On Monday the 21st, Big Hollywood reported on a May 12 meeting of 60 artists with the NEA and the White House to help “promote the administration’s agenda” — the one where The Department of Alternative Thinking was proposed…

Today, the Washington Times compiled a long list of the invited artists who are grant recipients, and…

Fox News followed up with this report:

“Rappers, dancers, writers and other activists from around the country were invited to a May 12 session next door to the White House where they were “challenged to come up with promising and attractive ideas about how artists can work to promote the administration’s agenda.”

“The White House convened a meeting of 60 artists to help push the president’s domestic agenda in May, months before a controversial conference call with artists in August led to the reassignment and, on Thursday, the resignation of the communications director of the National Endowment for the Arts.

“In what some critics are calling a “troubling” early effort by the Obama administration to politicize the NEA, rappers, dancers, writers and other activists from around the country were invited to a May 12 session next door to the White House, where they were “challenged to come up with promising and attractive ideas about how artists can work for the administration’s agenda,” according to a report written by organizers of the meeting.

“An NEA official in charge of grants for performing artists was in attendance, as was the organization’s former chief spokesman, Yosi Sergant, who was reassigned last month after he led a similar conference call with 75 artists and urged them to promote Obama’s policies. The NEA announced Thursday that he had resigned.

“One participant in the May 12 session “suggested the people in the room equaled a think tank to serve the administration’s aims and asked how in practical terms we could connect to the administration’s work,” the report says.

“Government watchdogs said the meeting at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building was a problematic and partisan use of the NEA, which is supposed to be politically neutral.

“”They didn’t violate a law but it doesn’t seem like a good idea,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “It seems like they’re overly politicizing the NEA, and it seems inappropriate.”

“Sloan said it was “troubling” that the government-funded NEA was suggesting to artists who rely on it for aid that they make a push for the administration.”

You can read the full Fox News piece here.

Lynne Munson, former Deputy Director of the National Endowment for the Humanities, writes at the Corner:

NEA chairman Rocco Landesman, who was confirmed by the Senate on August 7 and began serving the day after his agency organized its now-infamous conference call, may be an excellent Broadway producer. But he’s still struggling to find his voice as a public servant.

Rocco Landesman

As evidence, let me cite his statement on the conference-call matter, issued yesterday. For readers who might be jumping into this discussion for the first time: This call, organized and participated in by the NEA using agency (in other words “taxpayer”) resources, asked some 75 artists to use their talents to promote a huge portion of President Obama’s domestic agenda. Two days later, 21 arts organizations endorsed Obama’s health-care plan. According to the Washington Times, those groups received $2 million in NEA grants during the four months leading up to the call.

Instead of issuing an apology for his agency’s role in this controversy, Landesman uses his statement to “clarify the issues” regarding the call. “Here are the facts,” he writes, and then presents an actual list (“Fact 1,” “Fact 2,” … “Fact 6”). This is amazing. It reads like a schoolboy defending some indefensible behavior. Rest assured, no form of apology appears anywhere.

I won’t pain you with each “fact,” just one that is particularly appalling.  It reads, in part:

Fact 3:  This call was not a means to promote any legislative agenda and any suggestions to that end are simply false.

Just a glace at the transcript of the call reveals Landesman to be flat-out wrong.

You can read the piece in full here.

James Taranto, WSJ’s Best of the Web:

What we found peculiar about [Chairman Rocco Landesman's] statement, however, was its punctiliousness in referring to the NEA man involved. His name is Yosi Sergant, but you wouldn’t know it from the Landesman statement, which refers to him only as an “employee” (twice) and as “the former NEA Director of Communications” (three times). The statement also asserts: “This employee has been relieved of his duties as director of communications.”

Where’s Yosi?

Wow, Yosi Sergant must really be persona non grata at the NEA! Well, not exactly. We wrote back to Hutter, and the following email exchange–quoted in full–ensued:

Taranto: Thanks. What happened to “the former NEA Director of Communications”? I’ve read that he was reassigned, but what was he reassigned to?

Hutter: James: He remains in the communications office but that’s all the information I have. Thanks.

Taranto: This is very confusing. You are telling me he works in your office but you have no idea what he does or what his title is, other than that it is no longer director of communications?

We sent Hutter that last reply today at 11:13 a.m. ET, and at this writing we have not received an answer.

The former NEA Director of Communications acted unilaterally and without the approval or authorization of then-Acting Chairman Patrice Walker Powell.

Washington Times:

STATEMENT FROM NEA CHAIRMAN ROCCO LANDESMAN

September 22, 2009

As chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, I would like to clarify the issues concerning an August conference call in which an NEA employee participated.

Here are the facts.

Fact 1:             The former NEA Director of Communications helped organize and participated in an August 10th conference call to introduce members of the arts community to United We Serve and to provide them with information on how the Corporation for National and Community Service can assist groups interested in sponsoring service projects or having their members volunteer on other projects.   

Fact 2:             The former NEA Director of Communications acted unilaterally and without the approval or authorization of then-Acting Chairman Patrice Walker Powell.

Fact 3:             This call was not a means to promote any legislative agenda and any suggestions to that end are simply false.   Rather, the call was to inform members of the arts community of an opportunity to become involved in volunteerism.

Fact 4:             Some of the language used by the former NEA Director of Communications was, unfortunately, not appropriate and did not reflect the position of the NEA. This employee has been relieved of his duties as director of communications.

You can read the statement in full here.

The former NEA Director of Communications acted unilaterally and without the approval or authorization of then-Acting Chairman Patrice Walker Powell.

Washington Times:

STATEMENT FROM NEA CHAIRMAN ROCCO LANDESMAN

September 22, 2009

As chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, I would like to clarify the issues concerning an August conference call in which an NEA employee participated.

Here are the facts.

Fact 1:             The former NEA Director of Communications helped organize and participated in an August 10th conference call to introduce members of the arts community to United We Serve and to provide them with information on how the Corporation for National and Community Service can assist groups interested in sponsoring service projects or having their members volunteer on other projects.   

Fact 2:             The former NEA Director of Communications acted unilaterally and without the approval or authorization of then-Acting Chairman Patrice Walker Powell.

Fact 3:             This call was not a means to promote any legislative agenda and any suggestions to that end are simply false.   Rather, the call was to inform members of the arts community of an opportunity to become involved in volunteerism.

Fact 4:             Some of the language used by the former NEA Director of Communications was, unfortunately, not appropriate and did not reflect the position of the NEA. This employee has been relieved of his duties as director of communications.

You can read the statement in full here.