Monocle 24 Interview: Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson, NEA Chair
Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson, National Endowment of the Arts Chair.
(Washington DC) - While listening to a recent Monocle 24 on Saturday podcast, we caught Monocle’s DC correspondent Chris Cermak interviewing Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson, National Endowment for the Arts Chair. Cermak’s questions for Dr. Rosario Jackson were focused on the post-pandemic state of the performing arts. We’re bringing this interview forward since it covers topics regularly discussed on the OI platform.
This podcast segment, which originally aired on Saturday, January 28 2023, was introduced by journalist and host Georgina Godwin.*
GG: The role of arts and culture in our communities is something that's evolved over the past few years. Concert halls and museums sought new ways to bring performances and exhibitions into our homes during the pandemic and now the question is what kind of mark the pandemic has left on the arts community and its role in our lives going forward. Monocle’s Washington correspondent was at the US Conference of Mayors winter meeting last week and he spoke to Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson, Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, the chief cultural agency of the US government. She began by describing the agency's mission and how its changed under her leadership.
MRJ: …so the mission of the national endowment for the arts is to make sure that all people in the United states have access to the arts we support a range of arts experiences organizations and programs and under my leadership a year in one shift not in mission so much but I think maybe in interpretation of mission for now has to do with an expansive notion of arts culture and design I've been talking about the idea of artful lives and how that range of opportunities to have creative expression as part of your daily life experience all of these different ways that we engage art and creative process that that's something that we support and think it's part of equitable places where all people can thrive i think maybe another emphasis let's say in in my leadership has to do with lifting up the really important work that happens at the intersection of arts and other fields like education health community development transportation my backgrounds urban planning so I take this more comprehensive notion I believe that the things that we say we want to accomplish as a nation we really can't to do without the integration of arts culture and design and if we don't figure out how to do that kind of integration better we'll stay stuck some excited about what the national endowment for the arts can do there is a lot of interest in cities and communities some of the programs that the NEA has built over the years are intended to bolster the impact of the arts at the local level one of them is the mayor's institute on city design collaboration with the US conference of mayors and you know very excited about what that program has been able to accomplish over the years as well as where it may go next and how other resources that are in it or adjacent to it can help further our work in cities we're in this post pandemic moment which it does feel like quite a pivotal moment also speaking to mayors here everyone is kind of reimagining what our cities are what our downtowns are like what makes up a community and you know one of your mantras is this idea that the arts are critical to healthy communities
CC: And so just tell me a little more about how you actually see us redefining the role of, particularly the arts, in communities after the pandemic.
MRJ: Well, one of the things that I think is important (is) to continue lifting up what I said earlier: that we have to have this broad interpretation of what constitutes our cultural life, that includes things that are everyday and quotidian, even the deeply meaningful and impactful, as well as the things that people more readily imagine when someone says “what is the feature of art or culture in the city,” and they'll think about important presenting venues, right? Whether they're concert halls or museums or what have you, those (venues) are still critically important. I think, alongside that, we have to think about our personal and communal creative lives and active arts engagement - the act of making (and) the act of learning. (This is) important, post-pandemic, especially as we're trying to deal with not just economic revitalization, but the effects of isolation (and) in some cases mental health issues…when we're (also) concerned about…our social fabric, right? And our ability to feel like we belong or can connect, to understand the role of the arts broadly defined, in relation to those aspirations and goals, is really important and that's different from only thinking about the arts as an economic driver, which is important, to be sure, but I (also) think we (need) to understand the value of the arts in relation to our health and well-being, both individually and collectively. All of that is amplified right now as as we emerge or re-emerge.
CC: What does that mean, in practice, for you? Does that mean…you kind of talked about museums, concert halls as venues, but does it mean in that sense that you have to bring art directly into communities more? I wonder if that's part of the change today.
MRJ: I think that's part of it, but also, I'm really inspired when I go around the country and I see how people's thinking about how to use their physical spaces has evolved. When you couldn't have crowds (and) had to think about how do you program outside, if that was an option? Or, how do you reimagine space such that it could conform to health codes? I think that there was a lot of experimentation and piloting of new ways of thinking about arts participation that have legs and utility beyond a pandemic state, (which) you're seeing. Because (just) this week, I had a lot of contact with performing arts organizations in particular, so that's present for me, but some of the sharpest performing arts organizations are thinking about what is the connection of virtual participation to live engagement. What is that spectrum? Is there a bridge there? There's perhaps more nimbleness and flexibility around understanding what could be an arts venue, programming that's happening maybe not in the main physical presentation venue that they're used to working in, but more programming happening in communities and what some of us might think of as unconventional settings, let's say; there is this explosion of ideas that are not limited by some of the rules we felt we had to abide by before. I mean, you see it in many places, this is not necessarily just with the arts, performing arts or visual arts. If you look in cities and and how restaurants have reimagined their spaces to include outdoor spaces…some of that, people have held onto that, right? Without the necessity to conform to a health code anymore, but they figured out “oh, this is valuable in a way that I didn't understand before.”
*Lightly edited for flow