“Jane Chu, the former head of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), has joined PBS as an arts adviser, the organization announced,” reports Olivia Clement in last Tuesday’s (7/10) Playbill. “In her new role at PBS, Chu will help identify opportunities for public media to broaden access and representation in its presentation of the arts to audiences nationwide.… Chu announced in May that she was resigning from her role as Arts Chair of the NEA after a four-year term. Selected to lead the NEA by President Barack Obama in 2014, Chu guided the federal arts agency through one of the most challenging periods in its 50-year history when the Trump administration released its 2018 budget plan, calling for the elimination of the vital arts agency. Thanks to bipartisan support … the Senate approved a budget that not only preserved the agency, but increased its funding. Previously, Chu spent eight years leading the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, Missouri, overseeing construction of the $413-million center.… Earlier in her career, she held executive roles in development and philanthropy at Union Station Kansas City, the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, and the Kauffman Fund.”
Posted July 18, 2018
