Obama administration wants artists to push their agenda (NEA, serve.gov)

A couple weeks ago, representatives of the Obama administration held a conference call with dozens from the art world in which those officials encouraged the artists to push issues that are also being pushed by the Barack Obama administration, including healthcare reform and cap and trade. The details are in this long, disjoined report from someone who took part in the call. Those on the call stressed the role of the art community in getting Obama elected (including referencing Shepard Fairey's posters and the "Yes We Can" song) and apparently wanted them to continue.

Backed by the full weight of President Barack Obama’s call to service and the institutional weight of the NEA, the conference call was billed as an opportunity for those in the art community to inspire service in four key categories, and at the top of the list were “health care” and “energy and environment.” The service was to be attached to the President’s United We Serve campaign, a nationwide federal initiative to make service a way of life for all Americans...

The people running the conference call and rallying the group to get active on these issues were Yosi Sergant, the Director of Communications for the National Endowment for the Arts; Buffy Wicks, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement (note: run by Valerie Jarrett); Nell Abernathy, Director of Outreach for United We Serve (note: serve dot gov); Thomas Bates, Vice President of Civic Engagement for Rock the Vote; and Michael Skolnik, Political Director for Russell Simmons...

Discussed throughout the conference call was a hope that this group would be one that would carry on past the United We Serve campaign to support the President’s initiatives and those issues for which the group was passionate. The making of a machine appeared to be in its infancy, initiated by the NEA, to corral artists to address specific issues. This function was not the original intention for creating the National Endowment for the Arts...

And if you think that my fear regarding the arts becoming a tool of the state is still unfounded, I leave you with a few statements made by the NEA to the art community participants on the conference call. “This is just the beginning. This is the first telephone call of a brand new conversation. We are just now learning how to really bring this community together to speak with the government. What that looks like legally?…bare with us as we learn the language so that we can speak to each other safely… "

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 20:12 · Importance: 4