“Senate confirmed my boss today…and we’re off!” — As posted by Yosi Sergant on Twitter August 7th. 

Those were the words of the former Communications Director of the National Endowment for the Arts three days before the conference call. However Rocco Landesman, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), in a recent statement declared that Yosi Sergant acted “unilaterally and without the approval or authorization” from his superior.

NEA Chair Rocco Landesman 

Taking the Chairman’s statement at face value and moving on would be the easy thing to do. However, the details of the Chairman’s statement need to be addressed. 

First, if the former Communications Director “acted unilaterally and without approval or authorization” from his superior, why is he still working for the NEA? Wouldn’t an act as rogue as bringing together a pro-Obama arts group and encouraging them to create art on health care have triggered an immediate dismissal if it was actually without authorization?  (more…)

Another conference call has materialized, revealing a concerted effort by government to use the arts to address political issues.

Lee Rosenbaum, a blogger for Artsjournal.com, posted her experience with a meeting that occurred on August 27th and confessed that she also felt “uneasy” about the government’s arts effort.  The meeting invitation (viewable here) went out to all “member local, state, and regional arts agencies, community-based arts organizations, and national partners of Americans for Arts.” Americans for Arts is a non-profit arts organization that has received substantial grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.

As with my conference call, the art group was invited to the meeting to work together to “tackle some of the nation’s toughest issues: education; health; energy and the environment; community renewal; and safety and security.” Also like my call, it included a private citizen moderating the phone call with key White House representatives participating. Kalpen Modi, Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, was to represent the White House and key representatives from the National Endowment for the Arts were also to participate.

Even more disturbing than learning that the White House and NEA are using the arts to address specific issues, is to learn what was discussed on this new conference call. Rosenbaum mentions that there was much talk of “leveraging federal dollars” to get artists and cultural organizations involved in social-service projects.  (more…)