Art and culture of the kind analyzed in this volume – the live performing arts and galleries and museums – are preeminently urban activities. Painters, composers, and playwrights may live anywhere they like, but the economics of live performance as well as gallery and museum display dictate that their output will be seen for the most part in cities. The explanation is quite simple. Like beauty parlors, health clubs, and hospitals, the live performing arts and museums share the characteristic that whatever it is they offer must be consumed where it is produced. Some restaurants may be willing to deliver a meal to your home, but no theater company, so far as we know, will put on its production in your living room. Although an art exhibition may travel from the museum that organizes it to other museums and galleries, and some performing arts companies regularly go on tour, the net income from such endeavors is held down by their high cost in relation to revenue earned. Thus, even after allowing for possible income from touring companies and traveling exhibitions, most arts institutions are economically viable only in places where the local arts audience is big enough to support them, and basically that means in cities or metropolitan areas that are sufficiently large. How large is large enough depends on two factors: the cost characteristics of the service in question and the density of demand for it.