Ben For President: Department of the Arts

I am running for President. I am also searching for a VP. I've received a number of requests for positions in my Presidential Cabinet. I will be featuring them over the course of this week. If you want to serve, please send me a photo, the cabinet position you seek to fill, and a statement about how you think the world should be changed.

From:
Christopher Wingert
Arts Czar
Department of the Arts

First off, yes – czar. I’m not messing around with this, although I have already discovered that “czar” is a deceivingly difficult word to type. Also, it should be stated that I use the word “arts” to describe the performing, visual and literary arts as a whole. As Arts Czar, I will embrace President Carver’s goals of wellness and balance for the American people. I truly believe in the National Endowment for the Arts and agree that “a great country deserves great art.” And speaking of the NEA, I will work hand in hand with the Chairman as a peer and colleague. It is critical that the NEA remain independent from government oversight (Hey, I like the term czar, but I’m no Stalin). As Arts Czar, it would be my job to go to bat for the NEA and get increased funding from Congress and President Carver so that the arts are funded at or above the levels they were before conservatives thought they had the right to determine what was and wasn’t appropriate art. If I get any flack from them, I’ll play Miley Cyrus at full blast in Cabinet meetings until they give in.

As Arts Czar, I understand there is a lot of amazing art out there…and a lot of crap. Americans will be allowed to keep their crap. Much of it is entertaining and mindless and there is nothing wrong with that. But if culture is reduced to the lowest common denominator, where will that leave us? Therefore, as Arts Czar, I’ll be able to bring other art into the equation to provoke thought, emotion, creation, and conversation.

I’ll design and manage programs to address three key issues. One – Americans are losing a sense of self, history and context as the country grows more and more divided along any number of lines. Two – The average American is not exposed to enough art from other parts of the world. Three – The wonderful art institutions and performers currently active in the US do fantastic work that is experienced primarily by those that go to the art; instead, how can we get the art to go to the people?

Americans need to know Steven Foster and Elliott Carter, Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsburg. Every single person alive in this country needs to see the Alvin Ailey dancers perform Revelations and be able to experience exhibits from the MoMA on tour in their hometown. We need to understand why the do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do that Julie Andrews taught us is important – but also why the world is bigger than that (ask me or any other music major about Debussy’s run-in with a Javanese gamelan). And I will work to inform and inspire Americans so that eventually the World’s Fair (Expos) will be given the same frenzy, energy and enthusiasm we give the Olympics.

I have many more ideas that aren’t fully formed. We need a multi-tier national arts education program for children, teens and adults with lessons and history taught in our schools, community centers and online (I figure Google will be involved). We need more early childhood arts development courses and we need to ensure that every child has been to a live performance by the age of four. We need our movie theatres to continue the work of The Met Opera and air live performances or readings nationwide – for free. We need National Arts Day where the arts literally spill out into our local streets in a joyful, meaningful, real experience. And soon everyone’s favorite holiday will be National “You Must Paint a Picture or Write a Poem or Else You’ll Be Locked Up at Guantanamo” Day. I figure Gitmo will be empty and ready to house arts dodgers once President Carver taken care of that little issue.

Here’s the bottom line: Right here in our nation’s capital, the Washington Post set up a fascinating experiment when they asked Joshua Bell, one of the world’s finest violinists, to play six pieces one weekday morning at the L’Enfant metro stop. Over 1,000 people walked by and only seven, that’s just the single digit of 7, stopped to listen. This isn’t to say that those that walked by are ignorant or simply busy. It’s to say that Americans are too good at tuning things out these days – and we have to be, considering how much is thrown at us. But to tune out the arts is to accept the cracks in the foundation of our culture. So, we need to turn up the arts, not tune them out. And that is a cheesy campaign slogan if I ever heard one. I. Am. Ready.

-Christopher Wingert

If you want to serve in my administration, please send me a photo, the cabinet position you seek to fill, and a statement about how you think the world should be changed.