Biden Restores Committee on Arts & Humanities

On Friday, September 30, 2022, President Biden issued an Executive Order on Promoting the Arts, the Humanities, and Museum and Library Services restoring the President’s Committee on Arts and Humanities, which was originally formed by President Reagan in 1982, but dissolved in 2017 when its members resigned in protest of President Trump’s response to a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The committee will include the Chairs of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and 25 additional members representative of those fields to be appointed by the president.

The order states that “the arts, the humanities, and museum and library services will be integrated into strategies, policies, and programs that advance the economic development, well-being, and resilience of all communities, especially those that have historically been underserved” and directs 25 federal departments, agencies, and councils to consider joint projects with the NEA, NEH, and IMLS.

President Biden also issued a Proclamation on National Arts and Humanities Month for October 2022 to “support artists, scholars, and leaders who look like America and will help tell our full story as a Nation.” The president had issued a similar proclamation in in 2021, which had been the first such proclamation since President Obama in 2016. Arts NC encourages all to “observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and celebrations.”

One week earlier, on September 23rd, President Biden surprised legendary musician Sir Elton John with the National Humanities Medal lauding him as a longtime humanitarian who has helped raise hundreds of millions for the treatment of AIDS, as “an enduring icon and advocate with absolute courage, who found purpose to challenge convention, shatter stigma, and advance the simple truth that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.”