Tag Archive "nea-chairman"

New, no-nonsense NEA chief sounds good

Rocco Landesman, new NEA Chairman interviewed in yesterday’s NY TImes story by Robin Pogrebin takes no prisoners.  He calls the current NEA funding of $155 million “pathetic” and “embarrassing” and says he’ll be asking for more than incremental increases for the arts.  He sees the arts as an integral part of the economic recovery. And he will change the way grants are handed out, inserting criteria such as artistic merit where apparently now there are no merit requirements (the grants are handed out on a geographical basis, one grant per county). Also, he’s in favor of re-instating the grants to individual ... More » »