Dana Gioia’s Midterm Report

The reelection of President Bush means, among other things, that Dana Gioia will be staying on to complete his four-year term as the head of the National Endowment for the Arts. In his two years on the job, Gioia has been seen as a uniter of diverse constituencies, restoring the NEA’s reputation in Congress and in the country at large. But within the arts world, Gioia is viewed with skepticism, and not just because he was appointed by a Republican president: his programs and his vision represent “a radical shift in direction for the NEA away from funding the creation of new works of art – a direction which, Gioia points out, alienated so many people that the endowment nearly was shut down.”