Long Vacancies Atop U.S. Culture Agencies Worry Advocates

The two leading federal grant-making bodies for cultural pursuits have been without permanent heads for several months, raising concerns among arts advocates that the agencies will be vulnerable as another Washington budget showdown looms, The New York Times reports.

More than eight months after Rocco Landesman announced his departure from the National Endowment for the Arts, the hunt for a new chairman has stalled, the Times says, citing unnamed sources familiar with the search. The National Endowment for the Humanities has also been without a permanent leader since Jim Leach left office in May.

Advocates say the absences leave the endowments vulnerable as the White House and Congress gear up for another battle over federal spending. The House Appropriations Committee proposed last month to halve the $154.5-million each agency would get under President Obama’s budget plan.

“The NEA and NEH need chairpersons, because they need people to be working with Congress, the White House, and the public to build support,” said poet Dana Gioia, who led the arts endowment from 2002 to 2008. “That’s just Washingtonian common sense.”