Two readers have weighed in with critical responses to Federal Arts Leadership: Vacuum At the Top. While it’s not my habit to rebut BlogBacks (so as not to discourage disagreement), I do need to briefly answer the second one.
First, Victoria Hutter, acting director of communications for the National Endowment for the Arts, writes:
I found your posting uniformed and misleading in places. I offer the following information to fill in the gaps:
To suggest that the arts are getting “short shrift” because there is currently no chairman leading the NEA reflects a lack of understanding about the political process. There are many factors at play in how the arts are positioned politically (including political exigencies on Capitol Hill) that have nothing to do with leadership of the agency.
Historically, appointment of an NEA chairman has taken anywhere from three to nine months. The fact that none has been named yet, does not reflect poorly on the Obama administration nor in any way indicate its level of arts support. In fact, if you review your interview with Bill Ivey, he notes “I know that there is serious consideration being given to placing an arts-and-culture portfolio within the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Engagement in the Domestic Policy Council.” That, in and of itself, is unprecedented.
Patrice Walker Powell has served in leadership roles with NEA for over a decade. She is more than capable of leading the NEA through these challenging times and has been deeply involved in the agency’s work around its potential role in the stimulus bill. In addition to Chairman Powell, there are over 150 experienced, savvy career staff who are sharing and gathering information and moving the work of the NEA forward effectively.
As for the appointment of Anita Decker, that is also common practice, that a new administration places a person in an agency early on to handle government affairs. In fact, it is critical to ensuring good communication between the NEA and the administration and the NEA and the Congress. Failure to have qualified people in these positions, such as Anita Decker, hampers our efforts to do our work.
Next, Wyona Lynch-McWhite, deputy director of the Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA, writes:
I wanted to share my concern that
you created a negative impression in today’s post that speaks to
something I’m always advocating for—diversity in the arts. I am
specifically talking about the posting of the two black women who are
the interim chairs at NEA and NEH and then saying in the headline that
there was a leadership void at the top.As a black women executive in the arts, I deal with “perception” in
this field and while I understand your position that the Obama
administration needs to get these chairpersons in place, my first
reaction to the picture and headline was that you were implying that
these women were not able to advocate as interims, or perhaps that they
were not able to do the interim jobs.Maybe I am alone in this, but I was hoping that you would consider my
message and perhaps speak to the issue if anyone else contacts you.
Your voice would be a wonderful addition to the dialog about diversity
in the arts especially as we look at the impending generational shift.Keep asking the tough questions and I’ll keep reading!
I completely endorse Wyona’s advocacy of diversity in the arts, and I had feared that my use of those photos beneath that headline might evoke that reaction. I can only say that race had nothing to do with it. And for those of you who are still skeptical, I have this airtight defense: As you may remember, in my Dec. 4 post about the open chairmanships at NEA and NEH, I suggested:
A natural to lead the NEA, should she want that job [is] Mary Schmidt Campbell,
dean of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and a past
leader of government arts agencies in New York City and State. She was
also formerly director of the Studio Museum in Harlem.
I’m now very glad that I wrote that! As long as we’re on the subject of Mary: NYU has just announced that she was “recently elected to the board of trustees of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, a philanthropic, not-for-profit grantmaking institution based in New York City.”