FUND THE ARTS AND HUMANITIES

On 2017-04-06, Representative Alma S. Adams (D-NC-12) delivered a floor speech titled "FUND THE ARTS AND HUMANITIES" in the House.

FUND THE ARTS AND HUMANITIES

Congressional Record, Volume 163 Issue 60 (Thursday, April 6, 2017) [Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 60 (Thursday, April 6, 2017)] [House] [Pages H2770-H2777] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] FUND THE ARTS AND HUMANITIES The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Faso). Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2017, the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Langevin) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. Mr. LANGEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join a number of my colleagues in strong support of the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities. These venerable institutions, which both recently celebrated their 50th anniversaries, are a cornerstone of American cultural expressions. Sadly, they are also under attack. [[Page H2771]] The President's recent budget outline called for the defunding and dismantling of the Endowments. So I have gathered here with my friends and colleagues in the hope that we can help the President change his mind and demonstrate to him the immense benefit that the NEA and the NEH bring to our districts, our country, and, in fact, the world. Being a Rhode Islander, I have always felt a special connection to the arts and humanities. Rhode Island was founded as a colony that welcomed free expression of religion, and that freedom of thought quickly translated into an independent mindedness that drove creative endeavors. It is no wonder, then, that into such an environment was born one of the 20th century's great statesmen and a champion of the arts, our late senior Senator, Senator Claiborne Pell. Senator Pell was a mentor of mine, and I actually had the privilege of interning with him twice at one point. He is rightly lionized for many of his legislative achievements, including the Pell grants that bear his name. But I believe that no issue was closer to his heart than that of preserving and promoting American art and culture. Anyone who knew the Senator knew that his own passion was reflected and redoubled by his wife, the indomitable Nuala Pell, one of the great supporters of the arts that my State and our country has ever seen. The National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities can trace their beginnings to the passions of the Pells, the vision of President Kennedy, and the determination of President Johnson. President Kennedy began his term with a focus on American culture, when he invited Robert Frost to read a poem at his inauguration. He soon followed this up by appointing August Heckscher his Special Consultant on the Arts. Heckscher's report entitled, ``The Arts and the National Government,'' led to the creation of the President's Advisory Council on the Arts. Meanwhile, Senator Pell, the chairman of the Senate Special Subcommittee on the Arts and Humanities, was hard at work. He began his first hearing in 1963 with this statement: ``I believe that this cause and its implementation has a worldwide application; for as our cultural life is enhanced and strengthened, so does it project itself into the world beyond our shores. Let us apply renewed energies to the very concept we seek to advance: a true renaissance--the reawakening, the quickening, and above all, the unstinted growth of our cultural vitality.'' So over the next 2 years, working with legislators including Senators Hubert Humphrey and Jacob Javits and Representatives Frank Thompson and William Moorhead, Senator Pell crafted President Kennedy's vision into a reality. With the full support and assistance of President Johnson, the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act was signed into law on September 29, 1965. The first Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, incidentally, was another Rhode Islander, Barnaby Keeney, then president of Brown University. Mr. Speaker, I begin this hour with a survey of history for a couple of reasons. First, I think that it is vital that both Members and the President understand the care and consideration that went into creating the Endowments. So years of deliberation by some of our finest legislators went into the determination made in the arts and said: While primarily a matter for private and local initiative, the arts and humanities are also appropriate matters of concern of the Federal Government. So there is no doubt that private foundation and corporate philanthropy are the bedrock of artistic funding in this country. Nonetheless, there is an important role for government at all levels to play, and the Endowment serves as the catalyst for governmental involvement. Second, looking back helps remind us of the aspirations that drove the creation of the Endowments in the first place. Last week, we learned of the death of Yevgeny Yevtushenko, a Soviet poet who defied his totalitarian government. When President Kennedy brought poetry to his inauguration, it was in direct contrast to the Soviet Union, where literary dissidents were imprisoned or exiled and not given freedom to create. What a message to send to the world in the 1960s, that the United States prized artistic expression, celebrated scholarly inquiry, and believed in the strength and progress embodied by multiculturalism. So the playwright in New York was not censored. He was cheered. A historian in North Carolina was greeted not with accusation, but acclaim. The painter in Nevada was not imprisoned; she was empowered. Placed in context, the message sent by the creation of the Endowments was that America's culture was not just an asset to be protected, but a powerful tool for promoting freedom worldwide. Just as importantly, the 1965 act recognized that American culture was not static. Rather, its evolution over time was the source of its power. However, I believe the most important reason to begin with the history of the Endowments can be found in the Arts and Humanities Act itself: ``An advanced civilization must not limit its efforts to science and technology alone, but must give full value and support to the other great branches of scholarly and cultural activity in order to achieve a better understanding of the past, a better analysis of the present, and a better view of the future.'' Why do we study the arts and humanities? Why do we promote them in the Halls of Congress? ``To achieve a better understanding of the past, a better analysis of the present, and a better view of the future.'' Mr. Speaker, I co-chair the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus, a caucus that owes its very name to the work of an artist, William Gibson, who first coined the phrase ``cyberspace'' in 1984. Gibson helped create the lexicon that we use today to describe the internet as we know it and, in so doing, helped to shape its development and growth--a better view of the future, indeed. For years, I promoted the STEM to STEAM movement, the concept of adding art and design to the STEM disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Incidentally, this movement is another product of my home State, courtesy of the brilliant minds at the Rhode Island School of Design, in particular, as I understand it, then former President John Maeda, who, as I understand, coined the term ``STEM to STEAM.'' Incorporating principles of art and design in STEM helps foster creativity, encourages collaboration, and can engender sudden, inspired breakthroughs, all by helping to better analyze the present. So in my role in the Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees, I am presented daily with new threats brought on by the advent of new technologies or fast-moving global events. The temptation to act quickly is strong, and sometimes immediate reaction is warranted; but more often than not, it is through examination of the past that I find a path forward. These United States have weathered many crises over the centuries-- some of our own making--but by better understanding of them, I can better analyze the present and better see a future of America peaceful, prosperous, and free. Mr. Speaker, I know my colleagues have stories to tell of the great works that the NEA and NEH have supported in their districts, and I will share some of those stories as well. But I hope my words on the history of the Endowments have helped shape our understanding of their incredible purpose and ideals of President Kennedy, President Johnson, Senator Pell, and their colleagues. America is better for the Endowments existing. The world is better for it. To cast them away in a budget outline that zeros them out without even a word of justification is a tragedy. {time} 1115 It dismisses the ideals of our forbearers as insignificant. It ignores the half century of work that many of my colleagues here have done to promote our culture through the Endowments. And in the cruelest of ironies, it does so without engaging with the very disciplines it dismisses as unneeded. It cannot and will not go unchallenged. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Price). The gentleman has co-led this effort with me, and he proudly co-chairs the Caucus on the Humanities. [[Page H2772]] Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding and for taking up this Special Order to focus on the role of the Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities in American life and the need for us in this body to have some historical perspective and appreciation of that, and to rise to the occasion of the challenge presented by the Trump preliminary budget to make certain that these efforts are appreciated, and, more importantly, that they are funded, that they are supported in this body and in our budget for fiscal 2018. I am glad that the gentleman took some time to give us a history lesson. He comes by this advocacy honestly because he is the Representative from Rhode Island. The inspiration behind the Endowments, back in the 1960s, was Senator Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island, a towering figure in th