Arts Need a New Deal, Too

Cultural anthropologist suggests President Obama appoint arts cabinet

By Victoria Floethe, Newser User

Posted Jan 21, 2009 7:40 PM CST

(Newser) – Fifty years after FDR’s Public Works Art Project paid and promoted American talent, President Obama has people dreaming of a new deal for arts, cultural anthropologist Patricia Williams Lessane writes in Ebony. While division spawned the Harlem Renaissance, Lessane is hopeful an arts resurgence would be “born out of inter-racial solidarity,” and offers suggestions on how a New Deal Arts Project might work.

Her vision: establish a cabinet of artists and educators to develop a template for funding arts at the local level, and mount nationwide competitions for undiscovered geniuses. “Given the new flavor that Mr. and Mrs. Obama share with their inner circle of culturally aware friends,” Lessane writes, “a recalibration should be well on its way.”

[Images (4)]

[Quotes (2)]

Dancers of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater perform during a dress rehearsal in Istanbul, Turkey. (AP Photo)

Judith Jamison, artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, talks during a press conference in Istanbul, Turkey, Sept. 17, 2008. (AP Photo)

Music producer and songwriter Quincy Jones has pushed for a Secretary of Arts to be added to President Obama's cabinet, according to an email Lessane received. (AP Photo)

Lonnie Bunch, left, head of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, looks at family documents of Connie Bishop at the Harold Washington Library in Chicago. (AP Photo)

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

While contractors and developers are being paid to stabilize our nations bridges and highways, artists of all types could be commissioned to create national artistic monuments in our most blighted areas - Patricia Williams Lessane

Much has been made of similarities between our president-elect and the late Franklin D. Roosevelt, so I dare believe that hope is on the horizon for the arts in our great nation. - Patricia Williams Lessane

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

To report an error on this story, notify our editors.

More Newser Stories

US Drones Return to Hit Rescuers, Funerals

Strikes occurring every 4 days under Obama: report

(NEWSER) - A few days back, President Obama said that US drone attacks in Pakistan had "not caused a huge number of civilian casualties." But a Bureau of Investigative Journalism report finds that somewhere between 282 and 535 civilians, including 60 children, have been "credibly reported" killed in the campaign. Secondary strikes target groups of rescuers shortly after attacks, while other drones have killed dozens at funerals. Obama has drastically escalated the drone program; some 260 strikes have occurred an average of once every four days under his administration. More»

Geithner: Obama Won't Ask Me to Stay

Treasury secretary says he's done after election

(NEWSER) - Tim Geithner is pretty sure he's going to be joining the ranks of the jobless after the election: The Treasury secretary—the longest serving member of President Obama's economic team—tells Bloomberg that Obama is "not going to ask me to stay on, I’m pretty confident. I’m confident he’ll be president. But I’m also confident he’s going to have the privilege of having another secretary of the Treasury." The White House announced in August that Geithner would stay put through the election, amid Beltway rumblings that he would step down. More»

Obama Losing Super PAC War

...because he's not terribly interested in fighting it

(NEWSER) - Democrats saw the way Mitt Romney's super PAC destroyed Newt Gingrich in Iowa, and it terrified them, because President Obama's super PAC—or as Politico terms it, "not-so-super PAC"—doesn't have the muscle for anything like that. "It's like when China got the bomb," says one Democrat close to the PAC, "We thought we were the ones with cash supremacy. That's clearly not the case." Obama's Priorities USA Action has just $5 million in the bank, less than half Romney's $12 million. More»

Did White House Hide Lavish Costume Bash?

Nope, says spokesman: event reports, pics are online

(NEWSER) - At the nadir of the economic crisis, the Obama White House held a lavish Alice in Wonderland-themed Halloween costume party, organized by Johnny Depp and Tim Burton and full of Star Wars character. But with unemployment at 10%, the Tea Party at its apex, and the economic downturn still rocking the country, officials feared the 2009 party would look terribly decadent, so kept it a secret, reports the New York Post . “White House officials were so nervous about how a splashy, Hollywood-esque party would look to jobless Americans—or their representatives in Congress, who would soon vote on health care—that the event was not discussed publicly, and Burton’s and Depp’s contributions went unacknowledged,” alleges Jodi Kantor in her new book, The Obamas . More»

Under Obama, a Force of Killer Drones Evolved

Semi-secret assassination program has expanded greatly in his term

(NEWSER) - In the five years before President Obama took office, America’s drones launched 44 strikes, all confined to Pakistan, killing about 400 people. But during his Oval Office tenure there have been almost 240 strikes, killing at least four times as many people, and the US has built dozens of secret drone facilities, with bases in at least six countries, the Washington Post reports, in an in-depth look into what it terms Obama’s “emerging global apparatus for drone killing.” Though the technology was already developing under President George W Bush, Obama has greatly expanded its use. More»

NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS

What is Newser?

Face it: there's too much news. At Newser, we choose the most thought-provoking and entertaining stories from hundreds of US and international sources and reduce them to a headline, picture, and two paragraphs. And we do it 24/7—you can come back morning, noon, night (and in between) for something new that matters. Read less, know more.

Learn more »

Partnering with: Slate

View Newser on the mobile website

Arts Need a New Deal, Too