The NEA tainted the creative process by encouraging the art community to address highly controversial political issues. ‘How?’ you may ask. The NEA is the largest single funder of the arts in the United States. This government agency has the power and ability to fund arts organizations and recently expressed a desire to return to funding individual artists, bringing more from the group into the pool of potential grantees.

The NEA did encourage a handpicked, pro-Obama arts group to address issues under contentious national debate. That fact is irrefutable.

This practice has never been the historical role of the NEA. The NEA’s role is to support excellence in the arts, to increase access [b]...

The NEA tainted the creative process by encouraging the art community to address highly controversial political issues. ‘How?’ you may ask. The NEA is the largest single funder of the arts in the United States. This government agency has the power and ability to fund arts organizations and recently expressed a desire to return to funding individual artists, bringing more from the group into the pool of potential grantees.

The NEA did encourage a handpicked, pro-Obama arts group to address issues under contentious national debate. That fact is irrefutable.

This practice has never been the historical role of the NEA. The NEA’s role is to support excellence in the arts, to increase access to the arts, and to be a leader in arts education. Using the arts to address contentiously debated issues is political subversion. And the fact that the White House played a role in encouraging the arts to address contentious issues should also be considered a government overreach.

It was the beginning of August 2009, Congress was heading for a much-anticipated month-long recess after weeks of heated debate over health care legislation. At issue was President Obama’s desire for “universal health care” for all Americans, and he was losing that debate. The Administration attempted to push health care legislation through before the August recess, but the so-called Blue Dogs resisted the proposed public option.

After several grueling months of discussion, where the opposition accused the administration of creating death panels, inching the country closer to socialism, and desiring a single-payer system, the Democrats left for the August recess without a bill on the floor ...

It was the beginning of August 2009, Congress was heading for a much-anticipated month-long recess after weeks of heated debate over health care legislation. At issue was President Obama’s desire for “universal health care” for all Americans, and he was losing that debate. The Administration attempted to push health care legislation through before the August recess, but the so-called Blue Dogs resisted the proposed public option.

After several grueling months of discussion, where the opposition accused the administration of creating death panels, inching the country closer to socialism, and desiring a single-payer system, the Democrats left for the August recess without a bill on the floor and a bit battered from their effort.

The Democrats were presented with a daunting task – to face a public at town hall meetings that had gone nuclear. Each night a new incident of public outrage against the government takeover of health care was broadcast widely on cable news – each network painting the protesters as either a legitimate revolt against government growth, or the angry, uneducated, lunatic fringe.

Regardless of how this group was labeled, their mere existence pointed to one fact – the administration was losing the debate on health care reform.

It was in this environment that I received the invite from the National Endowment for the Arts to attend the August 10th conference call. When seeing that the NEA and the White House were inviting a group from the arts world to tackle health care, as well as energy and environment, it appeared to me as an attempt to create an environment amenable to the President’s positions on these efforts. Only after learning that this was the arts group that played a key role in getting the independent arts community behind then candidate Obama, was I convinced that this effort was unusual.

Michael Skolnick, political director for hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons:

* “I’ve been asked by folks in the White House and folks in the NEA … we had the idea that I would help bring together the artist community…”
* “…the Hope poster obviously is a great example, but it’s clear as an independent art community as artists and thinkers and tastemakers and marketers and visionaries that are on this call, the role that we played during the campaign for the president…”
* “…the President has a clear arts agenda and has been very supportive of using art and supporting art in creative ways to talk about some issues that we face here in our country, but also to engage people. And I...

Michael Skolnick, political director for hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons:

* “I’ve been asked by folks in the White House and folks in the NEA … we had the idea that I would help bring together the artist community…”
* “…the Hope poster obviously is a great example, but it’s clear as an independent art community as artists and thinkers and tastemakers and marketers and visionaries that are on this call, the role that we played during the campaign for the president…”
* “…the President has a clear arts agenda and has been very supportive of using art and supporting art in creative ways to talk about some issues that we face here in our country, but also to engage people. And I think all of us who are on this phone call, you know, were selected for a reason.”
* “And so I’m hoping that through this group, and the goal of all this, and the goal of this phone call, is through this group we can create a stronger community amongst ourselves to get involved in things we’re passionate about as we did during the campaign. But to continue to get involved in those things, to support some of the President’s initiatives, but also to do things that we are passionate about and to push the President and push his administration…“

Yosi Sergant, former Communications Director of the National Endowment for the Arts:

* “This is a community that knows how to make a stink.”
* “…this is just the beginning. This is the first telephone call of a brand new conversation.”
* “We are just now learning how to really bring this community together to speak with the government. What that looks like legally?”
* “So bear with us as we learn the language so that we can speak to each other safely…”
* “I would encourage you to pick something whether it’s health care, education, the environment, you know, there’s four key areas that the corporation has identified as the areas of service.”
...

Yosi Sergant, former Communications Director of the National Endowment for the Arts:

* “This is a community that knows how to make a stink.”
* “…this is just the beginning. This is the first telephone call of a brand new conversation.”
* “We are just now learning how to really bring this community together to speak with the government. What that looks like legally?”
* “So bear with us as we learn the language so that we can speak to each other safely…”
* “I would encourage you to pick something whether it’s health care, education, the environment, you know, there’s four key areas that the corporation has identified as the areas of service.”
* “My ask would be to apply artistic, you know, your artistic creative community’s utilities and bring them to the table.”