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AT long last, we have a National Endowment for the Arts chair. The president has nominated<\/a> Jane Chu, who runs Kansas City\u2019s Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Chu and has also been a performing pianist; she seems to be well-liked among people I know, considered \u201clow key,\u201d and capable. (This<\/a> story, from Chu’s hometown paper, gives a sense of what she’s done in KC.)<\/p>\n Former NEA chair Dana Gioia (disclosure: an old friend of mine) told me this:<\/p>\n I am delighted that there is finally a new nominee for the NEA chair.\u00a0 The absence of a leader at the NEA (as well as the NEH) since 2012 has hurt arts funding.\u00a0 Jane Chu is an excellent choice for several reasons.\u00a0 She has experience in the arts as a performer, a patron, and an administrator.\u00a0 It is also a good thing to have someone from the Midwest, especially Kansas City with its strong cultural traditions.\u00a0 That will bring new perspectives to the position.\u00a0 But the important thing is that the National Endowment for the Arts needs a strong and capable leader.<\/em><\/p>\n Of course, the long delay makes you wonder why it\u2019s taken President Obama so long to replace Broadway producer Rocco Landesman, who left in 2012. (Does Obama fear being associated with something as \u201celitist\u201d as the arts if he takes too strong an interest in the NEA?) The Washington Post’s Philip Kennicott argues<\/a> that s Music critic Mark Swed has written<\/a> persuasively on why this country needs a full cabinet position \u2013 a European-style culture minister \u2013 and not simply the much weaker, and quieter, NEA and NEH heads.<\/p>\n But Chu’s nomination is clearly a step in the right direction. Let\u2019s hope a chair for the National Endowment for the Humanities is announced soon.<\/p>\n ALSO: The Otis survey of the \u201cCreative Economy,\u201d I wrote yesterday, was important but had to be read through a smokescreen of uncritical optimism. That\u2019s doubly true the closer you look at it. Freelancers are not counted, for instance, which skews the numbers considerably, and a huge number of creative types are self-employed. The inclusion of people working at Facebook, Google, etc. also makes things look far better than they are. (Sure, these folks are \u201ccreative,\u201d but their working lives have very little to do with a struggling actor, a freelancer writer, an architect running a small firm fighting to get work, and so on.)<\/p>\n![\"janechu\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/janechu-240x300.jpg\")
<\/a>he Chu needs to be tough and stand up not just to a hostile Congress, but to a technocrat president.<\/p>\n