Lady Gaga announced as co-chair of President’s Committee on Arts and Humanities
It has been announced that Lady Gaga is the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) co-chair. Notably, the board disbanded during the Donald Trump administration and was restored by the incumbent Joe Biden in 2022. The new committee also features the likes of Jennifer Garner, Shonda Rhimes, Jon Batiste and Anna Deavere Smith.
This fresh 24-member group also includes the likes of historian Philip J. Deloria and Ralph Ellison biographer Arnold Rampersad. Gaga will be co-chairing alongside Bruce Cohen, with Tsione Wolde-Michael serving as executive director.
The PCAH was established by Ronald Reagan in 1982 to advise the President on cultural policy and provide recommendations to the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
In 2017, then-members of the committee penned a resignation letter following the Charlottesville riots, condemning President Trump’s “support of the hate groups and terrorists who killed and injured fellow Americans.”
Trump then threatened to disband the committee and the National Endowment for the Humanities, claiming they are “not a responsible way to spend American tax dollars”.
After the resignations, The White House also released a statement saying: “Earlier this month it was decided that President Trump will not renew the Executive Order for the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH), which expires later this year.” Authority for the committee then expired on September 30th under the provisions of Executive Order 13708.
On September 30th, 2022, President Biden re-established the PCAH by Executive Order 14804. The restored committee will be funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services whilst also raising money for itself.
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