NICK RABKIN ON HUFFPOST: DOES THE COUNTRY NEED A CULTURAL POLICY?
Despite its preoccupation with the economy, health care, two wars, and other pressing matters, the administration has already shown a real appreciation for the arts. Its White House performance programs are welcoming the diversity of American culture to the “People’s House.” It has appointed energetic new leadership to the Arts and Humanities Endowments and increased their budgets. It is using the bully pulpit to promote creativity and the arts in education. For the first time artists are included in plans for national service programs. But it has not yet articulated an overarching strategy that takes full advantage of the potential of the arts to contribute to every dimension of the nation’s mission, a strategy designed for this new moment in our history.