October is National Arts and Humanities Mont

By Rebecca Friedman

Washington, D.C.—President Barack Obama declared October 2010, National Arts and Humanities Month.

“In our increasingly interconnected world, the arts play an important role in both shaping the character that defines us and reminding us of our shared humanity. This month, we celebrate our Nation's arts and humanities, and we recommit to ensuring all Americans can access and experience them,” President Obama declared in a proclamation on the first of this month.

Though the federal government has a specific department for the arts, the National Endowment for the Arts will not be doing any specific programming for this month’s celebrations.

“We are a grant maker, we don’t put on events per say,” Paulette Beete, a writer for the NEA, said. The reason being that the NEA “supports all 56 arts councils” so states that wish to celebrate this month have the money to do so.

Instead of hosting an event for National Arts and Humanities Month, the NEA is “using Twitter to put out all the different events,” Liz Stark, a spokesperson for the NEA said.

Last year, the NEA did a listing of all the events that were going on across the nation. With Twitter, “we have a much larger reach,” Beete said. Beete is in charge of the Twitter campaign.

According to Beete, the reason why the NEA is putting out tweets is to “call attention to great events all across the country.

Americans for the Arts, which is currently celebrating its 50^th anniversary, is the coordinating group for National Arts and Humanities month. Instead of Twitter, the group has a map of the United States with different pinpoints over the map. Web users can click on the pinpoints and it will display the event, city and state that the event is taking place. Americans for the Arts declined to be quoted for this article.

One place that is new to the map is D.C. This year will be the first time that D.C. celebrates National Arts and Humanities Month.

The D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities hosted a Grand Fete at the Corcoran Gallery on the 21^st of this month. The fete honored visual and media artists who have received 2010-2011 grants from the D.C. Commission. “This event is designed to honor these [21] individuals,” Rebecca Landwehr Outreach Coordinator for the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities said a week before the event. “It is a way for them to be on display."

Landwehr explained that, “This is D.C.’s way of celebrating arts and humanities month.”

National Arts and Humanities month can help the arts community in America because it “elevates art to a platform for economic development,” Landwehr said. Furthermore, this month has the arts “being put in the spotlight.”

National Arts and Humanities Month grew out of National Arts and Humanities Week, which was started by the NEA and Americans for the Arts in 1985.

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