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Ginger TEllen
will try to
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sheet today.
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's Efforts
to Support and Promote the Arts and Humanities
Honoring the Past and Imagining the Future: White House Millennium Council Efforts:
In August, 1997, the President and the First Lady announced that the White House would lead a
national millennium program for the American people to appreciate our common heritage and
rejoice in our creativity.
"Save America's Treasures"
As part of the White House Millennium Project, in May 1998 the First Lady launched the Save
America's Treasures initiative, a public/private partnership with the National Trust for Historic
Preservation to preserve for future generations the memories, artifacts, historical sites and
documents that tell the story of our nation, and embody our ideals. This year the First Lady has
been touring sites that are vital to our national heritage to spotlight not only famous
monuments and political leaders but also the religious, artistic, and literary pioneers who have
shaped our history.
Treasures Tour, July 1998:
On July 13, 1998, Mrs. Clinton began a three-day trip to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast
Regions. To kick-off the tour, the President and Mrs. Clinton honored the Star Spangled Banner
at the Museum of American History and announced a gift from Ralph Lauren and other private
donors to provide the extensive repair for the flag, which inspired Francis Scott Key to write our
national anthem.
Mrs. Clinton began the three-day journey at the laboratory of Thomas Edison in West Orange,
NJ, where she announced a $5 million gift for the laboratory from the General Electric Fund.
Additional stops included George Washington's Headquarters in Newburgh, NY, The Colonial
Theater in Pittsfield, MA, the Kate Mullany House in Troy, NY, Harriet Tubman site in Auburn,
NY, Ganondagan State Historic Site on Victor, NY, Women's Rights National Historical Park in
Waterloo, NY. She ended the tour with a speech at the 150th Anniversary of the Women's
Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, NY.
Regional Save America's Treasures Visits:
Building on the "Save America's Treasures" Tour to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions
in July 1998, in December 1998, the First Lady traveled to New York, Massachusetts, and
California.
Queens, NY: Mrs. Clinton visited the home and archives of American jazz legend, Louis
Armstrong and announced a gift to enable the archives to continue to preserve and
celebrate the music that defines the American experience.
Boston, MA: In Boston, Mrs. Clinton visited the home of poet Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow and the African Meeting House, both of which hold incredible significance
for our nation's culture and history.
Los Angeles, CA: Mrs. Clinton visited the Breed Street Shul to participate in an
announcement by the J. Paul Getty Trust which will help to ensure the preservation of
American landmarks. She also visited the Los Angeles Theater, an elaborate movie
palace built on Broadway in 1931. Mrs. Clinton participated in the announcement of a
new partnership between the Millennium Committee to Save America's Treasures and
Warner Bros. Records.
San Francisco, CA: Mrs. Clinton visited the Conservatory of Flowers and announced
more than $6 million to help restore this historic landmark.
Millennium Evenings:
Millennium Evenings at the White House are a series of lectures and cultural showcases hosted
by the President and First Lady that highlight the creativity and inventiveness of the American
people through our ideas, art and scientific discoveries.
The first Millennium Evening at the White House was held February 11, 1998: "The
Living Past -- Commitments for the Future," featuring historian Bernard Bailyn of
Harvard University
March 6, 1998: "Imagination and Change: Science in the Next Millennium, "featuring
Professor Stephen Hawking of Cambridge University, England
Wednesday, April 22, 1998: A celebration of American creativity through poetry
featuring Poets Laureate Robert Pinsky, Robert Hass and Rita Dove
September 18, 1998: Jazz: An Expression of Democracy, featuring Wynton Marsalis and
Marilyn McPartland.
January 25, 1999: "The Meaning of the Millennium" - focusing on history and religion.
Millennium Trails:
On October 5, 1998, the First Lady announced the Millennium Trails initiative at the B& A Trail
in Severna Park, MD. Millennium Trails reinforces the connection between people, their land,
and their history and culture.
Mars Millennium Project:
In January 1999, the First Lady launched the Mars Millennium Project -- a partnership with the
White House Millennium Council, the Department of Education, the National Endowment for
the Arts, NASA, the J. Paul Getty Trust -- to challenge kindergarten through high school students
across the nation to imagine and design the first community on Mars.
Raising Awareness:
In addition, Mrs. Clinton has dedicated her column to raising awareness about the millennium
and the efforts of the White House Millennium Council to honor the past and imagine the future.
Columns: 1/27/98, 2/17/98, 7/15/98, 12/30/98.
August Events (official) to Consider for Grid
8/2
Hispanic Convening
Phone Call to Iceland Review
Kosovo Comic Book Event
8/11
Medal of Freedom Awards
8/17
Violence PSA Event with POTUS
8/19
Baby Boom Echo Report Event with POTUS
8/20
Save America's Treasures Announcement
American Ireland Fund Reception
8/23
Drop by Martha's Vineyard Hospital Event
8/28
Briefing and Radio Address Event/Edgarton School
September Events (official) to Consider for Grid
9/3
Presidential Radio Address/Waterman Elementary School
9/7
AIDS Meeting
9/10
World of Women Leaders Conference
9/15
Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute 22ⁿᵈ Annual Gala
9/16
Mtg with Mrs. Obasanjo of Nigeria
9/18
Enthronement Ceremony of Greek Orthodox Archbishop of America Demetrios
(official?)
Congressional Black Caucus Dinner
9//22 Childcare Roundtable (NYC- official?)
Fashion Targets Breast Cancer Announcement (NYC-official?)
9/23
Videos: Mammography PSA; Vital Voices Trinidad; Family Celebration Gala;
Recognizing Leaders in Women's Health Awards
National Democratic Institute for International Affairs' 1999 W. Averell
Harriman Democracy Award (HRC received)
Interview w/Icelandic State TV
9/24
Adoption Event
Mtg with Chevron Reps (talks about corporate respon and philanthropy)
Inaugural
9/29
Drop by Museum Service Award Winners
Ntl Medal of Arts and Humanities Ceremony with POTUS [& Dinner]
9/28
Prayer Breakfast
Minimum Wage Event w/Kennedy
Heritage Awards
Millennium Announcement
Ntl Breast Cancer Coalition Fund Gala Dinner
9/30
First Ladies Conference, Ottawa
Dedication of Shapiro Sculpture; US Embassy in Ottawa
Accomplishments in the Arts
of
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
For internal use only. Updated 7/31/99.
Arts Education & At Risk Youth
Objective:
To highlight the importance of the arts and humanities to education and at risk youth.
Accomplishments:
VH1 Save the Music Today Show appearance with VH1 President, John Sykes (6/10/99)
VH1 Save the Music event at New York Public School (6/10/99)
Launched release of PCAH and Arts Education Partnership Joint Report- "Gaining the
Arts Advantage: Lessons from School Districts that Value Arts Education" (3/3/99)
HRC Column on Arts Ed (3/3/99) W
Taped video for announcement of NAEP Report (11/10/98)
Coming Up Taller Awards event at the White House (10/7/98)
Hosted Arts Education Call to Action event at the White House (9/98)
WH-1 Save the Music Art education event at the Marie Reed School (9/17/98)
Whicago School Principal's Luncheon (6/3/98)
Scholastic Tea at White House (6/98)
Speech at Martin Luther King Jr. Library CD-Rom event (4/98)
Poetry Slam at Johnson Junior High (4/98)
Visited programs for youth at risk at the Manchester Craftsman Guild in PA (6/7/96) and
Gallery 37 in Chicago (8/20/96)-check
HRC Column on Arts Ed (5/21/96)
Launched PCAH report Coming Up Taller on arts programs around the country geared
towards at-risk youth (4/26/96)
Future Focus:
Continue to highlight effective arts and humanities programs for youth at risk
VH1 Save the Music concert at White House (10/99)
For internal use only. Updated 7/31/99.
Leadership PCAH, NEA, NEH, IMLS
Objective:
To continue to provide leadership on the federal role in the arts and humanities, promote national
recognition of the arts and humanities, and advocate for continued funding and support of the
NEA, the NEH and the IMLS.
Accomplishments:
White House's leading spokesperson on arts and humanities
Chief White House liaison with Arts and Humanities Endowment and PCAH on all
relevant matters
Attended National Arts Awards Gala at Lincoln Center (5/24/99)
Attended First Ladies Library Dinner (3/16/99)
Hosted Marine Band's 200th Birthday event at White House (7/98)
Announced Sara Lee donation of corporate arts collection in Chicago (6/98)
Hosted Pritzker Prize Ceremony for architecture at White House (6/98)
Speech at Living Arts Downtown event to promote downtown DC revitalization with
emphasis on cultural complex (5/98)
Speech at American Ballet Theater Spring Gala (5/98)
Speech at University of Michigan on centrality of arts and implications in public policy
(4/98)
Speech at Decatur House event for First National Dallas Women's Museum (3/98)
Speech at the National First Ladies Library Website event (2/98)
Column on Arts and Humanities Month (9/30/97)
Participated in transmittal of Creative America to POTUS in a press conference (1/97)
Convened meetings with cultural leaders on meeting ongoing national cultural needs
(10/96, 10/97)
Hosted National Heritage Awards ceremony at the White House (9/27/95- 10/98)
Speech at 125th Anniversary of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (6/6/95)
Hosted Presidential Design Awards with the President to honor the best in federal design
and construction (3/9/95)
Event at State Department to mark Jefferson's Birthday (4/11/94)
Oversee MOA/MOH awards, ceremony and dinner at White House (annual)
Arts and Humanities Month Proclamation (annual)
Hosted event to honor Nobel laureates (annual)
Presented the National Award for Museum Services (yearlong)
Supported through participation, events, and White House leadership, major cultural
institutions and their programs: National Gallery, NSO, Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall,
the Metropolitan, Library of Congress
For internal use only. Updated 7/31/99.
NYT Op-ed about the importance of public support for the arts
Worked to save USIA's International Arts Exchange program from elimination
Hosted WETA events at White House
Supported and hosted FAPE events at White House
Future Focus:
Continue to lead on all cultural initiatives at the White House
Explore new funding streams for the arts
For internal use only. Updated 7/31/99.
Millennium Project
Objective:
To issue a call to the nation to honor the past and imagine the future leading up to the turn of the
century and the new millennium.
Accomplishments:
Leadership in Welcoming the Millennium
Delivered Millennium Lecture at National University of Galway, Ireland (5/12/99)
Announcement of Millennium Project at National Archives (8/15/97)
Convened first millennium working group meeting (6/97)
Various HRC columns; Initiative (2/25/97), Yellowstone Anniversary (8/19/97),
Treasures (1/27/98, 6/17/98, 7/15/98, 5/26/99), Millennium Council (12/30/98),
Millennium Evenings (2/17/98)
Leadership and formation of inter-agency group and WH office
Millennium themes in HRC speeches
Millennium Evenings at the White House
Elie Wiesel, "The Perils of Indifference: Lessons Learned from a Violent Century" (4/99)
Ruth Simmons, Nancy Cott and Alice Kessler-Harris, "Women as Citizens: Vital Voices
through the Century" (3/99)
Martin Marty and Natalie Davais, "The Meaning of the Millennium" (1/25/99)
Wynton Marsalis and Marian McPartland, "Jazz: An Expression of Democracy" (9/98)
Robert Pinsky and Pets Laureate, "Celebration of American Creativity through Poetry"
(4/98)
Stephen Hawking, "Imagination and Change: Science in the Next Millennium" (3/98)
Bernard Bailyn, "The Living Past- Commitments for the Future" (2/98)
Save America's Treasures
Second Annual Meeting with Save America's Treasures Millennium Committee (6/99)
Announcement of Save America's Treasures federal grants to 62 projects of national,
historical significance (5/19/99)
Planning meeting with President of National Trust for Historic Preservation and Save
America's Treasures Administrators (1/99)
Announcement of Trust's private Millennium Committee to Save America's Treasures
and acceptance of honorary chair position (5/98)
For internal use only. Updated 7/31/99.
Raising Awareness/Save America's Treasure Tours
Visit and tour of National First Ladies Library and McKinley Memorial (7/23/99)
Charters of Freedom gift announcement at National Archives with the President (7/1/99)
Save America's Treasures Southwest Tour of NM, AZ and CO (5/99)
Dolley Madison Commemorative Coin event to announce issuance (1/11/99)
Save America's Treasures visits to Boston, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles
(12/98)
Montpelier gift announcement (7/98)
Save America's Treasures visits to DC, Maryland, New Jersey, Massachusetts and New
York (7/98)
Monacacy Aqueduct 1998 11 Most Endangered List announcement (6/98)
Opening of Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods with the President (6/98)
Preservation Efforts
$30M Appropriation for Save America's Treasure federal grants
Cornerstones Community Partnership ($191,000)
Southwest Pieta ($4,000)
Mesa Verde ($1.65 mil +)
Charters of Freedom Project ($1.8 mil)
African Meeting House ($40,000) W
Louis Armstrong House and Archives ($134,000)
Getty: Breed Street Shul ($15,000)
Conservatory of Flowers (6,523,000)
Individual Gift: Ganondagan State Park ($20,000)W
Getty: Grants for Preservation Planning ($1,085,000)
Polo Ralph Lauren: Public Awareness Campaign ($3 mil)
Polo Ralph Lauren: Star Spangled Banner ($10 mil)
Pew Charitable Trusts: Star-Spangled Banner ($5 mil)
GE Fund: Edison Invention Factory ($5 mill)
Individual Gift: Harriet Tubman ($10,000) W
Individual Gift: Ganondagan State Park ($20,000)
Target: Baltimore Monument ($925,000)
Target: Save Outdoor Sculpture! ($925,000)
NEA: Save Outdoor Sculpture! ($500,000)
NEA: Baltimore Monument ($500,000)
Individual Gift: M'Clintock House ($10,000) W
Individual Gift: The Mount ($100,000)
Norman Lear: Papers of Founding Fathers ($1 mil)
Longfellow House ($305,000) W
For internal use only. Updated 7/31/99.
Edith Wharton ($90,000)
Proceeds coming from Warner Brothers CD and Dolley Madison Commemorative Coin
Millennium Trails
Video announcement of sixteen National Millennium Trails (6/99)
Met with newly created Millennium Trails Celebration Committee (5/99)
Preservation efforts resulted in $1 million contribution to Millennium Trails
Announced first portion of Grand Canyon Greenway funded by DOT/Millennium Trails
(5/99)
Secretary Slater announced $4 mill in Millennium Trail Grants (11/9/98)
Announcement of program and partnership with Department of Transportation at B&A
Trail (10/5/98) W
The MARS Project
Announced Department of Education's Millennium project with NASA, Getty, M&M
Mars and other partners at Air and Space Museum (1/14/99)
Millennium Communities
Hosted conference call with nine elected officials representing newly designated
Millennium Communities (4/99)
Announced national program to recognize communities pursuing projects that "Honor the
Past- Imagine the Future" at US Conference of Mayors (1/29/99)
Introduced WHMC Community Handbook (1/99)
Turn of the Century New Year's Celebration
Began discussion with Stephen Spielberg, Quincy Jones, Jeffrey Katzenburg
Began planning Mall, Gala, and House events
Imagining America
White House Millennium Council hosted University Presidents at White House
conference (3/99)
International Activity
Announcement of Viking Exhibit, Leifur Eriksson Millennium Commission
Reception for Commissioner General for Expos 2000 (10/98)
Future Focus:
1997- 2001: Host WH events that set the theme and inspire state and local activity
Develop a national project involving communities, families and children
For internal use only. Updated 7/31/99.
Millennium Evenings at the White House
Millennium Evening on the impact innovations in technology and trends in society will
have on us in the next fifty years (10/99)
Approve long term strategy (including schedule of topics and dates) for 1999 and 2000
Save America's Treasures
Visit Eleanor Roosevelts Cottage at Val-Kill (10/99)
Save America's Treasures visits to Midwest (10/99)
Explore major preservation proposals
Continue to visit sites to raise awareness of the importance of preservation (fold into
existing trips)
Continue to announce private donations for preservation projects
Continue to serve as Chair of private Millennium Committee
Plan next Treasures Tour
Work with DOD on SAT program with military services
Millennium Trails
Announce Millennium Legacy Trails (state)
Announce NEA "Art on Trails" component of program
Visit trails to heighten awareness and support
Continue to serve as Chair of private Committee
Participate in cultivation events with trail advocates
Participate in National Trails Day celebration (6/00)
ok
My History is America's History
Announce partnership with NEH on oral history project (12/99)
Support Seventeen Magazine contest on family histories
Millennium Communities
Designate 2,000 Millennium Communities over the next two years
Enlist the support of grassroots volunteer organizations like Pioneers of America to create
programs and enthusiasm in communities
Continue to promote program at Intergovernmental Partners Annual Meetings
Host periodic conference calls, visits and events for Millennium Communities
Turn of the Century New Year's Eve Celebration
Joint Press Conference with DC Millennium Commissions to announce plans
Host a three-day national celebration at turn of the century to include series of events on
National Mall and at the White House (12/99-1/00)
For internal use only. Updated 7/31/99.
The MARS Project
Video and greeting for "Back to School" events in Fall 1999
White House Conference on Philanthropy
To give a major address highlighting the role of that American's play giving and
volunteering to strengthen our democracy
International Activity
Address at World Bank/UNESCO Conference, "Culture Counts" in Florence Italy
(10/99)
Address at Vital Voices Conference on Women in Democracy in the next millennium in
Iceland (10/99)
Promote White House Millennium Council logo
Inaugurate Millennium youth initiative
Host White House Conference on Building Civil Society
Incorporate Millennium theme in column topic development
For internal use only. Updated 7/31/99.
President's Park and Pennsylvania Avenue Plan
Objective:
To provide White House voice in the planning and implementation of improvements to the
President's Park and the plan to close Pennsylvania Avenue.
Accomplishments:
Convened members of the Park Service and Treasury for discussion on the President's
Park (4/97)
Future Focus:
Monitor the development of the Comprehensive Plan and the Pennsylvania Park
For internal use only. Updated 7/31/99.
White House Stewardship
Objective:
To continue to create national awareness of the importance of preservation, and to continue to
bring new acquisitions and improvements to the White House and the permanent collection.
Accomplishments:
Participated in the CNN/Ovation Tour of the State Floor with J. Carter Brown, a tour and
discussion of the White House Art Collection (7/28/99)
Brought White House endowment to $25 mill goal through NYC and LA Fundraisers
(1/98)
Created 20th Century American Sculpture exhibits in the First Lady's Garden; seven
exhibits through 1998
Dedicated National Sculpture Garden (5/19/99)
Acquired the Tanner (10/29/96) and O'Keefe (10/23/97) paintings for White House
permanent collection and held events marking significance of acquisitions
With the Historical Society, refurbished rooms and items in the White House
(redecorated the Blue Room, East Room, State Dining Room)
Betty
Promoted WH Historical Society CD Rom
Columns: Tanner acquisition (10/29/96), White House Endowment Fund (1/20/98)
Future Focus:
Science & Explorers evening "Presented at the President's House," WH and the Arts
For internal use only. Updated 7/31/99.
To:
Mrs. Clinton
From: Marsha Berry
Re:
Interview with New York Times reporter Carol Vogel
Date: January 22, 1999
On Monday, January 25, at 12:30 you are scheduled to sit down with Carol Vogel of the
New York Times to talk about your involvement in the general area of the arts. She had
originally hoped to be able to stay for the millennium lecture that night but unfortunately she will
be unable to attend. While this will be the first time for her to have a chance to talk with you
personally, she has gone to events at the White House, like the unveiling of the Georgia O'Keefe
and the Arts and Humanities dinner. In addition, she attended part of the Louis Armstrong event
in New York City. She also has had discussions with Ellen, Melanne and me and will meet with
Betty Monkman in the morning before your interview. Needless to say, she will have a good
feel for your efforts in this area.
The story Carol wants to write is how this administration has done more for the arts than
any other recent administration. Certainly the facts are there. What she would like from you is
the human story as to why you have put so much energy into preserving, protecting and
highlighting our culture. And she would like you to talk about the importance of the arts in our
society and how your activities have tried to demonstrate their significance.
What helps to tell your story are the tangible accomplishments you have achieved over
the past six years. What is less known and often unknown is how your interest in arts dates back
to your school days, how your involvement in the White House was one of your first interests
back in early 1993, and how your quiet, behind the scene efforts to help the arts kept federal
involvement alive against very heavy odds in the Congress. The overall broad categories you
will want to talk about are:
--The White House
a. Fulfillment of White House Endowment;
b. Preservation efforts both accomplished and long-term;
c. Entertainment--use of the mansion
--diversity of entertainment;
--Federal support for the arts;
--Events and efforts in support of the millennium;
--Efforts on behalf of cultural organizations;
--Importance of arts education;
--Use of bully pulpit.
Attached you will find information that relates to your efforts in these areas.
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's Efforts
to Support and Promote the Arts and Humanities
Honoring the Past and Imagining the Future: White House Millennium Council Efforts:
In August, 1997, the President and the First Lady announced that the White House would lead a
national millennium program for the American people to appreciate our common heritage and
rejoice in our creativity.
"Save America's Treasures"
As part of the White House Millennium Project, in May 1998 the First Lady launched the Save
America's Treasures initiative, a public/private partnership with the National Trust for Historic
Preservation to preserve for future generations the memories, artifacts, historical sites and
documents that tell the story of our nation, and embody our ideals. This year the First Lady has
been touring sites that are vital to our national heritage -- to spotlight not only famous
monuments and political leaders -- but also the religious, artistic, and literary pioneers who have
shaped our history.
Treasures Tour, July 1998:
On July 13, 1998, Mrs. Clinton began a three-day trip to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast
Regions. To kick-off the tour, the President and Mrs. Clinton honored the Star Spangled Banner
at the Museum of American History and announced a gift from Ralph Lauren and other private
donors to provide the extensive repair for the flag, which inspired Francis Scott Key to write our
national anthem.
Mrs. Clinton began the three-day journey at the laboratory of Thomas Edison in West Orange,
NJ, where she announced a $5 million gift for the laboratory from the General Electric Fund.
Additional stops included George Washington's Headquarters in Newburgh, NY, The Colonial
Theater in Pittsfield, MA, the Kate Mullany House in Troy, NY, Harriet Tubman site in Auburn,
NY, Ganondagan State Historic Site on Victor, NY, Women's Rights National Historical Park in
Waterloo, NY. She ended the tour with a speech at the 150th Anniversary of the Women's
Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, NY.
Regional Save America's Treasures Visits:
Building on the "Save America's Treasures" Tour to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions
in July 1998, in December 1998, the First Lady traveled to New York, Massachusetts, and
California.
Queens, NY: Mrs. Clinton visited the home and archives of American jazz legend, Louis
Armstrong and announced a gift to enable the archives to continue to preserve and
celebrate the music that defines the American experience.
Boston, MA: In Boston, Mrs. Clinton visited the home of poet Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow and the African Meeting House, both of which hold incredible significance
for our nation's culture and history.
Los Angeles, CA: Mrs. Clinton visited the Breed Street Shul to participate in an
announcement by the J. Paul Getty Trust which will help to ensure the preservation of
American landmarks. She also visited the Los Angeles Theater, an elaborate movie
palace built on Broadway in 1931. Mrs. Clinton participated in the announcement of a
new partnership between the Millennium Committee to Save America's Treasures and
Warner Bros. Records.
San Francisco, CA: Mrs. Clinton visited the Conservatory of Flowers and announced
more than $6 million to help restore this historic landmark.
Millennium Evenings:
Millennium Evenings at the White House are a series of lectures and cultural showcases hosted
by the President and First Lady that highlight the creativity and inventiveness of the American
people through our ideas, art and scientific discoveries.
The first Millennium Evening at the White House was held February 11, 1998: "The
Living Past -- Commitments for the Future," featuring historian Bernard Bailyn of
Harvard University
March 6, 1998: "Imagination and Change: Science in the Next Millennium, "featuring
Professor Stephen Hawking of Cambridge University, England
Wednesday, April 22, 1998: A celebration of American creativity through poetry
featuring Poets Laureate Robert Pinsky, Robert Hass and Rita Dove
September 18, 1998: Jazz: An Expression of Democracy, featuring Wynton Marsalis and
Marilyn McPartland.
January 25, 1999: "The Meaning of the Millennium" -- focusing on history and religion.
Millennium Trails:
On October 5, 1998, the First Lady announced the Millennium Trails initiative at the B& A Trail
in Severna Park, MD. Millennium Trails reinforces the connection between people, their land,
and their history and culture.
Mars Millennium Project:
In January 1999, the First Lady launched the Mars Millennium Project -- a partnership with the
White House Millennium Council, the Department of Education, the National Endowment for
the Arts, NASA, the J. Paul Getty Trust -- to challenge kindergarten through high school students
across the nation to imagine and design the first community on Mars.
Raising Awareness:
In addition, Mrs. Clinton has dedicated her column to raising awareness about the millennium
and the efforts of the White House Millennium Council to honor the past and imagine the future.
Columns: 1/27/98, 2/17/98, 7/15/98, 12/30/98.
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's Efforts
to Support and Promote the Arts and Humanities
Examples of Speeches/Events Promoting the Arts and Arts in Education:
FEBRUARY 1998: Speech at the National First Ladies Library Website Event
MARCH 1998: Speech at the Decataur House
?
MARCH 1998: Speech at Prescription for Reading event in Maryland
APRIL 1998: Speech at Martin Luther King Library CD-ROM event
APRIL 1998: YOHA Speech at University of Michigan
APRIL 1998: Poetry Slam at Johnson Junior High
MAY 1998: Speech at the American Ballet Theater Spring Gala
MAY 1998: Speech at the Living Arts Downtown Event
JUNE 1998: Chicago Schools Principals' Luncheon
JUNE 1998, Announced Sara Lee donation of corporate arts collection in Chicago
JUNE 1998: Scholastic Tea at White House
SEPTEMBER 1998: Hosted Arts Education Call To Action event at the White House
and Presentation of the VH-1 Save the Music Scholarship at the Marie Reed School
OCTOBER 1998: Taped video for announcement of NAEP Report, (announced
November 10, 1998)
DECEMBER 1998: Massachusetts College of Arts Speech
Showcasing the Arts at the White House:
NEA's National Heritage Awards -- most recently announced October, 1998
Medal of Arts and Humanities Ceremony and Dinner -- every year since 1993, and most
recently on November 5, 1998
First Annual Coming Up Taller Awards -- October 7, 1998
Arts in the Embassies Program -- FAPE dinners, most recently May 1998.
WETA, "In Performance at the White House" -- most recently, November 30, 1998
Creation of the Sculpture Garden (see attached for history) -- seven exhibits since 1993,
new exhibit unveiled November 6, 1998
Pritzker Prize Ceremony, June, 1998
Hosted White House Endowment Fund Dinner June 1998
?
Hosted Marine Band's 200th Birthday at the White House -- July 1998
In addition, during the past six years Mrs. Clinton has shown steadfast support for the NEA and
for both Washington and National cultural institutions:
Support for the NEA
NYT Op Ed on the necessity of federal funding for the arts date
Private convenings of arts leaders
Has repeatedly supported the NEA in multiple public forums and speeches (Mass College
of Art 12/5, Arts in Education event, 9/17/98)
Support for U.S. Cultural Institutions
Carnegie Hall Re-Opening
Getty
Metropolitan Museum of Art -several events
American Ballet Theater -attendance at various events
Atlanta
Met Opera Season Opening (w/ POTUS) NO
MOMA -several visits to museum
Support for National Cultural Institutions in Washington
Kennedy Center Concert Hall Re-Dedication (w/ POTUS -who conducted NSO)
Washington Opera performance to honor Placido Domingo
National Gallery -has attended most recent major exhibitions, usually with POTUS
Has promoted the arts as a key to the revitalization of downtown DC by publicly supporting
the concept of a National Museum of American Music in downtown DC that would include
the Library of Congress and Smithsonian music collections
Ongoing support of the Folger Shakespeare Theater and the Kennedy Center
THE FIRST LADY CALLS ON COMMUNITY PARTNERS TO
RECOGNIZE THE POWER OF THE ARTS IN EDUCATION
September 17, 1998
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton today spotlighted the critical role of the arts in education. In a
White House ceremony, Mrs. Clinton spoke to members of the Arts Education Partnership about the
power of the arts in children's education. Mrs. Clinton highlighted the important progress made in
the field of arts education in recent years, and called for further attention. In particular, Mrs. Clinton
stressed how national policies and partnerships can support local arts education efforts. She
applauded the commitments of the partners present, including the Head Start Bureau, and welcomed
new partners, including the CBS Corporation and VH1, both of whom announced their companies'
commitments to arts education.
BUILDING ON THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION'S COMMITMENT TO ARTS EDUCATION. The Clinton
Administration is committed to making the arts basic to every child's education. In the Goals 2000:
Educate America Act of 1994, the Administration added "arts" to the core subjects listed among the
National Education Goals. In addition, the Improving America's Schools Act of 1994 (the re-
authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act) includes language highlighting the
power of the arts to strengthen education. In 1995, the National Endowment for the Arts and the
U.S. Department of Education established the Arts Education Partnership to assist national, state and
local arts education advocates to include the arts in the education improvement efforts supported by
Goals 2000 funding. Since then, the Partnership has been able to track at least $10 million in awards
to local arts education applicants through the various State departments of education and has since
expanded its work beyond its initial Goals 2000.
For the first time since the 1970's, American students have been tested on their knowledge and skills
in the arts through the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) program. The NAEP
program, or the "Nation's Report Card" tests to determine students' academic achievement; the
inclusion of the arts in its test underscores the significance of the arts as important academic
material. The results of the NAEP program will be released in November 1998. The National
Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Department of Education both supported the development of
the National Standards for Arts Education with which the NAEP test was aligned.
ARTS EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP. The Arts Education Partnership is a private, nonprofit coalition
of education, arts, business, philanthropic, and government organizations that demonstrates and
promotes the essential role of arts education in enabling all students to succeed in school, life, and
work. The Arts Education Partnership was formed in 1995 through a cooperative agreement
between the National Endowment for the Arts, the United States Department of Education, the
National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, and the Council of Chief State School Officers.
The Arts Education Partnership will produce a handbook on Partnerships for Arts Learning in the
Spring of 1999. The Partnership will also release a report highlighting school districts that value arts
education in November 1998, in conjunction with the President's Committee on the Arts and the
Humanities, the GE Fund, the MacArthur Foundation, Binney and Smith, Inc. and the U.S.
Department of Education.
Highlights of the Partnership's commitments include:
THE HEAD START BUREAU. The HHS Head Start Bureau, a member of the Arts Education
Partnership, revised its program performance standards in January, 1998, adding a standard in the
arts for its 2,000 centers around the country. The Bureau is now creating materials to assist its
centers' staff and parents to implement creative learning experiences for their children. Recent
research conducted at a Head Start site suggests a link between early childhood instruction in
musical keyboards and the development of important brain synapses which support spatial-temporal
ability.
AMERICANS FOR THE ARTS/CBS CORPORATION. Michael Jordan, Chair of the Board of non-
profit Americans for the Arts and CEO of the CBS Corporation, announced the creation of Youth
Arts USA. The initiative is a national, multi-year effort of Americans for the Arts to bring
much-needed attention to the value of the arts in the lives of America's children. There are three
main parts to the initiative: research, policy development and a public awareness campaign. As part
of the public awareness campaign, CBS Corporation is producing public service announcements and
contributing air time for broadcasting them. The PSA's will begin airing in October, National Arts
and Humanities Month, and will reach millions of viewers.
VH1 SAVE THE MUSIC MILLENNIUM COMMITMENT. Earlier in the day, VH1 President John
Sykes joined the First Lady at the Marie H. Reed Community Learning Center to announce its
donation of $100,000 worth of musical instruments to three D.C. schools as part of a total $1.3
million contribution nationwide. At the White House event, VH1 announced its 10-year commitment
to raise $100 million to benefit one million children. Save the Music is an initiative of VH1 to raise
money and collect old instruments to donate to school instrumental music programs. A receiving
school must commit to hire or retain a certified music specialist and to keep the instrumental
program as part of the school day. In each of the 16 cities in which Save the Music now operates,
VH1 has a local cable partner who airs public service announcements, and, of course, school partners
who implement the instrument instruction.
Members of the public can call the U.S. Department of Education's toll-free at 1-877-4ED-PUBS to receive
a copy of Eloquent Evidence: Arts at the Core of Learning and a Guide to Arts Education and School
Improvement Resources for Local and State Leader or visit the Partnership's web site at http://aep-arts.org
for further resources.
FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN CELEBRATES
THE YEAR OF HUMANITIES AND ARTS (YoHA)
AND THE ARTS OF CITIZENS PROGRAM
HILL AUDITORIUM
APRIL 28, 1998
Thank you very much, President Bollinger and Provost Cantor, administrators, faculty,
students, alumni of this great university, members of the Ann Arbor community, elected
officials, distinguished guests and friends.
It is a pleasure to be back here in Ann Arbor and back on this campus and back in this
concert hall. Not only have many great American artists performed on this stage, the building
itself is a monument to the creative expression of one of the nation's finest architects - - Albert
Kahn.
So I am very pleased that not only am I a degree holder from this university, but that I
feel a part of this community.
We gather today for the continuation of an important discussion that was started here last
year about the humanities and the arts, what they mean to us, what they should mean to us and
what they must mean to us and to our country.
I was thinking, as I listened to President Bollinger speak, that this year-long series that
you have had here on the campus is particularly appropriate because certainly, as we move
toward the end of this century, and indeed toward a new millennium, we are going to be thinking
more often and more deeply about who we are, where we are going, what we mean to one
another, and what our lives mean to ourselves. I want to thank the leadership of this university
for helping all of us to begin that discussion.
I would like to thank Lee Bollinger for his many contributions: as a legal scholar, as the
President of this University, and perhaps even more importantly as an advocate for the principles
and traditions of American public higher education. Through his dedication this university
continues to stand for what is best in the history of our country. I know that President Bollinger.
among his many academic accomplishments, is something of a First Amendment scholar. I, too,
am a great supporter of the First Amendment, but I can't help but think that it might have just
passed through his mind that censorship would be in order given the recent UPI college ratings,
as opposed to those by the AP. But staying true to his values, you did not hear that from him.
The classrooms and laboratories on this campus remind us of the value of a diverse
student body and faculty, and the benefits they bring to a university community. I was very
impressed and moved by the opinion piece that was written by the President Bollinger and
Provost Cantor that appeared today in the Washington Post entitled, The Educational Importance
of Race. I commend it to everyone on this campus, and indeed on every campus, because it talks
about, in a very clear way, the challenges as we attempt to bring our university systems into the
future with our values and ideals intact.
I want to thank Provost Cantor for his advocacy on behalf of the arts and humanities, and
for the time and energy he has committed to helping Congress explore the role of women in our
nation's military.
I would also like to thank, as well, Associate Vice Provost Julie Ellison, Director of the
Year of the Humanities and Arts, and David Scobey, Director of the Arts of Citizenship Program,
for sharing with students, faculty, and the Ann Arbor community their vision of the dynamic
relationship between the arts and humanities in a democratic society.
When one thinks about the title of this series, "Arts of Citizenship", it could be just as
well stated "Arts and Citizenship" because, to my mind, they are very closely related. The arts
play an integral role in determining what we mean by citizenship. Certainly when I use the word
arts, I am including arts and humanities. They also tell us something about how we practice the
art of citizenship what it means to be part of a large, diverse, pluralistic democracy,
particularly at this point in history. So this conversation does come at a propitious time.
As I was thinking back on the last 1,000 years, as we are about to end this millennium, I
was reminded of all of the dire predictions that were occurring around that time. I don't know if
you have ever heard of a prolific and rather controversial monk by the name of Raoul Glaber.
who lived in the 10th century and who consistently warned his local citizenry of impending
doom. Now, perhaps because of his checkered career - - he was expelled from several
monasteries - ⑉ he didn't attract much of a following. The earth did not implode as he predicted.
In fact, we have a lot of progress that we can look to over the ten centuries following his
predictions, even though we still can mark those last 1,000 years, as well. by plagues and
genocides and other unbearable human suffering.
However, Raoul Glaber comes from a long line of doomsayers and pessimists about the
human condition. The kind of people who are always looking for what is wrong with the
advancements that occur, who are always pointing fingers at one another and predicting the end
of civilization as we know it.
Yet despite the doomsayers and despite all of our own follies and missteps and
tragedies, we have a lot to look back on with pride because time's passage also allowed for the
discoveries of Galileo and Newton, the art of an El Greco, or Rubens or Picasso, the writings of a
Murasaki, a Shakespeare, Tagore, Neruda, the ideas of Locke and Gandhi, and so many more.
We can also look at those who were political activists who helped move the idea of
human progress forward. We can look at those who built a strong economy, created inventions
and scientific discoveries, all of which unleashed human potential and energy.
We know that for the last thousand years, from Islamic communities spreading north
across Africa to Native American Indian tribes right here in the upper Midwest, people created
new forms of art, built cities, designed new systems of cultivation, remapped their worlds, and
thought up new ideas.
Fueling all of these scientific, intellectual and artistic advances was, of course, the human
imagination. An imagination rooted not only in the knowledge and understanding of the past, but
in the ability to dream and envision a future; an imagination that allowed men and women
throughout time to say no to the archetypal doomsday monks, and yes to their own ideas of the
possibility of a more positive and more possible tomorrow.
Today we find ourselves at the end of another century, and even another millennium.
There is a lot that will occur in the next several years, all kinds of retrospectives, people talking
about the past, worrying about the future.
It is my hope that conversations like the one taking place here, about the humanities and
the arts, will help us think more clearly about what is at stake as we plan our own individual
futures and as we think about that larger, public, common good.
There are many unanswered questions about what will happen in the 21st century. Will
this century finally yield a cure for cancer? Will we find another Mozart? Will we end poverty,
or perhaps even aim at and come near to lasting world peace? Maybe we will achieve some of
that, but certainly not all of it, because we will continue as human beings having to strive to
overcome the age old problems that have beset us.
Yet we also have a darker view of what might occur. Will the next 100 years give rise to
more ethnic and racial hatred, a wider chasm between the rich and the poor. the spread of
biological or chemical warfare, or even a brave new world of genetically engineered people who
look and act the same?
When I think about the future, I come down, as you might guess, on a more optimistic
note than a pessimistic one. I am congenitally, I suppose, optimistic, but I have also seen enough
progress in my own lifetime to believe that we can continue to overcome the challenges that
divide us and to make progress together.
I have to confess that I am worried about certain trends that I see around me every day.
These trends could undermine our conceptions of ourselves as human beings and make it more
difficult for us to have a common future unless they are checked by our knowledge of our
history, our understanding of ourselves, and our willingness to work together to create a
consensus about what we wish for our future.
Now, those trends are self-evident. What does it mean that we have such instantaneous
communication and such rapid technological advancement? Well, of course, in many ways it
means great opportunities. It means that we can be in touch with people around the world. It
means that we have access to more information than we ever dreamed possible. Yet, it also
means that we can retreat into anonymity, that we can be less personal in our dealings with one
another, and that we can hide behind a computer keyboard and communicate with the world only
at a distance.
It means that we can be so overwhelmed by information that we can't make any sense out
of it; that we have no context for it; that we are bombarded day in and day out by factoids that
don't add up to knowledge and wisdom, but rather threaten to drown us in irrelevancy. I worry,
too, about the need that so many people have to hang on to their own identity as they most
narrowly define it. How do they reach out into the wider world when the wider world seems SO
confusing and so threatening?
In fact, one of the most frightening developments that I have personally been studying
and thinking about is the way mass communications played a role in the genocides of Rwanda
and Bosnia. People who before had lived peacefully with one another, were whipped into
frenzies of hatred and fear because of the messages that were coming across the television. the
radio, and even the computer. People who did not know how to make sense of those messages
were pushed into action because of what they were being told.
I also wonder about how we will survive as a democracy, and how we will retain a sense
of citizenship when there is so much pressure on a daily basis to move us toward a society of
consumers and away from a democracy of citizens. The emphasis on our consumer culture
distorts our sense of self. It threatens the essence of our pluralistic society, and yet, it seems
beyond our control to stop. More and more messages pour out more and more quickly
influencing particularly the minds and lives of young people.
Why are more young American teenagers smoking? Well, there is overwhelming
evidence that they are enticed to do so; that it seems like a very grown up, rebellious thing to do;
that the messages they receive, either directly or indirectly through the wider culture, create an
atmosphere in which they think it's a choice that will enhance their sense of self-being.
Why are more American children driven to violence? We are seeing more and more
evidence that the content of popular culture does matter. It really does count how many hours of
television you watch, and in those hours how many violent episodes, how many murders, how
many killers who are not remorseful at the end of the plot you see. If you are a child from a
situation that is not as stable as one would like, you are particularly prone to those messages, to
that image of reality that comes directly at you through that small machine in you living room or
your bedroom.
Why do so many American children judge their worth by the logo on their sneakers
instead of the good deeds that they might do or the homework that they finish at night? Well,
you know as well as I that the consumer culture driven by our free market economy demands
more and more buying on the part of more and more consumers. So many messages are aimed
now not just at thirteen and fourteen year olds, but at eight and nine years olds because in order
to keep this great engine going, we have to create a lot of unmet wants, a lot of frustration in the
minds of people. This is not in and of itself any great cause for worry. We have certainly
overcome a lot of challenges in the past. But, combining all of these trends together I think
should cause all of us to stop and think, am I being seduced? What am I giving up in my
thinking and in my spirit to the consumer culture, to the machine of technology?
How do I keep some distance? How am I sure that I have the right balance in my life?
How do I retain the most precious possession I have, my role as citizen, and enjoy the blessings
that I am given because those who came before us understood the importance that democracy
places on the role of citizen?
If one steps back and thinks about the images we have of the future, that is also a little
disquieting. I did a survey about what we think might happen in the century or millennium to
come. The overwhelming popular images are of movies in which desolation has occurred
because of war, where road warriors are fighting one against the other, where there are people
living under great glass bubbles or in very sterile atmospheres because we have polluted and
degraded our environment.
We don't have a picture in our heads of the kind of society that we want, and expect to
live in the future. In part, that is because change has been so fast in the last decades, faster than at
any point in human history, and we are only now being able to process it.
I have often heard it said that human evolution proceeded over tens of thousands and
millions of years, but within this last century we have been stretched, physically, and
emotionally, and mentally, and spiritually, unlike any of our ancestors ever have been.
So how do we take all of these trends, and how do we begin to understand what they are
doing to us so that we can assert control over them, and what do the arts and humanities have to
do with all of that anyway?
Well, I would argue that the arts and humanities still give us the best guide we will ever
have to thinking through the problems of today and tomorrow. It is not a luxury to read the great
poetry of the past, to ponder Shakespeare's plays, to think about the Greek philosophers, to
wonder in our own minds what modern poetry and literature and film are saying to us. Instead, I
think it is a responsibility because if we think hard about these challenging ideas that come to us
from those who are our scholars and our artists, we will be better equipped in our own lives and
in our public life to go on.
One of the people who has been most astute in looking at the consumer culture and what
we have done in modern days that undermines our sense of well-being with one another, our
obligation toward each other, is the Czech President and playwright, Vaclav Havel. He has
written and spoken at great length about how in the pressure of modern culture we are
homogenizing our desires and tastes.
Now, one would think that if everybody in the world wore blue jeans and a certain kind
of sneaker, as they do on every continent I have visited, if everybody listened to the same kind of
music and watched the same television programs around the world - that that would bring us
closer together as a people. That, one somebody watching a show in Bangladesh would feel
really close with somebody watching that same show in Bolivia, for example.
What Havel points out, which I think is right, that almost in an unconscious way, if you
will, there is a rebellion against this homogenization. There is a rejection of it even while people
take more and more of it in. One reads about horrific events in India where people are burning
brides because the dowry didn't bring a color television but only a black and white one. One
reads about people in Africa, who are living in terribly distressed situations, who are spending
every dollar they have to try to put on the accouterments of what they think of as the modern
American pop culture.
Yet, beneath that superficial homogenization, we are seeing a great striving for identity
and a great need to separate ourselves from one another because human beings have to feel as
though they have some identity that is of importance in their own eyes, and in the eyes of those
to whom they look for validation.
If we stop and think about the trends that are sweeping the world, then I think it is fair to
say that we are moving in a direction where all of the haves which include us in this room,
people of education and affluence and particularly people fortunate enough to live in strong,
stable, functioning democracies will be more and more caught up in the world of materialism
as we work harder and harder and longer and longer hours to deal with the machines that are
taking greater control over our lives.
It is hard to escape. We have 24 hour television channels. We have 24 hour fax machines.
You are never out of touch. You never have a moment to stop and think. Decisions are demanded
from you all the time. The e-mail messages come and people expect responses to them.
It is hard for the arts and humanities to flourish when their is very little space left for
them in the popular culture. That is why we have to do all we can to support them, and to make it
clear that they are not a luxury, but rather they are essential to the refueling of the human
imagination. If one thinks about our earliest human ancestors, they did not first invent money.
They first drew on the walls of caves. They first created figurines that had religious and other
significance to them. What were they trying to say? What were they doing? They were finding
that special human trait, that attribute of imagination and using it.
I can just imagine a scenario where a young man or woman wonders around not paying
attention to the mammoth hunt. And all of the relatives are saying. "You know. he just isn't with
it! He is going to get us all killed!" And then back in the cave that night with the flickering fire.
while everyone else sleeps, he takes the charcoal and he draws a mammoth. All of a sudden out
of his imagination comes an opportunity to share an experience that perhaps someone who had
never seen a mammoth before could now understand. We created the arts so that we could
advance human beings, so that our imagination could have an outlet. We saw it as a way to
communicate in ways that we couldn't, just by doing and being. It is one of our earliest ways of
defining ourselves as human.
It is through history and philosophy, literature and painting, music. sculpture. poetry.
photography, dance architecture, design, all of it, that we can reclaim the popular imagination.
that we can rekindle our spirit of citizenship and exercise the power of our ideas. experiences and
feelings to promote a brighter vision of the future.
In our country, there is too often an assumption that the arts and humanities are an
exclusive preserve of the rich or the best educated or some cultural elite. Yet from our own
personal experiences, we know otherwise. How many of us have felt our hearts stir at a favorite
song or a painting or a haunting passage in a novel or a dancer's elegant leap?
About a week or so ago, I read a very provocative opinion editorial in the New York
Times where a classics professor talked about what Thucydides meant to his professor's
community college students. He said, "I have taught at some of the great colleges in America,
but in these community colleges, in these state universities where young people and not so young
ones are enrolled and often working full - - time as well, they come to Thucydides with their own
personal experience. And all of a sudden, the world of ideas and history opens up to them."
How many of us have had an experience like that? I remember very well when I was
probably in junior high coming across a print of Guernica. Looking at that provocative painting
that Picasso had done after the fascist bombing of Guernica, I finally realized that art was more
than aesthetic. It was a way of communicating, a way of taking people beyond the boundaries of
their own experience and giving them a greater understanding of the world around them.
Guernica taught me about the human condition. I had never seen anything like that in my own
life. I was born in Chicago. I grew up in a very safe suburb in the outskirts of Chicago. I had
never even heard of such a thing as the Spanish Civil War. And yet here it was. a painting that
said to me, this is what people can do to each other. These were people thousands of miles from
where I lived, but I felt in some way connected to them.
Art and culture have always been a part of my life, not in any practicing way - I have
absolutely no talent whatsoever but as an observer, as someone who tries to appreciate what I
see and hear. In fact, I really attribute my long-time marriage and relationship with my husband
to art. Now, that is a headline! I was standing in line at the Yale Law School to register for
classes and struck up a conversation with this young man I had seen wandering around the law
school. He likes to say that we noticed each other because we each did not attend a certain class
very often, so when we showed up it was rather noticeable.
But whatever the story, we began talking and had not finished talking after we signed up
for classes. We began to walk around the Yale campus. He suggested that we go to the
University museum to see a wonderful exhibit of Rothko paintings and to show me one of his
favorite Henry Moore sculptures. We arrived at the door of the museum only to find that it was
closed. My husband, being the person he is, convinced the janitor to let us into the museum. And
the bargain he struck was that we could go into the museum if first we collected the trash that
had filled the courtyard of the museum. So, in we went where we spent a memorable afternoon
looking at the Rothkos and looking at the sculptures. Now, that was my first date with Bill
Clinton, but it also was my first date with Rothko and Henry Moore. And all three of them have
stayed a part of my life ever since.
I hope that every one of you either has had, or will have, an experience like that with
some aspect of the arts or humanities. And it is why I believe it is so important that we do all we
can to make sure that the arts and humanities are available in every school in America, in every
community in the entire nation. I have to confess that I find it disheartening when members of
Congress, or local school boards, or state governments decree that public support of the arts and
humanities is a luxury that we cannot afford.
I have seen what it does in the lives of young people whom we do not ordinarily think of
as season ticket holders to the symphony or the opera. Just last week I visited a junior high
school in an inner city Washington neighborhood whose students are drawn mostly from housing
projects nearby. I brought with me our three most recent Poets Laureate. And I was delighted to
have them with me to see inaction a program that is funded by the National Endowment for the
Arts through the Writer Core where writers and poets are assigned to work with these young
people.
The students we saw were engaged in what is called a poetry slam. Now, I did not know
what that was. If you have never seen a poetry slam, it is a high speed, high-spirited competition
in which students face off against one another by reading their own poems and then being scored
like ice skating at the Olympics from a group of judges. These students. all of them African-
American, all of them from poor homes, recited poems that just made my heart leap. Some of
them had poems about their own names, or about the plight of a homeless man in their
neighborhood, or the contributions of Duke Ellinton. They talked of their pride. their joys. their
pain. They also talked about how poetry, and learning how to write poetry to express themselves
enabled them to put their anger and pain on paper instead of acting it out. They talked about how
writing poetry had given them confidence, a sense of purpose and accomplishment. One boy
recited a poem with these wonderful lines: "I am so musical that when I write songs, you sing
them for the rest of your life."
Later that evening, at the White House, the President and I hosted the Poets Laureate in a
celebration of American poetry. Robert Pinsky and Robert Haas and Rita Dove read American
poets like Emily Dickinson and Wallace Stevens and William Carlos Williams and so many
others. We had this broadcast, cybercast, over the Internet, and I think it is archived if any of you
are interested.
In the audience in the East Room that night we also asked some non-poets to read their
favorite poem. A disabled veteran from a veteran's home, in a wheelchair, read with a wonderful,
gravelly voice Robert Frost's Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening. He said it kept him
going because he, too, despite his serious injuries, had miles to go.
A minister from Boston told how, as a young, rebellious man in high school, he had been
taken under the wing of a teacher who introduced him to poetry and literature, and took him off
the streets. He read a poem that had made an impression on him as a young man and which he
still reads, Henry Wadsworth Longellow's Psalm of Life.
A high school teacher from Virginia, flanked by several of his students. Brought many in
the audience to tears when he recited Dudley Randall's Ballad of Birmingham.
And a little seventh grader, who was part of the poetry slam competition from the District
of Columbia, stole the show when she offered a spirited and touching reading of Langston
Hughes' Life Is Fine.
Now, whether you watched in the audience or on your computer screen or C-Span or at
one of the satellite downlink sites, you had to come away from the evening with a much greater
sense not only of the richness of our nation's tradition of poetry, but aloof the way that poetry
has influenced us as a nation and recorded what we have done during our passage these last more
than 200 years.
It is essential that we continue to celebrate the arts and humanities. You are showing us
here at this university how to do it. It is also essential that we take the arts and humanities into
places where they are not so commonly discussed or understood. We have seen how the arts can
transform the lives of children at risk. We need to do more of that.
And I am concerned that, at a time when we need the arts more than ever, music and art
in our schools are being cut back. So many young people no longer have access to music lessons
or art lessons during the school day. One of my hopes for the millennium is that all of us who
care about the arts and music, particularly in our schools, will do what we can to put them back
into all schools so that all students have access to them.
There is another very essential role of the arts and humanities today. At a time when our
nation is still dogged by racial insensitivities and unfounded stereotypes, what better way to
come to terms with our multiethnic, multiracial way of life than to share in each other's ideas,
emotions, tastes and attitudes. Reading Langston Hughes' poem helps us understand what an
experience different from our own might be.
I think it is very important that this university pursue the particular goal that it has had of
having a diverse campus. And I want to thank again President Bollinger and Provost Cantor for
their words because in this op-ed piece they write: "Institutions of higher education have pursued
a conception of education that emphasizes the joys, the variety and the benefits of emerging with
different experiences and perspectives. This means we ask of every applicant, what will you
contribute to the whole; not where do you stand in splendid, isolated comparison with everyone
else."
When I read that today, I thought back to an experience I had in 1965 that I have not
thought of very much since then. When I grew up in my suburb, it was all white. I attended all
white schools from kindergarten through high school. I never had any real contact with black or
Hispanic or Asian youngsters my age. I was very lucky that when I was in high school, I had a
minster at my church who said very forthrightly to all of us middle class, white suburban kids,
there is a big world out there, and you are not even going to understand how to deal with it unless
you get beyond the boundaries of your own experience. And he took us down to the City of
Chicago where we would have evenings with black and Hispanic youngsters. We didn't become
friends, but you know what we did on those evenings? We talked about poetry and paintings.
I will never forget a discussion with a group of Hispanic youngsters where we talked
about a wonderful E.E. Cummings poem in which it starts: "Dying is fine. but. oh. baby. death is
not" or something like that. Don't hold me to it.
But death, oh, baby - oh, I know what it is
"Dying is fine, but death, oh, baby, I
wouldn't like death if death were good."
And we talked about that. And the experience of the Hispanic kids was very different
because every one of them had seen somebody die.
People in our families died in hospitals, They died a long way from where we were. They
didn't die at home, and they didn't die on the streets.
And all of a sudden I realized that there were very different experiences that I did not
have a clue about.
When I did go to Wellesley, I was, for the first time, attending school with women who
were different from me. They were black. They were brown. They came from other places, had
other experiences. And I remember going to church one Sunday with a young African-American
woman who became a friend of mine. I had never gone anywhere with an African-American
before. And we went off campus, and we went to this church. And I can remember talking with
people later about what an amazing experience that was for me. She and I became great friends,
but I never would have had that opportunity if I had gone to school at a place where everybody
looked like me and everybody had the same background as I did.
It opened my eyes in a number of ways. And that is why it is so important that, if we
believe in the message of the arts and humanities, we take it to its conclusion, which is that we
all have much to learn from each other and each other's rich cultural traditions and histories.
You are doing that in a very practical way here in Ann Arbor in one of the oldest historic
neighborhoods. The Broadway Bridge Reconstruction effort will unite people young and old
throughout Ann Arbor. You will be exploring local culture through history and writing,
photography, design and other disciplines. It is a wonderful example of how the arts and
humanities can provoke the imaginations of people in an entire community and how you can
literally build a bridge to the future.
You know, my husband and I are very partial to bridge metaphors because we think that
they happen to very well display to us, in a lot of different ways, what it is we are trying to do - -
how we imagine, how we envision what comes next. To that end, we have chosen in the White
house to use the millennium as a way to honor the past and imagine the future - again. that
word, imagine. Because we do believe in the importance of imagination.
The founding fathers imagined America. Who could have dreamed what they imagined
only a few years before? Imagination has fueled the American dream in the lives of countless
men and women. Imagination is what keeps us going day in and day out. Time and time again,
here in America, we have supported the arts because we have understood they are the fuel for
imagination.
In 1962, when President Kennedy asked for public support of the arts, he reminded
Americans that Abraham Lincoln ordered work to go forward on the capitol dome during the
Civil War. And I would add that one of the great sources of solace that President Lincoln had
during the Civil War was the poetry he read and wrote, plays that he saw, people who inspired
him to keep imagining. Franklin Roosevelt, in the midst of World War II, dedicated the National
Gallery of Art in Washington.
And President Kennedy said about them, "These leaders understood that the life of the
arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction in the life of the nation, is very close to the
center of a nation's purpose and is a test of the quality of a nation's civilization." We are now
facing that test ourselves. That is why in the White House we are sponsoring a millennium
program that invites speakers to come, like the Poets Laureate, to lecture about topics ranging
from America's founding ideas to creativity and science. That is why we are going to showcase
American art, so that we can see what we have contributed to this great march of human
civilization. It is why we are launching a project to save America's treasures because so many of
our nation's cultural treasures, from precious documents like the Bill of Rights and the
Constitution to artifacts like the Star Spangled Banner which inspired our nations anthem, are in
danger of deteriorating.
Universities have a special role to play in making sure we are all conscious of the
importance of the arts and humanities because it is a university provides a safe haven for
unconventional ideas and thought. This gives space for people to exercise their imaginations.
They are incubators of culture. These are the places where we can test our ideas, our emotions,
our experiences, and attitudes which is why we do not need to do it in front of a mirror. We need
to do it in a larger community that reflects back to us new ideas, new emotions, and new
experiences. And by doing so, we are, therefore, able to make choices for ourself as to what kind
of people we wish to be and what sorts of citizens we intend to be.
As the Year of the Humanities and Arts of Citizenship program here has shown, you can
provoke thought. You can create collective discourse. And you need to continue doing that. The
arts and humanities really are such great equalizers for all of us.
In front of a painting like Guernica or a beautiful piece of poetry. we are all in awe. And
we all have to reach deep down inside so, together, let us honor the past and let us imagine the
future. And by doing so, let us live up to the ideas of our democratic way of life by placing the
arts and humanities front and center in the ongoing effort to make America a more perfect union.
Thank you very much.
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4TH STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format.
Copyright 1995 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
June 21, 1995, Wednesday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section A; Page 19; Column 1; Editorial Desk
LENGTH: 659 words
HEADLINE: Arts for Our Sake
BYLINE: By Hillary Rodham Clinton; Hillary Rodham Clinton is honorary
chairwoman of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. This article
is based on her remarks at the Metropolitan Museum of Art earlier this month.
BODY:
This is an ominous time for those of us who care deeply about the arts in
America. A misguided, misinformed effort to eliminate public support for the
arts not only threatens irrevocable damage to our cultural institutions but also
to our sense of ourselves and what we stand for as a people.
One of the great successes of the arts in America is that they are not the
preserve of any "cultural elite." Through museums, libraries, schools, dance
companies and concerts, the arts are truly part of the public domain, accessible
to all and capable of encouraging every person's artistic expression and
sensibility.
The National Endowment for the Arts, in partnership with individuals,
corporations, foundations and other patrons of the arts, has helped transform
whole communities by bringing the arts and artists to millions who otherwise
never have had the opportunity to explore firsthand our shared artistic
age.
The President has shown that we can balance the budget over the next 10 years
without undermining our commitment to the arts. The N.E.A. budget accounts for
less than 0.02 percent of the Federal budget. Eliminating this small but vital
agency would have grave consequences for local economies. Federal support for
the arts helps attract tourists, stimulate business, expand the tax base and
improve the quality of life -- a huge return on a small investment.
Despite a 30-year bipartisan commitment to the arts, there are those who
argue that public support is a luxury we can no longer afford. They mistakenly
suggest that the arts are enjoyed only by a small, wealthy minority. But if
public support for the arts disappears, those most affected will not be the
richest Americans but the millions of citizens who rely on the N.E.A. to bring
the arts to their local schools and communities.
I find it ironic that those who talk the loudest about America's loss of
civility, character and values (particularly those arising from Western
civilization) are often the first to recommend obliterating the agencies
responsible for promoting arts programs that make Sophocles, Shakespeare, Mozart
and O'Keefe available to our children.
They fail to appreciate what every generation of Americans has intuitively
known -- that the artistic imagination is critical to our civilization and our
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The New York Times, June 21, 1995
democracy. They forget the prescient words of John Adams: "I must study politics
and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My
sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy
in order to give their
dren a right to study painting, poetry, music.
The power of the arts is not simply to provide pleasant esthetics but to help
move us forward as a democracy. Human expression, as conveyed through the
arts, enables us to understand better the complexities of life and gives us a
bridge to the world preceding and surrounding us. Most important, exposure to
our cultural traditions enriches the lives of our children.
Too often, we see children who, instead of discovering the joys of painting,
music, sculpting or writing, express themselves through acts of frustration and
even violence. The arts offer an alternative to the more disturbing elements of
our popular culture, and a safe haven that allows children to explore their
creative potential, transporting them beyond the bounds of their difficult
circumstances. Their exposure to the roots and diverse richness of human
civilization will enhance their understanding of their own heritage and the
world in which they live.
Clearly our nation faces difficult choices. But as the rhetoric heats up over
the role of government in our society, I hope we will remember that public
support for the arts is a down payment on our future. It is an investment in the
values we claim to honor and in the cultural traditions in which democracy has
flourished for 218 years. Now is no time to turn our backs on that legacy or its
promise.
GRAPHIC: Drawing.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DATE: June 21, 1995