This week, National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman made a big announcement: He will embark on a national tour of the United States, to “spotlight all the ways that art works.” Landesman told
The Washington Post that he plans to “visit downtown sculpture gardens, art walks along waterfronts, free public performances and exhibitions, historic-building renovations and subsidized artist workspaces and residences.” This won’t be the first time an NEA chairman has taken a national tour to meet obscure artists, but Landesman, a former Broadway producer who is well-versed in the worlds of Hollywood and New York, is especially intent on connecting with the rest of the country. He starts his six-month tour in Peoria, Illinois—he previously got in trouble for dismissing the city’s theater scene in an interview—where he will see a local production of
Rent. Yikes—six straight months of community theater? Landesman is really taking one for the team.