Friday, September 3, 2010


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All That Jazz

The Unreported Arts Recession of 1997

The Big Read is a relatively-cheap National Initiative arts program that is seen by many as too costly.  The NEAs meager budget is one legacy of the arts recession of 1997.

By JASMINE MAHMOUD | July 31, 2009

I want to call your attention to last week’s New York Times article about the National Endowment for the Arts and Rocco Landesman. “For New Leader of the Arts Endowment, Lessons From a Shaky Past,” by Robin Pogrebin and Jo Cravin McGinty, was less of an article about the current state of affairs for the NEA-Chair elect, and more of a history lesson about the NEA’s past two decades. One history lesson was about the often-unreported arts recession of 1997.