Our ED at Class Acts Arts, unfortunately couldn't make the call, but forwarded it to me. And who was spearheading this campaign to assuage the concerns of Arts Mangers?
Kalpen Modi!!
Kalpen Modi!!
That's right, in case you forgot or just didn't know, he's the Associate Director of The White House's Office of Public Engagement. In this position, he serves as liaison to Young Americans, the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, and the Arts.
Now, I won't go into detail about the call, particularly because it was not for news purposes, and being a lowly blogger, still not quite sure how I fit into the scheme of things.
I will say two things.
First, I was surprised that only a couple of individuals...literally, responded with thoughts and concerns towards the end of the call. Which, I guess, is fine. A conference call is not really the forum for in depth discussion, and that wasn't the purpose of this one anyway, but it did make me wonder how many were actually on the call. I mean, I'm sure this must be standard procedure when any budget issue could adversely impact a sector or industry, but I couldn't help but pique my curiosity as to how many people actually called in, if only two had anything to say.
If we can't even show up on a telephone line when offered the opportunity, then how likely are those in positions of decision making going to look past that when we are present just because we need something. And that doesn't just go with the arts, that probably applies to just about anything in life.
The second thing? I almost regret not chiming in when they asked to make sure if anyone else had any questions, because something that came up in grad school, particularly in our Cultural Policy class, would be the fact that the National Endowment for the Arts...well, it's not an endowment.
But that's a topic for a much larger discussion...
- J Street Jr
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