NEA Budget 'Should Double' Says New NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman

In a frank and wide-ranging interview with the Chicago Tribune, new NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman said that he plans to focus his oft-beleaguered federal agency's efforts on both the role of the arts in K-12 education and on promoting the arts as an economic engine for cities and towns.

Landesman said in the interview that, as chairman, he will focus on the potential of the arts to help in the country's economic recovery.

When asked if the NEA could fill the holes left by the devestating cuts in states arts funding across the nation, Landesman said, "It's a crisis that cannot be dealt with by the NEA alone. I wish I had [Federal Reserve Chairman] Ben Bernanke's check-writing powers. I would bail them all out. But I don't. We are facing a very dire situation. That's one of the reasons I have been so hawkish on the funding issue. Our money is not sufficient. We need a lot more."

"I'm 62," Landesman said. "It's going to be very hard for me to become circumspect and careful. I am who I am. Maybe I'll learn to be a bit more politic, but it's hard to change your personality at a certain point. You get the package... If it were up to me, the NEA budget would double."

To read the entire interview click here.

Landesman grew up in St. Louis, where his father and uncle owned the Crystal Palace cabaret, giving young Rocco an early intro to stars like Barbra Streisand, Mike Nichols and Lenny Bruce. With a doctorate from the Yale School of Drama in hand, Landesman taught at the school for a spell, owned a handful of racehorses, and ran a small hedge fund before teaming up with the Production Company Dodger Theatricals. With Dodger, Landesman co-produced the retro musical Pump Boys and Dinettes in 1982 and the Tony-winning Big River in 1985. In 1987, he became president at Jujamcyn Theaters, the owner of five Broadway venues (the ST. James, the Eugene O'Neill, the Al Hirschfeld, the Walter Kerr and the August Wilson) and the third-biggest Broadway theater owner behind the Shubert and Nederlander Organizations.

The play that established Jujamcyn as a force to be reckoned with was David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly, which took home the Tony for Best Play in 1988. Over the next decade and a half, Landesman produced dozens of plays and musicals under the Jujamcyn banner, including hits like 42nd Street, City of Angels, Angels in America, Grease, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Kiss Me, Kate, Proof, Urinetown, and Tony Kushner's Caroline, or Change.

Following the death of Jujamcyn's chairman Jim Binger in 2005, Landesman bought the chain for a reported $30 million. Today, fellow Broadway producers Tom Viertel and Paul Libin also own a small stake in the company, and creative decisions are handled by Jujamcyn's artistic director, Jack Viertel, Tom's brother. Since the acquisition, Landesman has managed an extremely favorable hit/flop ratio, putting on successes like John Patrick Shanley's Doubt, Sweet Charity, Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, Jersey Boys, Grey Gardens, and Curtains. Jujamcyn's Eugene O'Neill Theater hosted the mega-hit Spring Awakening, which swept the Tonys in 2007, winning the Tony for Best Musical and six other statuettes.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is a United States federally funded and donation assisted program that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current chairman is the poet and former CEO Dana Gioia and it has its offices in the Old Post Office building, in Washington, D.C.

Photo Credit: Linda Lenzi