President Biden announced the members of an arts advisory board, which includes: Lady Gaga, Shonda Rhimes, George Clooney and 24 other entertainers and academics. Lady Gaga will co-chair the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities with producer Bruce Cohen. The committee members will serve as advisors to the President on cultural policy.
President Ronald Reagan created the board in 1982. In the early stages, the committee assisted in the organization of the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Awards and established the Kennedy Center’s Turnaround Arts program, which provides low-income schools with arts education services.
President Biden believes the committee is “essential to the well-being, health, vitality, and democracy of our Nation.”
“The arts and the humanities and related institutions have been under attack and have faced questions of relevancy,” said Tsione Wolde-Michael-the committee’s executive director. “What the committee is about is how the arts and humanities can really be a vehicle for positive social change.”
Berkeley City College President Angélica Garcia, one of the academics who will serve on the committee, said that institutions like hers “are anchors of democracy that often serve as the cultural centers of diverse communities, in many cases being the only spaces where the arts, humanities and libraries are accessible.”