{"id":118,"date":"2009-06-23T00:03:13","date_gmt":"2009-06-23T00:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp\/2009\/06\/bill_ivey_talks_about_obama_an\/"},"modified":"2009-06-23T00:03:13","modified_gmt":"2009-06-23T00:03:13","slug":"bill_ivey_talks_about_obama_an","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/06\/bill_ivey_talks_about_obama_an.html","title":{"rendered":"Bill Ivey Talks About Obama and the Arts and Whether America Should Have a Secretary of Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bill Ivey was chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts during the Clinton administration. More recently he has been director of the Curb Center<\/a> at Vanderbilt University, and, after last year’s presidential election, ran the Obama administration’s transition team for culture. So what place will the arts have in the new administration? Ivey says the jury’s still out. <\/p>\n

As for another big issue that surfaced during the transition – should America have an Arts Czar, a Secretary of Culture? – Ivey has some surprisingly strong feelings about it. Here’s part of my interview with him last week in Seattle:<\/p>\n

\n<\/object><\/p>\n

Ivey is also the author of Arts, Inc<\/a>., which argues that “the expanding footprint of copyright, an unconstrained arts industry
\nmarketplace, and a government unwilling to engage culture as a serious
\narena for public policy have come together to undermine art, artistry,
\nand cultural heritage–the expressive life of America.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bill Ivey was chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts during the Clinton administration. More recently he has been director of the Curb Center at Vanderbilt University, and, after last year’s presidential election, ran the Obama administration’s transition team for culture. So what place will the arts have in the new administration? Ivey says […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-118","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ePZm-1U","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":54,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/03\/is_the_nea_bad_for_the_arts.html","url_meta":{"origin":118,"position":0},"title":"Is the NEA bad for the arts?","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"March 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A ridiculous question, sure. The National Endowment for the Arts is the channel through which the federal government invests money in the arts. And though it's not much money, compared to what other countries invest, it's something. Besides giving money, the NEA also has the value of drawing attention or\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/03\/is_the_nea_bad_for_the_arts.html#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"images.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/images.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3271,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2026\/02\/aj-chronicles-the-battles-for-who-gets-to-say-what-culture-is.html","url_meta":{"origin":118,"position":1},"title":"AJ Chronicles: The Battles for Who gets to say what Culture Is","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"February 28, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Evidence abounds this week that the battles for culture are intensifying. Taken together, these tests of authority over cultural institutions are probes of where the line is, of how much self-censorship the cultural sector will perform without being explicitly required to.","rel":"","context":"In "AJ Chronicles"","block_context":{"text":"AJ Chronicles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/aj-chronicles"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/alexei_other-electricity-4971002_640.jpg?fit=640%2C427&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/alexei_other-electricity-4971002_640.jpg?fit=640%2C427&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/alexei_other-electricity-4971002_640.jpg?fit=640%2C427&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":345,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/03\/will_obamas_tax_changes_hurt_t-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":118,"position":2},"title":"Will Obama's Tax Changes Hurt the Arts?","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"March 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Vastine Stabler makes a case that changing the tax code to reduce the the top rate of deduction for charitable giving from 35% to 28% will have an enormous impact on giving to the arts:It may be shocking to learn that the level of federal support for the arts in\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2007\/11\/the_rise_of_arts_culture.html","url_meta":{"origin":118,"position":3},"title":"The Rise Of Arts Culture","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"November 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I want to make an argument about the rise of arts culture. 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