & Goldbard in Webster's Guide, each describing one of the major sectors of cultural production:

• Commercial Cultural Industries
• The Establishment Arts
• The Alternative Sector
• The Idea of the Artist

What do we mean when we refer to 'culture'? A variety of things. In Webster's World, we're interested in address 'cultural instuitutions' in several senses of the phrase, including:

• the overarching "institutions of society" -- the family, for instance, or education, religion, or media. People's experience of these institutions differs widely, and they manifest in highly diverse ways, but somehow we all participate in them and they are often spokenb of generally;
• nonprofit arts institutions, including the "high arts" community as it is variously described, as well as the many alternative sectors of cultural work -- many springing from non-'fine arts' traditions, addressing social issues, innovating in form and context as well as in content, or in other ways representing a king of cultural insurgency.
• community cultural instutions addressing social issues more generally, or focusing on specific issues other than the arts and cultural activity per se, and often not considering themselves as cultural institutions; and
• commercial cultural industries, in many ways the predominant forms by virtue of the saturation of U.S. culture by mass media.

There are many other categories of instutions, media, activity or focus that deserve attention in understanding the cultural landscape. Each of us sees this landscape and divides it up differently. We will look forward to learning other people's perceptions of the cultural field and publishing additional essays here, as well as linking to other resources on the Internet focusing on specific sectors or issues.