HELP HELP HELP: Crowdsource names of people invited to NEA conference call

Washington Times ^ | Sept 21 2009 | Kerry Picket

[bahblahbah]

The Washington Times has obtained a partial list of "artists and influencers" who were participants on the controversial August 10 National Endowment for the Arts hosted conference call. The following links show images of an excel file of some of those on the teleconference call.:

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The file was provided by a participant on the call who said the list was distributed by Michael Skolnik, an arts activist involved in setting up the call. According to the electronic signature on the spreadsheet file obtained by The Washington Times, the file was created by a Michael Skolnik. We contacted Mr. Skolnik, and he has responded to several different questions with the same statement: "I cannot authenticate the excel attachment you sent to me." The Times also has a screen capture of an email coming from Skolnik's account with the file attached.

Huffington Post writer and co-founder of URB Magazine Raymond Leon Roker, told us that while he was invited to participate on the August 10 teleconference call, he was not on the call himself. A number of others on the list contacted by The Washington Times have denied participation in the call, including Jason Hardy, Mitchell Frank, and Sloan Berrent. Some other information on the list seems to be outdated. For instance, Lee Brenner, formerly director of political programing for MySpace, is now involved in a new social media consultancy called FastFWD Group.

Consider this an opportunity to crowd-source the next stage of our reporting. We invite bloggers and other interested readers to check out the names on the list for themselves. Some individuals are more well known than others. We're looking for solid, well-sourced information we can use to expand our coverage and generate new stories. This is an example. Here are some ideas on what to start with:

Is the information about them accurate/up to date?

Have these individuals been involved in Democratic politics?

Are they campaign donors? To whom?

Since the Aug. 10 confernece call, have any of these individuals been involved in political activism related to health care, environment or education, the subjects suggested by the NEA in the call?

Are they members of any of the 21 arts organizations that endorsed health care reform two days after the call?

Are any of them involved in other arts groups funded through the NEA or through state-level arts agencies funded by the NEA?

Do they have a history of being involved with dubious causes such as 9/11 "Truther" statements?

How many of them have written for The Huffington Post (we've noticed a couple)?

When you've got something good, stick links to the supporting information in our comments or a post on your blog or email us at kpicket@washingtontimes.com . We'll do our best to stay on top of any new information and credit the person who dug it up.

A couple quick things to keep in mind. We've already attempted to contact the people on the list, so there is no need to follow in our footsteps. As they respond, we'll add an updated tally in another post on the Water Cooler. Second, the people on the list are private citizens who were asked to be on a call where a National Endowment for the Arts official went way too far in pushing for artists and arts groups to get behind the administration agenda. The people on the call didn't neccessarily do anything controversial or wrong. The NEA and the White House are the ones who have gone too far.

[r9etb]

For those like me, who hadn't followed this story, here's a link to the details on the NEA call.

[steve0]

Oh I love this stuff, I will try and help. Is there any deadline?

[machogirl]

Here’s a list of the group invited to the first meeting, 5-12-09. I posted it earlier this morning. This is from the official White House briefing.

PARTICIPANTS

Participants
• Arnold Aprill, Founding and Creative Director, Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE)
• Caron Atlas, Cultural Organizer, Pratt Center for Community Development and State Voices
(Meeting Organizer)
• Judith F. Baca, Founder/Artistic Director of SPARC and the UCLA/SPARC Cesar Chavez Digital/Mural
Lab
• Robert “Biko” Baker, Executive Director, League of Young Voters
• Nick Behunin, HOPE Campaign
• Matthew Brady, Creative Director, Global Inheritance
White House briefing on Art, Community, Social Justice, National Recovery—12 May 2009 Page 16
• Claudine K. Brown, Director, Arts and Culture Program, Nathan Cummings Foundation (Meeting
Organizer)
• Denise Brown, Executive Director, Leeway Foundation
• John Cary, Executive Director, Public Architecture
• Alli Chagi-Starr, Community Partnerships & Events Manager, Green For All
• Jeff Chang, Writer
• William Cleveland, Center for the Study of Art & Community
• Dudley Cocke, Artistic Director, Roadside Theater, Appalshop
• Michelle Coffey, Executive Director, Lambent Foundation, Starry Night Fund Donor-Advised Fund
of Tides Foundation
• Duffy Culligan, The Directors Bureau
• Davey D, Hip Hop historian, Journalist, Deejay, Media and Community Activist
• Milly Hawk Daniel, Vice President for Communications, PolicyLink
• Dee Davis, President, Center for Rural Strategies
• Maria Lopez De Leon, Executive Director, The National Association of Latino Arts and Culture
• Amalia Deloney, Activist and Cultural Worker
• Kate Emanuel, Senior Vice President, Non-Profit & Government Affairs, The Advertising Council
• Diane Fraher, Director, American Indian Artists Inc. (AMERINDA)
• Ryan Friedrichs, Executive Director, State Voices
• Rha Goddess, Creative Organizer, 1+1+1=ONE
• Arlene Goldbard, Writer and Speaker (Meeting Organizer)
• James Bau Graves, Executive Director, Old Town School of Folk Music
• Kim Hastreiter, Editor, Publisher and Co-founder of PAPER Publishing Co.
• Liz Havstad, Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships and Programs, Hip Hop Caucus
• Ian Inaba, Co-Executive Director, Citizen Engagement Lab
• Gayle Isa, Executive Director, Asian Arts Initiative
• James Kass, Founder & Executive Director, Youth Speaks Inc.
• Bakari Kitwana, CEO, Rap Sessions
• Sally Kohn, Senior Campaign Strategist and Director of the Movement Vision Lab, Center for
Community Change
• Joe Lambert, Founder and Executive Director, Center for Digital Storytelling
• Brad Lander, Senior Fellow, Pratt Center for Community Development
• Liz Lerman, Founding Artistic Director, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange
• Rick Lowe, Artist, Founder, Project Row Houses
• John Malpede, Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD)
• Liz Manne, Founder, Work in Progress
• Meghan McDermott, Executive Director, Global Action Project
• Michelle Miller, Manager of Popular Media Organizing, SEIU
• Alyce Myatt, Executive Director, Grantmakers in Film + Electronic Media
• Michael D. Nolan, Independent PR Consultant
• Anne Pasternak, President & Artistic Director, Creative Time
• Maria Teresa Petersen, Founding Executive Director, Voto Latino
• Wendell Pierce, Actor/Producer, Founder, Pontchartrain Park CDC
White House briefing on Art, Community, Social Justice, National Recovery—12 May 2009 Page 17

***editorial comment from me.

any conservative groups in that bunch?

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

Wow! That’s quite a list, there.

[machogirl]

I started looking up these people that went to the May meeting. All I looked up were lefties and the official briefing from the WH is damning if you ask me. You can read it in rich text in the thread.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2344590/posts

the more I read this 18 page document, the more my jaw fell on the floor.

IMHO, everyone should read their agenda in these notes from the meeting in May.

[machogirl]

You’ve got to read the official WH briefing. It will knock your socks off. They are really up-front with their agenda.

[bahblahbah]

Well, Nic Adler looks clean to me but I’ve only been googling for about 10 minutes... and looking through his tweet stream... god, this will take forever...

[Buckeye McFrog]

ahhh....there’s a Systems Admin at the NEA who is looking for a job this morning (gotta secure those .xls file extensions, people!)

[Don Corleone]

Useful Idiots!

[machogirl]

It’s kind of funny in a way, but the consequences of this Administration’s agenda isn’t funny.

[machogirl]

I want to know who paid for this little meeting and conference call? Travel expenses, coffee, snacks? Did the NEA pay for it?

[machogirl]

Just clicked on BigHollywood, and Breitbart has all the ducks lined up in a row on the front page, with the NEA stuff.

[VOA]

bump

[machogirl]

direct link to pdf file of 5-12-09 WH briefing with Art Activists

http://www.statevoices.org/system/files/WH%20Briefing%20Report%206-4-09_0.pdf

[GOPJ]

IMHO, everyone should read their agenda in these notes from the meeting in May.

Can you give us the short version?

[machogirl]

I tried on the earlier thread by posting the intro, summary, and who attended. That didn’t go over so well and I was pretty much talking to myself, so I started digging into the thing. I post some of the “highlights” and then posted it in Rich Text for one of the posters.

It reads pretty quickly. It’s just that when you read it, you have stop and ask yourself, did they really say what I’m reading?
*want the US to admit international artists that are turned away at the airports and border crossing which then make them (the artists) mad at the USA
*want to redefine “public art”
*reclaim “public spaces” for public art
*graffiti and tagging is “public art”
*want to use the arts to refute Republican talking points memo on healthcare (Luntz, I think)
*want to use Art for Immigration reform
it goes on.

I guess what really blew me away, was just how up-front they are.

[machogirl]

“As our White House hosts repeated throughout the briefing, this is the beginning of a
conversation”

it’s not the end.

[GOPJ]

*want to use the arts to refute Republican talking points memo on healthcare (Luntz, I think) *want to use Art for Immigration reform

it goes on. I guess what really blew me away, was just how up-front they are.

If you look at the quality of the subsidized "art" in this country - you know they have to be political ( and very "upfront" ) because they sure aren't artists...

Ping

[GOPJ]

LOL - yes, the beginning.