{"id":41688,"date":"2017-08-19T09:02:49","date_gmt":"2017-08-19T09:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=41688"},"modified":"2017-08-19T09:02:49","modified_gmt":"2017-08-19T09:02:49","slug":"16-members-of-white-house-arts-committee-resign-to-protest-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/politics\/16-members-of-white-house-arts-committee-resign-to-protest-trump.html","title":{"rendered":"16 Members of White House Arts Committee Resign to Protest Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

16 Members of White House Arts Committee Resign to Protest Trump<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

16 Members of White House Arts Committee Resign to Protest Trump:- All 16 of the prominent artists, authors, performers and architects on the President\u2019s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities resigned on Friday, the latest group to protest Donald J. Trump\u2019s defense of white nationalists after the violent demonstrations in Charlottesville, Va.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a letter addressed to Mr. Trump, the committee members blasted his \u201chateful rhetoric,\u201d and they apparently even encoded a message: The first letter of each paragraph and \u201cthank you\u201d spells out \u201cresist.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cReproach and censure in the strongest possible terms are necessary following your support of the hate groups and terrorists who killed and injured fellow Americans in Charlottesville,\u201d the letter says. \u201cThe false equivalencies you push cannot stand.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The letter\u2019s signatories include the artist Chuck Close, the author Jhumpa Lahiri, the architect Thom Mayne and the \u201cJersey Boys\u201d actor John Lloyd Young. The Washington Post first reported that the committee members were resigning.<\/span><\/p>\n

Created in 1982 under President Reagan to advise the White House on cultural issues, the committee is known for developing programs like Turnaround Arts, which aims to improve academic performance and increase student engagement through the arts. Artists each adopted one of the country\u2019s lowest-achieving schools; the program is now independently run by the Kennedy Center.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe really did turn these places around,\u201d Mr. Close said in an interview. \u201cMy school in Bridgeport had 60 percent truancy and it just eliminated it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He called Mr. Trump \u201dan embarrassment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In a statement Friday, a White House spokeswoman said that Mr. Trump was going to disband the panel anyway.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the committee has done good work in the past, in its current form it simply is not a responsible way to spend American tax dollars,\u201d the statement read.<\/span><\/p>\n

The committee never convened under Mr. Trump, members said, and the president has not appointed members so far. The 16 who resigned Friday were appointed by President Obama and had elected to stay on under Mr. Trump, several said, to try to have an impact in his administration. More than a dozen additional committee members had resigned earlier rather than serve under Mr. Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought that perhaps we would be able to do some good from within because the arts and humanities are critical to an enriched society,\u201d said Fred Goldring, an entertainment and media entrepreneur on the committee. \u201cIn the end we decided we just weren\u2019t going to be able to be effective.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Andrew J. Weinstein, a Florida lawyer on the panel, said he was contacted by the actor Kal Penn, a fellow member who had worked in the White House Office of Public Liaison under Mr. Obama, and discussions ensued about drafting the letter as text messages and email circulated among the group. Mr. Weinstein said he hoped their resignation would bring attention to the importance of the arts at a time when President Trump has proposed eliminating funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe know the importance of open and free dialogue through our work in the cultural diplomacy realm,\u201d the letter said. \u201cYour words and actions push us all further away from the freedoms we are guaranteed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Penn said that everyone agreed it was time to end the group, though some expressed consternation about abandoning a committee dedicated to promote the arts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou sort of have hope up until a certain point,\u201d Mr. Penn said, \u201cand then you have to realize we just don\u2019t want our names attached with this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not for the news cycle,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s for how are we going to view our opportunity between right and wrong here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Lahiri said that folding the committee in the wake of Charlottesville was not a hard call.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe thought of advising a president capable of doing and saying the things that Trump has been doing and saying seemed like something that just did not sit right in my heart and my soul,\u201d she said in a telephone interview from Rome. \u201cI think everybody felt the same.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, Mr. Mayne called Mr. Trump\u2019s comments in support of the nationalist protesters \u201cantithetical\u201d to the whole meaning of art \u201cas a territory which is inclusive.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe essence of our work is about conversation and discourse and dialogue,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

In conclusion, the letter goes so far as to suggest that the president himself step down. \u201cSupremacy, discrimination, and vitriol are not American values. Your values are not American values. We must be better than this. We are better than this,\u201d it says. \u201cIf this is not clear to you, then we call on you to resign your office, too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So far, Mr. Penn said, the committee has not received a response to its letter.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Lahiri said this was not surprising. \u201cDo I expect a reply? No,\u201d she said. \u201cBut this is necessary closure at this point for a group of people who remained hopeful that the committee would be able to do some good and much needed work, in spite of our feelings about the current administration.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/08\/18\/arts\/white-house-arts-committee-resigns.html?mcubz=0<\/span><\/p>\n

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