In Friday’s (12/2) Washington Post, Jacqueline Trescott reports, “The National Endowment for the Arts, known for its grants to arts organizations and its prizes to individual artists, also has a robust research department. Now it is bringing that aspect of its work forward, investigating how the arts affect different aspects of American life. The NEA announced Wednesday it will lead a new task force of federal departments to examine and encourage research on the impact of the arts at all stages of life. Working under the title of ‘Human Development,’ the task force will bring together 13 agencies and departments to get at questions that have previously escaped studies. The NEA argued that ‘major gaps’ exist in research that the federal government has sponsored about the outcomes of arts influence all through life. ‘It is my job to support artists and arts organizations in their prime mission: making and presenting art. But we also have a responsibility to look beyond ourselves to see the ways in which our work connects with our fellow citizens and the world at large,’ said Rocco Landesman, the NEA chairman, in a statement.” The task force was discussed in a live webinar on November 30, which is now available here.
Posted December 6, 2011
