Meet the New Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts-Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson!

Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson, the 13th chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, is no stranger to the Arts Endowment having had a great deal of first-hand experience with the agency as she has served on the National Council on the Arts since 2013.  She comes to the position of chair with years of experience in comprehensive community building that focuses on the centrality of the arts, culture, and supports what she terms an “artful life.”  The first African American and Mexican American woman to chair the Arts Endowment, Chair Jackson received her doctorate in urban planning from the University of California, Los Angeles.  Her resume is long, deep, and rich, with notable work at the Urban Institute, Kresge Foundation, and as Institute Professor in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University, where she also holds an appointment in the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions. In this thoughtful and engaging conversation, Chair Jackson shares her thoughts about the arts, an artful life, and the Arts Endowment at this time of reopening, rethinking, and reimagining the arts landscape.