The White House announced Thursday that the president Joe Biden named Lady Gaga to co-chair its Arts and Humanities Committee, in a statement.
Lady Gaga will share her position as co-chair of the committee with the Oscar-winning Hollywood producer Bruce Cohenwhile Kerry Washington, Jon Batiste, George Clooney, Jennifer Garner, Troy Kotsur, Shonda Rhimes, Marta Kauffman and others will join as committee members.
The committee, created in 1982 by Ronald Reagan, is charged with providing recommendations to the president and the directors of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
It disbanded in August 2017, when its members resigned in protest following the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which Trump said had “very good people on both sides” of the clash that left one person dead.
At that moment, the 17-member committee sent a letter to then-President Trump to condemn his “hateful rhetoric” and denounced his efforts to eliminate or severely reduce budgets dedicated to the arts and humanities.
Last October, President Biden issued an executive order to reinstate the committee, describing the arts and humanities as “essential to the well-being, health, vitality and democracy of our nation.”
The newly restored committee will be administered through the Institute for Museum and Library Services, which received $294.8 million for fiscal year 2023. It will also raise funds for its activities.
Keep reading:
• Biden reinstates a government arts committee that was dissolved under Donald Trump
• Biden awards the National Medal of Arts to Jose Feliciano, Bruce Springsteen and other notable artists
• Entertainment and arts industry asks Biden to be taken into account in the American Jobs Plan
Source: La Opinion
