The White House announced this afternoon that President Bush will be nominating me to serve on the National Council on the Arts, the civilian panel that advises the National Endowment for the Arts and its chairman, Dana Gioia.
(For those of you not familiar with the intricacies of the federal arts bureaucracy, go here to find out exactly what the Council does.)
This is a volunteer post, meaning that I won’t be paid for my labors, but it does require Senate confirmation, meaning that I was recently investigated by the FBI (which is a story in itself) and have filled out a stack of papers not dissimilar in size to an unabridged dictionary. As close readers of this site may recall, I also had myself fingerprinted back in April, and now you know why.
I had to give the White House my full legal name, which I never, ever use, and that explains why the official announcement refers to me as “Terence Alan Teachout.” Maybe they’ll change it, someday….
Beyond that, there’s not much to tell. The NEA will be issuing a press release about my nomination, and I’ll post a link to it as soon as it goes up on their Web site. The Senate will either confirm me or not, and if it does, I’ll serve a six-year term. Yes, I’ll continue to write about the arts, here and elsewhere, but I’ve been requested not to make any public statements about the NEA or its activities until my name comes before the Senate, so don’t ask me.
This much I’ll happily say: I’m grateful to the President for giving me the opportunity to serve on the Council. It’s an honor. I hope the Senate finds me worthy of confirmation.