Saturday, December 01, 2012
NEA chairman Rocco Landesman to step down
Entertainment News, Legit News, Media - Variety: National Endowment for the Arts chairman Rocco Landesman will step down at year's end.
Landesman has chaired the NEA throughout President Obama's first term. He said that it "has always been" his intention to serve just during one presidential term.
"The time has come for me to become a cliché: I turned 65, am going to retire, and cannot wait to spend more time in Miami Beach," he said in a statement.
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A lot of people looked to Rocco Landesman to gauge where federal funding for the arts was going. Landesman as chairman was the face of the NEA policy whether his private sector or "supply and demand" comments were actual policy or not. But such is politics - speculation oftentimes becomes the assumed position and people who are speaking out against those assumptions are ignoring the big picture. There has been a lot in the blogosphere about Landesman in the past year and there has been a lot about the greater picture recently but only because of the election and its Big Party candidates. Landesman leaves an important empty position to fill, no doubt, but the question will remain - how to do so much with so little? NEA's bankroll has been shrinking rapidly and who know what it will look like after the "fiscal cliff" crisis is averted. Will the new chair put in a business as usual policy? That would be easiest I'm sure. But it's always been my opinion with politcs and any financial issue that a business as usual policy is the wrong one. If things are broke - fix them. That's what your job is. So I present a challenge to the new chair, it was very easy to attack Landesman, make us care about your policy. Do something to help the arts funding crisis in this country and prove to the nation that the funds allocated to the NEA are well spent.
I wish Dana Gioia were still there as the head of the NEA. What a GREAT job he did.
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