Just got this email:

People – Would you take a minute to sign in support of Quincy Jones’ brilliant idea for a US Secretary of the Arts? Quincy Jones has started a petition to ask President-Elect Obama to appoint a Secretary of the Arts.  While many other countries have had Ministers of Art or Culture for centuries, The United States has never created such a position. We in the arts need this and the country needs the arts–now more than ever. Please take a moment to sign this important petition and then pass it on to your friends and colleagues.

www.petitiononline.com/esnyc/petition.html

 This is long overdue. A Secretary of the Arts would further legitimize America’s place in Art History and in the international dialog through the many disciplines of art – a language itself.  People yearn for arts & culture and if they don’t, most are missing out on education, exposure, self-expression, & a creative outlet for internal strife versus unconstructive outlets that are too often used in our society. Production of art can be both a creative & an intellectual pursuit. Exposure to art has numerous benefits, one being for society as a whole to be elevated. Let’s put an arts leader in the Cabinet to start measuring up to other governments’ commitments to arts & culture. This will benefit individual artists, arts organizations, the fine art, film & performing arts industries at large, patrons of the arts, society at large, & the international community. For example, the Secretary could foster international dialog and commission collaborative projects between artists worldwide – there could be creative, spiritual, intellectual, social, economic, political, historical & community value.

Pass it on.

Right on! Secretary of the Arts. And if Quincy can’t do it, your man Culturebot is ready to serve his country! If Sanjay Gupta can get a job, then certainly yours truly – a pioneer of web-based grassroots arts advocacy – would be a good pick to go to Washington!