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Home > Events > Friends Events > NEA 40th Symposium

National Endowment for the Arts Logo

What: Nea 40th Symposium
When: Friday, October 28, 2005 &
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Where: Presidential Suite, Atrium, Brown Room

Austin, TEXAS–Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA,) will be the keynote speaker at a symposium titled “The NEA at 40: Cultural Policy and American Democracy” at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum at The University of Texas at Austin on October 28 and 29.  Sekou Sundiata will give the keynote performance on Saturday, October 29.

The event marks the 40th anniversary of the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act, legislation signed by President Johnson that enabled the creation of the National Endowment for the Arts in 1965. 

To examine the past, present and future of the NEA, the event will bring together scholars, artists and policymakers to discuss issues of arts and American democracy, government and cultural policy, and the legacy of the culture wars. 

Panelists will include Congressman John Brademas, president emeritus of New York University and former chair of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities; Rick Hernandez, Executive Director, Texas Commission on the Arts, and author Michael Lind, Whitehead Senior Fellow of the New America Foundation.

The event also features a student summit organized by the LBJ School of Public Affairs’ Policy Coalition on Culture. Bringing together graduate students from across the nation to discuss issues of cultural policy, the summit will explore such topics as the role of cultural policy and its goals, career paths for arts and policy advocates, and making a difference through arts and cultural policy.  The summit will take place at the LBJ School of Public Affairs from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Friday, October 28 in Sid Richardson Hall room 3.103.

The symposium is free and open to the public and registration is not required. A detailed agenda is available at http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/events.hom/nea_2005.shtm. 

Cosponsors include the Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and UT Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs, College of Fine Arts, Center for African and African American Studies and Zachary T. Scott Family Chair in Drama.

For further information, contact Tina Houston at the LBJ Library and Museum at 512-721-0206 or tina.houston@nara.gov.

Download the Event's Brochure in PDF format here.

The NEA at 40: Cultural Policy and American Democracy

LBJ Presidential Library, 10th Floor Atrium
October 28-29, 2005

1:30-1:45
Welcome 

Betty S. Flowers, Director LBJ Library

Robert Freeman, Dean of the College of Fine Arts, UT Austin

Ann Daly, Associate Professor, Performance as Public Practice, UT Austin

1:45 – 2:30
The Making of the NEA

What key events or issues led to the founding of the NEA?

Moderator: Betty S. Flowers

  • Louann Temple, author, “Pathfinders for the Imagination: The Evolution of Presidential Support for the Arts, 1961-1965”
  • Congressman John Brademas, President Emeritus, NYU

2:30 - 3:45
The NEA and the Future of American Arts

Looking forward—what role could the NEA play in the future of American arts?

Moderator: Ellen Grantham

  • Doug Sonntag, NEA Director, Dance; NEA Director, National Initiatives
  • Wayne Brown, NEA Director, Music and Opera; Jazz Masters Initiative
  • Neil Barclay, Director, African American Cultural Center of Greater Pittsburgh
  • Cookie Ruiz, Executive Director, Ballet Austin

Discussion

3:45 - 4:00           
Coffee Break

4:00 – 5:30  Prelude to the NEA

How did the arts organize themselves before the NEA? How did theatre support its own growth, the literary arts develop writers' colonies, and dance find itself ready for “export"?

Moderator:  Joni Jones, Associate Director, Center for African and African American Studies

  • Charlotte Canning, Associate Professor of Theatre and Dance, UT Austin; author, The Most American Thing in America: Circuit Chautauqua as Performance
  • Naima Prevots, Professor Emerita of Performing Arts, American University; author, Dance for Export: Cultural Diplomacy and the Cold War
  •  Robert Goler, Assistant Professor and Director, Graduate Certificate in Arts Management, American University

Discussion

5:30 – 6:00
Reception [Brown Room]

6:00 - 7:00 (LBJ Library & Museum 10th Floor Atrium)
Keynote: Dana Gioia, Chairman NEA

9:30 - 11:30             
Democracy and the Arts

What role does art play in American democracy? How does the artist/citizen contribute to civic dialogue? How do the arts rehearse citizens for democratic life?

Moderator: Ann Daly

  • Joli Jensen, Hazel Rogers Chair in Communication and Director of Honors Program, University of Tulsa; author, Is Art Good for Us?
  • Jill Dolan, Professor of  Theatre and Dance and Zachary T. Scott Family Chair in Drama, UT Austin; author, Utopia in Performance: Finding Hope at the Theatre
  • Sekou Sundiata, Professor of Music, Literature, and Poetry, Eugene Lang College; performance poet; creator, The America Project
  • Michael Lind, Whitehead Senior Fellow, New America Foundation

Discussion

1:00 - 3:00           
The Legacy of the ‘Culture Wars’

Some 15 years later, how do we assess the long-term impact of the ‘culture wars’--on art, artists, and the public?

  • Moderator: Doug Dempster

    • Marjorie Heins, founder, Freedom of Expression Policy Project, Brennan Center for Justice, NYU School of Law; author, Sex,Sin, and Blasphemy: A Guide to America’s Censorship Wars
    • Holly Hughes, Associate Professor of Art and Design, University of Michigan; performance artist
    • John Killacky, Program Officer for Arts and Culture, San Francisco Foundation
    • Rick Hernandez, Executive Director, Texas Commission on the Arts

    Discussion

    3:00 - 3:30           
    Coffee Break

    3:30 - 5:00           
    Government and the Arts:
    The Question of Cultural Policy

    What responsibility does government, at all levels, have to the cultural sector? How can government best support culture as a public good? Who is responsible for defining cultural policy?

    Moderator: Evan Carton, Kelleher Professor of English at UT and Director of Humanities Institute

    • J. Mark Schuster, Professor of Urban Cultural Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; author, Informing Cultural Policy
    • Bill Glade, Professor, Department of Economics, UT
    • Jason Neulander, Founder and Artistic Director, Salvage Vanguard Theater

    Discussion

    5:00 - 6:00           
    Afternoon tea

    6:00 – 7:30   
    Performance: Sekou Sundiata and Workshop Participants

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