Members of President Clinton’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) will hold a public meeting at New York University on Friday, September 24, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., Dr. John Brademas, Committee Chairman and NYU President Emeritus, said today.
The meeting will be held in Lipton Hall at the New York University Law School, 108 West 3rd Street (at MacDougal Street). Among those to address the group will be Marian Godfrey, director of the cultural program of the Pew Charitable Trust, which recently announced a major study on national cultural policy. Also speaking will be Dr. James Allen Smith of the Center for Arts and Culture, Robert Lynch, president of Americans for the Arts and Leslie Berlowitz, executive officer of The American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities is a presidential advisory committee composed of over 40 public and private sector leaders appointed by President Clinton to stimulate public-private partnerships in support of the two fields as well as to raise public awareness of the benefits of culture to society. The Committee carries out its work through research, publications and meetings like the one to be held at NYU.
Dr. Brademas, chairman of the PCAH since 1994, was a Member of the US Congress (1959-81) where he was chief sponsor or co-sponsor of legislation establishing the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, Museum Services Institute, and Arts and Artifacts Indemnity Program.
Said Dr. Brademas, “As we approach a new century and the next Millennium, there is rising interest in the place of the arts and the humanities in American life. The issues we’ll be discussing this week are taking on more and more significance in our country.”
The Committee will hear reports on advances in arts education, including a review of the Committee’s “Coming Up Taller” collaboration with the National Endowment for the Arts, to recognize significant after-school cultural activities for at-risk youth.
The Committee will also discuss two new joint efforts: (1) “My History is Your History,” a project with the National Endowment for the Humanities to encourage families to undertake their own histories, and (2) a project on diversity in cultural leadership with the Institute for Museum and Library Services.
Also speaking will be Dr. Brademas and Harriet Mayor Fulbright, the Committee’s Executive Director.
In 1997 the PCAH published “Creative America,” a report to the President with over 50 suggestions for strengthening the arts and the humanities in the United States. The First Lady of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is Honorary Chair of the President’s Committee.