Obama Names President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities Appointees

November 12th, 2009

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 11/11/09

“Ronald Reagan picked Frank Sinatra and Bill Blass. Bill Clinton appointed Quincy Jones, Rita Moreno, and violinist Isaac Stern. The Bushes, father and son, chose a whole bunch of people you probably never heard of. But when it comes to sheer glitz and celebrity firepower, Barack Obama may have outstripped them all with his recent nominees to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. They include Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker, Vogue editor Anna Wintour, actors Edward Norton and Alfre Woodard, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Academy Award-winning actor Forest Whitaker, Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne, and ballet dancer Damian Woetzel…The committee’s 25 members—an eclectic list that, besides performing artists, includes business executives, educators, arts organization trustees, lawyers, and political supporters—were sworn in November 3 in Washington, DC.”