NEA Chairman Dana Gioia Gets America Reading Again

Dana Gioia, the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, wants to get America reading again, and the "Big Read" is doing just that, according to a CNN report. Gioia recently announced 117 new cities chosen to participate in the agency's program this year, and next year he expects 400 U.S. cities will be reading the works of American authors Ernest Hemingway, Harper Lee, Ray Bradbury, Amy Tan and others.

Gioia conceived the idea for the Big read in response to two pressing issues: the need to restore the image of the NEA and to stop an alarming trend with regard to reading in America. The NEA is the federal arts-funding agency, and it became mired in contentious debate over its grants that supported exhibitions of controversial artwork by Andre Serrano and the late Robert Mapplethorpe.

Funding fell as Senators argued that the agency was irrelevant and out of touch with the American people. In 1995, the federal budget earmarked $162 million for the agency, but following the controversial exhibitions funding fell to $99.4 million in 1996, with some arguing that the agency should be abolished altogether.

Gioia took over in 2002, and funding is now back up to around $124 million, with $128.4 million requested for 2008. He is in his second term, having been unanimously confirmed twice by the Senate.

"We've been able to bring the agency out of controversy," Gioia told CNN, "and into a new consensus. It's a new NEA. We needed to make a new argument why these things were important -- not just to artists, but to the country."

Recalling the launch of a Shakespeare program, he said, "we were getting performances into over 1,700 municipalities. We have 66 theater companies involved in it, probably just shy of 2,000 actors and crew members. We have 16 million kids using our DVDs and other class materials."

"By being sure we get a grant into every congressional district, we're making a political choice, yes, but it's a practical decision, too. Every one has about three-quarters of a million people."