Introduction

Education and culture are so fundamentally interconnected that educational policy and cultural policy could in some respects be regarded as almost synonymous. Both formal and informal educational processes play a major role in forming cultural values, opening up cultural experience and stimulating cultural activity from the earliest pre-school years onwards. It is because of these strong links between education and culture that in some countries the administration of the cultural responsibilities of government is placed within the ministry of education.

Although the all-pervasive interrelationships between education and culture are acknowledged, we will confine our attention in this chapter to three main areas where a specific role for cultural policy can be identified: arts education in schools; the education and training of artists; and education as a factor determining demand for artistic goods and services. First, however, we outline briefly how economics is applied to the analysis of educational supply, demand and financing.