Author: Thompson, Frank Jr.

Publication Year: 1964

Media Type: Report

Summary:

Your meeting here in Washington at this particular time is very significant. This week started with the White House Festival of the Arts, a first for the nation. It reflected a growing national concern for the state of the arts and the humanities.

Abstract:

Your meeting here in Washington at this particular time is very significant. This week started with the White House Festival of the Arts, a first for the nation. It reflected a growing national concern for the state of the arts and the humanities.

A little more than a week ago, the Senate approved a bill to create a National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities. It has been my hope and my plan to report to you today that the House Committee on Education and Labor had cleared the companion bill for action by the House of Representatives. However, as you may have learned from the news media, such action has been delayed as a result of matters that have no bearing on the particular piece of legislation.

The significance of these legislative actions, both recent and soon to be, and your meeting here, is that the American Symphony Orchestra League footprints are all over this bill.

It began in 1961 when a subcommittee of which I was chairman conducted an investigation into the economic conditions of the performing arts at which your Mrs. Helen Thompson was a witness. We were not considering specific legislative proposals, nor did she, at that time, make any specific recommendations. Possibilities for assistance to the arts, and symphony orchestras in particular, that she suggested as areas for study included: federal aid to education, which could greatly expand the playing of concerts for children and the use of these musicians for teaching; and the use of federal, state and local funds on a matching basis for building.
(p. 47-50)

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Funding