A National Arts Adviser?

Buster's talking about the Office of the Historian has gotten me to thinking: why in the world doesn't the US have anyone officially in charge of our arts policy? And looky here: a thoughtful piece arguing in favor of a national arts adviser to coordinate the different agencies involved in America's arts programs. Green is not talking about just funding the arts (yes, we do have the National Endowment for the Arts), but somebody actually coordinating strategic efforts to direct arts policy, from diplomacy to education to regional arts intiatives, preservation, etc etc etc. I am especially enthusiastic about the idea of somebody in charge of advocating more ardently for arts education, addressing visa issues for cultural exchange, and (Green doesn't mention it, but...) some kind of national database of visual, print, and film material in public institutions and in the public domain (kind of like the Archives of American Art or Canada's National Film Board, but you know, bigger and better and integrating all American public museum collections).

I have to admit that when I first saw the title of the piece, the first thing that came to mind was the Cold War attempts to use avant-garde art as a form of soft power to buy the hearts and minds of Communist citizens. Look! Abstract Art! Freedom! (This is was a pretty trendy line of art history scholarship a little while back.) Clearly, though, there are many other ways in which cultural policy is relevant and necessary, and this piece outlines a whole slew of them. My only criticism: he leaves out any discussion of whom we might entrust with such an important post. This person would have to be familiar with both international diplomacy, domestic (particularly local) policy, and the private and public art worlds, which are all some specialized, cliquey realms. In Europe (at least in France), they've long had someone like this. But an American André Malreaux*? I can't even imagine.

Art Students League Class, ca. 1885. (Source: Archives of American Art)

*Well, except for that whole stealing bas reliefs from Cambodian temples thing...we have our own problems with repatriation of cultural objects of dubious provenance, thank you very much.