Panel to Discuss "Who Supports the Arts?"

Rick MacArthur

New York, NY (November 25, 2008) – – "From Patronage to Social Policy: Who Supports the Arts?" will be the topic for a lively panel discussion, with journalist and author Rick MacArthur serving as moderator, in a collaborative presentation of New York University and Yaddo on the NYU campus Thursday, December 4.

The program is part of a three-part series, "Yaddo: Conversations about American Culture, Arts, and Social Policy," exploring the resonance in contemporary arts and letters of key themes addressed in the "Yaddo: Making American Culture" exhibition on view at The New York Public Library through February 15, 2009. All programs in the series are free and open to the public.

Panelists for the December conversation include:

Rick MacArthur, president and publisher of Harper's Magazine. His books include Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War and The Selling of "Free Trade": NAFTA, Washington, and the Subversion of American Democracy.
Harvey Dale, University Professor of Philanthropy and the Law at New York University's School of Law and Director of the National Center on Philanthropy and the Law. He is the founding President and CEO and a current director of Atlantic Philanthropies, a group of foundations which focus on aging, disadvantaged children and youth, health of populations, and reconciliation and human rights.
Mary Schmidt Campbell, Dean of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University since 1991. She also serves as the Chair of the New York State Council on the Arts, is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and sits on the board of The American Academy in Rome. She is co-editor of Artistic Citizenship: A Public Voice for the Arts, as well as co-author of Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America and Memory and Metaphor: The Art of Romare Bearden, 1940-1987.
Elaina Richardson, President of Yaddo since September 2000. She has written and lectured extensively on her specialty, eighteenth-century English literature. She is the former editor-in-chief of Elle magazine and occasionally contributes to magazines such as O: The Oprah Magazine and to BBC radio.
Matthew S. Santirocco, Seryl Kushner Dean of the College of Arts and Science and Angelo J. Ranieri Director of Ancient Studies at NYU. He is author of a book on Latin lyric, several edited volumes, and many scholarly articles on ancient literature. He edited the monograph series, American Classical Studies, and now edits the journal, Classical World. He is currently working on a book on the poetics of literary patronage in Augustan Rome.

There will be an opportunity for questions and discussion following the panel presentation, and a reception will follow the program. Seating is first-come-first-served.

All programs in the series will be held on the New York University campus in Hemmerdinger Hall, Silver Center for Arts and Science, Room 102, 100 Washington Square East, New York City. The inaugural program in the series was "Cultural Phantasms: Thoughts on Hi, Lo, and Hi-Lo Culture" on November 12. The third and final conversation will be "Art and Social Conflict: Culture Wars from 1930 to Present," at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 4, 2009.

"Arts and Politics," a concurrent exhibition at NYU’s Tamiment Library, runs through February 28, 2009, in the Bobst Library, 70 Washington Square South, 10th Floor, New York City.