Late Friday afternoon: email arrrives from the White House Press Office, with subject line “President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts.” I open it up, with expectations.
But the key appointments turned out to be six nominees to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Not so key. Still, here they are, with capsule descriptions:
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Chuck Close, “visual artist noted for his highly inventive techniques used to paint the human face, and is best known for his large-scale, photo based portrait paintings. He is also an accomplished printmaker and photographer…”
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Sheila Johnson, “founder and CEO of Salamander Hospitality; co-founder of Black Entertainment Television; a documentary film producer; and the only African-American woman to co-own three professional sports teams. A classically trained violinist…”
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Pamela Joyner, “Founder of Avid Partners, LLC. Her other business experiences include holding senior positions at Bowman Capital, LLC and Capital Guardian Trust Company. Ms Joyner is a former Co-Chair and current Trustee Emeritus of the San Francisco Ballet. She is a Trustee of The MacDowell Colony, The School of American Ballet…”
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Jhumpa Lahiri (above), “a fiction writer whose debut collection of stories, Interpreter of Maladies, received the Pulitzer Prize, the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Addison M. Metcalf Award, and the New Yorker magazine’s Debut of the Year. Her novel, The Namesake, was a New York Times Notable Book, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and was selected as one of the best books of the year by USA Today…”
- Ken Solomon, “chairman of Ovation TV, a national cable and satellite network focused on bringing art, culture and personal creativity to all Americans. He is also chairman and CEO of Tennis Channel, the only 24-hour network dedicated to both the professional sport and tennis lifestyle…”
Here’s the committee’s charter:
The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) has served each Administration since 1982, advancing the White House’s arts and humanities objectives by working directly with the three primary cultural agencies – National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) – to initiate and support key programs; to recognize excellence in the fields of arts and humanities; and to encourage private-public partnerships around those disciplines.
Too bad the cultural budget had to be cut in President Obama’s new budget, including Save America’s Treasures, one of PCAH’s key programs…