The new logo for the National Endowment for the Arts
In his keynote address at Grantmakers in the Arts’ 2009 Recession Conference: Navigating the Art of Change, which I attended in Brooklyn today, Rocco Landesman was his usual combative self, acknowledging the “reconstructive” work of predecessors, Dana Gioia and Bill Ivey, in “build[ing] strong relationships on Capitol Hill” and ” re-establish[ing] the NEA as a respected, bipartisan agency,” but letting us know that he’s now going to “move the ball down the field.”
He emphasized the role of the arts in “economic growth and urban and neighborhood revitalization” but made no mention of two controversial initiatives that he previously revealed he advocates—grants for individual artists (which I strongly support) and home equity loans and rent subsidies for artists’ housing (which I believe are—and should continue to be—outside the purview of the arts agency).
Rocco’s big applause line, which you will hear him deliver in my excerpted video below, was:
The days of the defensive NEA are over.
That remains to be seen.
Speaking of “defensive,” I just hope I’m not one of those “quote-unquote ‘journalists'” that he refers to in these remarks: