Landesman & NEA to Fund Hip-Hop and Graffiti?

As previously reported, former Angels in America producer and President of Jujamcyn Theatres, and newly appointed Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Rocco Landesman, will be kicking off of a six month national tour on November 6 to cities and towns throughout America to learn and highlight the ways that art can create jobs, stimulate the economy and revitalize communities. This educational experiment is only one part of larger, philosophical plans to makeover the organization, he revealed to the Wall Street Journal in a recent interview. Among the surprising changes are the endorsement of graffiti and hip-hop artists of all varieties, in addition to supporting those that espouse more perverse topics historically frowned upon by the institution.  

In an excerpt from the interview with the Wall Street Journal, Landesman explains:

RL: "There are new forms of music . . . and the NEA should be there. We should be reflecting the reality in our world these days, whether it's hip-hop, or whatever. There's a lot going on that the NEA traditionally has no comprehension about."

WSJ: Do you think that hip-hop would be an appropriate area for NEA to fund?

RL: "Absolutely. And mural painting and graffiti are art. There are popular aspects of all the arts that I think shouldn't be ignored...We're the National Endowment for the Arts and we should be supporting artists."

According to the report, "Mr. Landesman believes the time has now come to reinstate grants to individual artists-a program eviscerated when NEA ran afoul of Congress during the so-called culture wars. Only grants for writers have continued." In this effort to support the individual, free-thinking artist, Landesman does plan to defer to congressional "decency standards" as much as possible.

To read the full report in the Wall Street Journal Online, click here.

Landesman's national tour will begin on Friday, November 6 with a visit to Peoria, Illinois, which will include a roundtable discussion about the impact of the arts, a tour of Peoria's warehouse district and a performance of the musical Rent. The chairman will continue to St. Louis, Missouri, the week of November 23, 2009; to Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee, the week of November 30, 2009; and to other states, including California, Idaho, Kentucky and Washington over the next several months.

To expand the dialogue, the NEA is hosting a blog at www.arts.gov where Americans can post examples and stories of how art works in their own communities. Chairman Landesman will also post dispatches from the "Art Works" tour on the Web site.