Tuesday (2/24) on the Los Angeles Times arts website Culture Monster, Mike Boehm and Chris Jones write, “Barack and Michelle Obama and their daughters spent the evening of Feb. 6 in the presidential box at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., applauding the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Evidently, it was the first family’s idea of a fun Friday night out. But in a capital where every presidential inflection and turn of phrase is parsed for glimmers of meaning, that front-and-center display of enthusiasm for one of the ‘high’ or ‘classic’ arts boomed like a 21-gun salute. It fed increasing hopes among arts advocates that the Obamas would generate a greater buzz for the arts simply by smiling in theater seats or strolling through museum galleries. … This infusion of the arts into the Obamas’ public rituals and family routines comes after eight years in which George W. Bush seldom was seen in Washington’s halls of culture. … The adult Obama’s arts résumé includes teaming with the Chicago Symphony as narrator for Aaron Copland’s ‘Lincoln Portrait’ during a free concert in 2005.”
