I know AJ’s readers want to believe that the Obama Administration will do wonders for the arts and humanities communities. I know you don’t like to hear otherwise. But I have to tell you honestly what my reporting turns up: so far, not so good.
Yes, the $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts in the stimulus bill was great news. But while we wait for appointments to head the NEA and the National Endowment for
the Humanities, the appointment of Kareem Dale (below) as mini-czar — which is now likely to be temporary — and two lesser appointments suggest politics-as-usual.
Last night, The Daily Beast published my report on this. As I hinted when I first wrote here about Dale (stay tuned, I said), his appointment is not likely to last very long. It’s sad that his name was discovered by, or leaked to, The New York Times in the first place.
The most disappointing element of the story, however, is the appointment of Hollywood fundraiser Jeremy Bernard as the NEH’s White House and Congressional liaison; it’s an important job. Bernard claims a bachelor’s degree from Hunter College on his website, but Hunter says he did not graduate. When queried, the NEH said the degree is not in his documentation for the appointment. But the whole thing, not just the resume inflation, makes him a bit of an odd fit for the scholarly NEH.
I am pretty sure, by the way, that the White House has recognized this whole situation as a personnel snafu that has to be fixed. And it will — the question now is how and when.
Here’s a link to my Beast article.
And P.S. I did not write the headline or deck.