Universities as Arts and Cultural Anchors: Moving Beyond Bricks and Mortar to Entrepreneurship, Workforce, and Community Development Approaches

Economic developers refer to universities as anchor institutions because they are rooted regional economic drivers that are sites for development, incubation, entrepreneurship, workforce training, and knowledge transfer. Most anchor research speaks generally about the university or focuses on STEM. Our study asks: to what extent are public universities arts and cultural anchors? Through a comparative case analysis supplemented with interviews of field innovators and a translation of transdisciplinary literature, we deepen the anchor concept, and we propose a conceptual assessment tool. Our applied research helps universities move from being an arts patron to an arts entrepreneur, investor, innovator, and catalyst.