CAA News Today

On November 5, 2001, President George W. Bush signed the Fiscal Year 2002 Interior Appropriations bill into law, increasing funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The NEA received a $10.5 million increase; the NEH received a $4.5 million increase; and the IMLS received a $2.1 million increase, compared to FY 2001 funding levels.

Susan Ball, executive director of College Art Association, has been elected vice president of the National Humanities Alliance, an advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., that speaks on behalf of individuals engaged in research, writing, teaching, and public presentations of the humanities. Her term of service as vice president will last until May 2002.

The Senate confirmed Bruce Cole as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) on September 14, 2001. Cole, an art historian, will teach during the fall term at Indiana University, and will take up his duties at the NEH in December of this year.

Michael Hammond, currently dean of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, Tex., has been selected by President Bush to chair the National Endowment for the Arts. Hammond was educated at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisc., and Delhi University in India and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in England. He has earned degrees in philosophy, psychology, and physiology. As a composer and conductor, Hammond has written numerous scores for theater in the United States and abroad. His interests include the music of Southeast Asia, Western medieval and Renaissance music, and the relationships between music and the brain.

His nomination will be sent to the U.S. Senate for confirmation.

The Mid-America Arts Alliance (MAAA) Executive Director Henry Moran has accepted an appointment by President George W. Bush to serve as executive director of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. At MAAA, a nonprofit regional arts organization based in Kansas City, Mo., Moran has worked in partnership with state arts agencies, with the National Endowment for the Arts, and with foundations and corporations on regional, multiregional, national, and international arts and humanities programs.

The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities was created by Presidential Executive Order in 1982 to encourage private-sector support of the arts and to increase public appreciation of the value of the arts and the humanities through projects, publications, and meetings.

Partisan bickering is likely to be replaced with a concerted effort to quickly complete work on the appropriations bills in light of the recent terrorist attacks. Many of the controversial appropriations issues are likely to take a back seat, and spending bills could be consolidated under one large piece of legislation to expedite the process.

In other news, three senators who vehemently opposed national funding of artists and the arts-Jesse Helms (R-NC), Strom Thurmond (R-SC), and Phil Gramm (R-TX)-have announced their intention to retire from the U.S. Senate.

-Marta Teegen, CAA manager of governance, advocacy, and special projects