Pick Your Nomination: Nat'l Endowment for the Arts

[tsipple]

Here's the next Democratic Administration Nomination Poll, this time for Head of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) -- a real fun one! As before, you can provide "write in" nominations by posting a follow-up message.

About the National Endowment for the Arts: A favorite Republican "whipping boy," this agency has almost no money yet funds some of the greatest culture-enriching institutions and projects in the United States. The new Head of NEA will need skills in negotiation and politics, to keep this agency healthy and secure.

If you'd like to vote in the nomination poll for Treasury Secretary, click here.

If you'd like to vote in the nomination poll for Secretary of State, click here.

If you'd like to vote in the nomination poll for Attorney General, click here.

[auburnlib]

1. .

The government shouldn't fund this either.

[wuushew]

3. why do say that ?

there is a place for art in society as well

[QC]

2. Mapplethorpe died years ago.

[tsipple]

4. That's One's a Joke

Looks like a couple people fell for it.

Seriously, if you do vote for Robert, that's actually the vote for defunding the NEA. So, now that you all know the secret, let's see how the vote goes...

On edit: I'm pulling Robert from the poll and making it clear.

[wuushew]

7. You should have left Mapplethorpe up

now it looks like I hate the NEA

[tsipple]

17. Sorry About That

Let's assume the "Zero Out" score is one vote too high.

[stopbush]

5. None of the above

Maybe Beverly Sills comes the closest as she's quite the cheerleader.

BTW - I think there is little to suggest that the repigs are looking to kill the NEA these days. There was a recent piece on either 60 Mins or 20/20 showing how the repigs have become best friends with the NEA. Why, you might ask, have they had such a change of heart since trying so hard to kill the thing in the 80s & 90s? Simple - money. They have discovered that -along with having a local symphony, ballet or opera company enhancing your district's tourism industry - that every dollar spent on arts funding generates $11 in ancillary income. That's right, $11! That's alot of stores selling lots of crap, hotel rooms getting booked and restaurant meals getting eaten, not to mention the spending on infrastructure improvements to facilitate getting the crowds there to begin with.

Imagine how quickly we could grow ourselves out of bush's deficit if we cut military spending and put it into the arts!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. I'd vote for orchestra conductor Lorin Maazel

I didn't know much about him till I translated the program for a concert series he was conducting in Japan, but it turns out that he's deeply interested in the environment and international peace. Sounds like the perfect NEA director for a Dem adminstration.

Janeane Garofalo should be Press Secretary.

[stopbush]

8. Maazel is a great choice

but his contract with the NY Phil runs through to 2006, not to mention all of the guest conducting he does around the world.

I know him personally and I agree with your evaluation, but you can only be in so many places at once!

[legin]

9. Tracy Emin

I think she has got quite a strong personality so she might end up upseting a few people, probably exactly the people we want upset.

[TheUnknownPoster]

10. Garofalo

Gerry Trudeau would be a cool choice too but I think Janeane deserves something for taking so much shit over the war. Perseverence should be rewarded.

[ComerPerro]

12. Hi TheUnknownPoster

What really kills me about Garofalo is how right wingers still hate her. I mean, think about it:

She said that Iraqis wouldn't just greet us with American flags and flowers, She said that this war would be difficult, long, and would cost lives.

When Bush first declared "mission accomplished" and said the war was over, the members of Free Republic even set up a Garofalo Awards ceremony, where they presented a plate of crow to those who had the most horrific, ie wrong prediction.

The really disturbing thing is that the war is not over, and they are still giving her shit and saying she must eat crow.

They still have the nerve to call her anti-American. It pisses me off.

[DemBones DemBones]

11. Not a single visual artist in the bunch, how sad.

Unless you count Garry Trudeau, which I wouldn't, much as I admire and like
"Doonesbury."

NEA is supposed to be about the arts, plural, so there should be equal representation for the visual arts, music, theater, dance. Visual arts has been suffering badly for years. In practice, NEA has become more and more about assisting symphonies, theater companies, dance companies, and the like -- all performance artists. Not that there's anything wrong with the performance arts, just that the visual arts are barely visible anymore at NEA. My hypothesis is that a lot of GOP-type people can sit through a symphony performance or a play (especially if it's "Our Town") without knowing jack about music or theater, but attending an art show is trickier and less of a social event. The visual arts are more threatening to many conservative sorts.

[legin]

13. Absolutely spot on DemBones DemBones

I thought about it. I should have said Lucien Freud, instead of the conceptual artist Tracy Emin.

American artists: Mmmm... brain not workin today...

Larry Poons (does really great spots)

[tsipple]

18. Sad Commentary

I agree. I'm hard pressed to think of an American painter or sculptor who is reasonably well known and, therefore, known enough to serve as the "Cheerleader in Chief" for the arts.

Photography, illustration, sculpture, architecture, painting, decorative arts (including fiber, glass, metal, and other media), electronic art, and many other visual arts deserve much more attention and support.

[janx]

14. Has this poll been freeped, or are there actually people

on DU who want to get rid of the NEA?

[Brucey]

15. Carol Sherman.

[tsipple]

16. Other Nominees

Maya Angelou - Poet
Ed Asner - Actor
Jantje Blokhuis-Mulder - Folk Artist
Eric Bogosian - Playwright
David Copperfield - Magician
Walter Cronkite - Journalist & Philanthropist
Harvey Fierstein - Broadway Actor
Jane Fonda - Actor
Al Franken - Comedian
Louise Glück - Poet
Matt Groening - Animator
Chris Judd - Choreographer
Norman Lear - TV Producer & Founder, People for the American Way
Rita Moreno - Broadway Actor & Dancer
Willie Nelson - Singer
Bebe Neuwirth - Broadway Actor
George Plimpton - Writer
Tim Robbins - Actor
Susan Sarandon - Actor
Studs Terkel - Writer & Activist
Calvin Trillin - Satirist