“We believe strongly that the arts aren’t somehow an ‘extra’ part of our national life, but instead we feel that the arts are at the heart of our national life. It is through our music, our literature, our art, drama and dance that we tell the story of our past and we express our hopes [...]
Full text of the President’s opening address here.
And text of his closing remarks here.
Memorandum to heads of executive departments and agencies here.
In the NYTimes….
President Obama told hundreds of tribal leaders at an Interior Department summit today that he knows what it means to feel ignored and forgotten, pledging to work with them on issues including [...]
Veteran Broadway theater producer Rocco Landesman, off to a rocky start in his new gig as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), demonstrated at a meeting of arts funders in Brooklyn two weeks ago that he had no plans to change his act. In the first major speech since assuming his post [...]
Several stars of stage, screen and fashion runways will join the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, a largely ceremonial, blue-ribbon group that advises President Obama on arts and cultural issues.
Yo-Yo Ma, who played at Obama’s inauguration, will join the panel, along with actor Edward Norton, “Sex and the City” star Sarah Jessica [...]
The House and Senate on Thursday passed a budget increase for the National Endowment for the Arts and for the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Interior Appropriations Bill for fiscal year 2010 sets budgets for each agency at $167.5 million, up $12.5 million from last year. President Obama is expected to sign the bill [...]
The closing keynote at the 2009 GIA conference in Brooklyn has generated some diverse responses.
Jacqueline Trescott in the Washington Post
Chris Jones in the Chicago Tribune
David Ng in the LA Times
Arts Beat in the New York Times
Online on Art Knowledge News
Online on the Clyde Fitch Report
Online at CultureGrrl
On YouTube courtesy of CultureGrrl
Online on Entertainment Daily
And of [...]
Despite its preoccupation with the economy, health care, two wars, and other pressing matters, the administration has already shown a real appreciation for the arts. Its White House performance programs are welcoming the diversity of American culture to the “People’s House.” It has appointed energetic new leadership to the Arts and Humanities Endowments and increased [...]
Today (10-2-09) an ambitious, first-of-its-kind National Summit on Arts Journalism takes place 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (PDT) at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. The summit will be streamed live at www.najp.org/summit and simulcast at 17 satellite locations around the world.
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In what seemed a cultural coup, Seattle Art Museum officials opened a glistening glass-and- metal-paneled, $86 million addition in January 2007, just months after completing an acclaimed sculpture park.
The arrangement with Washington Mutual Inc. even offered the museum space for future growth along with income to pay down the cost of the extension.
When Washington [...]
This plan was presented to the GIA Individual Artist Preconference in Pasadena in 2005 and was met with skepticism. It was not a very coherent presentation, which may have masked its potential.
Here’s an update:
When the scheme was first set up five years ago in New York, its prospects were dim. Could the concept [...]
On September 14, The Washington Times published an editorial titled “Inartful Politics” that contains many inaccuracies and fabrications. It was originally posted on its The Water Cooler blog and was preceded by a number of other blog posts by the writer that were equally unfounded.
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The Allentown Art Museum hung an empty frame in its lobby on Wednesday and will leave it there to draw attention to what the museum would look like if drastic cuts are made to the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts $14 million grant budget. Under Gov. Rendell’s proposed 2009-10 budget, more than $1 million would [...]
Fox News seems to think so (Or as some are calling it, Faux News). See commentary from Ian David Moss and Arlene Goldbard. And more in the LA Times.
“I think the worst thing in the world would be going around with the message, ‘I’m going to shake things up.’ That would be a huge mistake,” he said yesterday in the NEA conference room, even as his office was being painted and spruced up for a new era, one that arts supporters have eagerly [...]
FWIW, Barry Hessenius has posted his annual list of the “Non profit Arts Sector’s 25 Most Powerful and Influential Leaders.” Our own Janet Brown is #8, surrounded by a number of past and present GIA board members and members.
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Technical problems Tuesday sabotaged the Community Foundation Challenge, an online $1-million matching grant program for about 75 cultural groups in metro Detroit. Scores of donors were prevented from making gifts and others wasted hours in front of their computers. Some patrons had their credit cards charged multiple times.
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From her blog…
I find myself feeling for Rocco Landesman, the newly confirmed Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts. It’s hard to think of smaller quantum of political power than that presidentially appointed post, but he’s been in office for not much more than a week and he’s already managed to attract considerable attention [...]
John McGuirk, a veteran Bay Area grantmaker and a former officer in The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s Performing Arts Program, will rejoin the Foundation as director of that program, officials announced today.
For the past three years, McGuirk has served as director of the Arts Program of The James Irvine Foundation. He served as [...]
If you are looking for a sign of how strapped the University of California, Los Angeles, is for cash, consider that its arts and architecture school may resort to holding a bake sale to raise money. California’s severe financial crisis has left its higher-education system — which serves nearly a fifth of the nation’s college [...]
Robin Pogrebin in the New York Times
” Now that the Broadway producer Rocco Landesman is officially chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts — he was confirmed on Friday — his straight-talking style, Missouri roots and affinity for baseball and country music are expected to give him a leg up with many legislators.
But in [...]
