National Council on the Arts Meets in Washington, DC and via Live Webcast

Washington, DC—The National Endowment for the Arts will host a meeting of its advisory body, the National Council on the Arts, on Friday, June 27, 2014, at its new headquarters in the Constitution Center, 400 7th St. SW. The meeting will be in conference rooms A-C on the plaza level from 9:00 - 11:00 a.m. ET. This will be the first public appearance for Chairman Jane Chu who began her tenure with the NEA on June 19, 2014. The meeting will be live webcast at arts.gov. Chairman Chu will open and close the meeting that includes council business along with staff and guest presentations. A podcast interview with Chu explores her background and some of her ideas for leading the NEA and the arts community. A video greeting is also at arts.gov. Following council business at 9:30 a.m., NEA Director of Research and Analysis Sunil Iyengar will talk about some of the findings of the latest Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA). The NEA has partnered with the United States Census Bureau six times since 1982 to conduct the SPPA. This 2012 survey asked a nationally representative sample of adults ages 18 and older if they had participated in five categories of arts activity in the past year: attending, reading, learning, making/sharing art, and consuming art via electronic media. A guest presentation from M12 Collective follows at 10:00 a.m. lead by Matthew Fluharty, director of Art of the Rural and a member of the collective, and Kirsten Stoltz, M12's director of programs. The collective is an interdisciplinary group of artists interested in the aesthetics of rural cultures and landscapes. Based in Byers, Colorado, about 44 miles east of Denver and situated in the high plains, M12 members create work and conduct research projects and education programs. M12 Collective was featured in a February 11, 2014 Art Works blog. At 10:30 a.m., Robert S. Cox, head of special collections and university archives at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries will discuss the arts policy archives he oversees which includes the publication archives of the National Endowment for the Arts. The meeting concludes at 11:15 a.m. About the National Council on the Arts The National Council on the Arts convenes three times per year to vote on funding recommendations; to advise the chairman on application guidelines, the budget, and policy and planning directions; and to recommend to the president nominees for the National Medal of Arts. Including the chairman, there are 17 members: Bruce Carter, Aaron Dworkin, Lee Greenwood, Deepa Gupta, Paul Hodes, Joan Israelite, Maria Rosario Jackson, Emil J. Kang, Charlotte Kessler, María López De León, Rick Lowe, David "Mas" Masumoto, Irvin Mayfield, Jr., Barbara Ernst Prey, Ranee Ramaswamy, and Olga Viso. There are also six ex-officio members from Congress: Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and U.S. Representatives Betty McCollum (D-MN) and Patrick J. Tiberi (R-OH). Appointment by majority and minority leadership of the remaining two members of Congress to the Council is pending.   About the National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. To date, the NEA has awarded more than $5 billion to support artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector. To join the discussion on how art works, visit the NEA at arts.gov.