I Can't Believe I Missed This

Rocco Landesman's interview in the New York Times!! It's wonderful, and now there's finally more about how he views his role in the NEA. If I wasn't in the middle of trying to move cross-country, I would have a lot more to say about this, but in the meantime I'll post a few quotes:

The new chairman said he already has a new slogan for his agency: “Art Works.” It’s “something muscular that says, ‘We matter.’ ” The words are meant to highlight both art’s role as an economic driver and the fact that people who work in the arts are themselves a critical part of the economy.

“Someone who works in the arts is every bit as gainfully employed as someone who works in an auto plant or a steel mill,” Mr. Landesman said. “We’re going to make the point till people are tired of hearing it.”

Even more interesting is how Landesman got involved in the position in the first place:

Mr. Landesman wasn’t tapped for the job. “I’d love to say the president drafted me, and I had to answer the call of duty, but no,” he said. “I put my hand up for this.”

“Everybody I talked to said, ‘This is the worst idea I’ve ever heard, put it out of your head immediately,’ ” Mr. Landesman said. “The idea of running a 170-person federal bureaucracy seemed crazy.”

But it’s an unusual moment in history, he said, and he wanted to be part of it. President Obama was “the first candidate in my memory who made arts part of the campaign,” Mr. Landesman said. “He had an arts policy committee and an arts policy statement and arts advisers.”

It's true - Obama, despite how little in regards to the arts he had posted on his campaign website (and now has posted on the White House website) has been one of the few truly culturally sensitive candidates for office. The fact that Obama decided to place this man in charge (he's described as a general in the interview) is indicative that there's someone taking the arts seriously.

Please read the entire article - there's so much I would quote, but...