Behind the curtain of Obama's arts policy

So far, we’ve seen only glimmers of how arts policy might look in the Obama administration. But Robert L. Lynch, head of Americans for the Arts, a nonprofit group that worked through the campaign season to give the arts a new political visibility, says he’s met with members of the Obama transition team and that nine proposals the group released Tuesday reflect where things are heading.

As with so much else, it comes down to the economy.

The idea, Lynch says, is to weave the arts into the upcoming administration’s broad stimulus package, with a dollars-and-cents focus that embraces improved access for artists to unemployment and health benefits, as well as culturally targeted use of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grants -- through the well-known Community Development Block Grant program -- and giving public art projects an increased role via the Department of Transportation. The recommendations, which can be read in full here, also target programs in the commerce and agriculture departments.

At the same time, Lynch’s group is voicing renewed support for key ideas advanced by the Obama campaign’s Arts Policy Committee. Among them are an Artists Corps whose artist-members would teach in low-income schools and a senior-level White House official charged with making the arts a priority in the White House. In mid-December, a leading Washington figure with access to the transition team’s thinking told the Times that the “arts czar” concept was a fading possibility. Lynch, however, said his more recent talks with two members of the Obama transition team left him thinking the idea lives.

The argument in its favor apparently highlights the prospects such a position would offer for building bridges between the National Endowment for the Arts and other federal departments. Lynch said that such connections have increasingly engaged Obama arts planners. A petition pushing the creation of an “arts czar” is making its way on the internet.

Lynch said he’s attended two meetings with Bill Ivey, who heads the transition’s arts team (he was National Endowment for the Arts chairman under Bill Clinton) and Anne Luzzatto, who also worked in the Clinton White House and is said to have been reviewing NEA policy under the out-going president. Ivey and Luzzatto could not be reached for comment. But, said Lynch, “they were looking for me to give my ideas to them and the conversation was about economic recovery and how the arts should be involved. They have not shared back with me what they want to do, but the indication is that the arts transition folks would be sympathetic to the kinds of things I am talking about here.”

—Allan M. Jalon

Photo by Kevin Dietsch

Comments

[daniella walsh]

Since the Obama administration seems to become modeled on the Roosevelt administration, creating more support for the arts makes perfect sense. It has been proven time and again, that the arts create jobs and with those, revenue. It might also be remembered that a society that allows its culture to fade into obscurity, has a very limited life span thereafter.
As for the culture "czar", I'm all for some really knowledgeable people taking over the NEA and link to the nation but please, can we retire the "czar" term for good? Speaking of cultures outside of the US, one should remember that Czars were despots that were dealt with at last in a rather unsavory manner. How about a Secretary for Arts and Culture. It's far more 21st century.

[Donald Frazell]

Under Roosevelt, the arts wre strictly an applied arts program, wher they designed and decorated public buildings. Pollock and many others did so. This is fine, but inividual grant to go off and "express oneself" must end,. They are just that, selfish expressions. And nothing that does not help the whole can be afforded now, the days of art as entertainment for the decadently rich, those who created his depression are over. Only that which helps the economy, and no, all that money in art colonies and colleges was wasted, it lead to no real growth, just spending that ended up as nothing. That is not growth,its waste. That dumb pseudo econmic thinking must end, as mustpseudo art.

art collegia delenda est

[Erlene Flowers]

I hope that the Obama team remembers that there are several kinds of artists and artistic expression. I do believe that in these times a public works project that puts artists to work -much like what happened during the Roosevelt years would be wonderful as long as not all the rich artists get a piece of the pie.

If Obama is really about change ,then some thing must be done to insure that the funds that are designated are also monitored and reach the artists at the bottom of the pile as well as the greedy administrators on top. Now money is sent to state art councils often with little oversite and guarantee of distribution and monitoring of the funds. I am president of a local group- non profit under one of the "umbrella" organizations which writes and receives many grants- and has no accountability to anyone. i have yet to see what they do with the funds that are distributed to them. Our group receives nothing- but they could not apply for the grants if we were not among the count.

Obama can help by paying knowledgeable organizations like yours who understand grant writing to train and mentor artists. One of the measurers of attainment would be how many artists and groups who never received a grant before were able to successfully gain a grant under their guidance.
Erlene Flowers