Sojka, Brit2006-06-092006-06-092006-06https://hdl.handle.net/1794/2809140 p. Examining committee chair: Dr. Patricia DeweyChallenged with conquering market-driven inflationary costs through the calculated management of perceived value, the contemporary not-for-profit performing arts community must take care to understand and strategically influence the mechanisms that promote the perceived public value of art. However, the systemic health of the entire arts ecology will be altered and influenced by the value definitions this community ultimately adopts. This paper seeks to evaluate the role value definitions play in the socio-economic environment sustaining the Puget Sound’s performing arts community. It identifies a number of the forces promoting the adoption of market values & behaviors within the region’s nonprofit performing arts institutions and attempts to analyze the theoretical context which motivates the long-term implementation of these definitions.1776 bytes426026 bytestext/plainapplication/pdfen-USThesis