Abstract

From the resident Native populations to the earliest Western European settlers to the immigrants of the last and current centuries, the United States has been and is culturally diverse. While some Americans have been antipathetic or hostile toward new populations, it is this dynamic of resistance and accommodation that has shaped American society and culture. It was not until the human rights/civil rights movement that accelerated after World War II that arts activism among many of this country's unassimilated cultures gained momentum. It was the 60's and 70's, with the establishment of the National Endowment for the Arts and many state and local arts agencies, and a change in the orientation of private philanthropy, that widespread attention and funding began to be directed to culturally diverse arts organizations and projects. This phenomenon has enriched American and world culture and raises questions for all of us.