Press Releases

Save America's Treasures Celebrates Historic Preservation Month with an Awareness Campaign

During the first week in May, the US travel industry celebrated its contributions to American life with National Tourism Week. Overlapping this celebration is Historic Preservation Month, which showcases the role of preservation in livable communities. Among the key constituencies in both celebrations are cultural and heritage organizations, which are significant players in increasing their community's competitiveness as places to live, work and visit. Learn More...

PCAH Announces the Haiti Cultural Recovery Project

The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) and the Smithsonian Institution with the government of Haiti has announced the Smithsonian Haiti Cultural Recovery project. Learn More...

PCAH and the First Lady Michelle Obama Orchestrate a Community Service Project

First Lady Michelle Obama and more than 50 congressional spouses, with students and representatives from Sitar Arts Center and Higher Achievement, spent a day of arts-based community service, painting a mural and planting a butterfly garden at the Marie H. Reed Community Learning Center in Adams Morgan, a neighborhood in Washington, DC. The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) designed the service project for its Honorary Chair First Lady Michelle Obama and spouses from the Congressional Club, among them Senatorial wife and PCAH member Jill Cooper Udall. The event came a day after the Congressional Club's annual luncheon. Learn More...

President Obama Appoints Additional Members to Serve on the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities

President Barack Obama appointed an additional six private members to the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities (PCAH), joining the twenty-five private members who were appointed earlier. The new members will be sworn in at a ceremony at the Supreme Court on February 24. The President's Committee is led by Co-Chairs George Stevens, Jr. and Margo Lion and Vice-Chair Mary Schmidt Campbell, and its members also include twelve federal members whose agencies have cultural programs, among them the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the U. S. Department of Education, the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, the National Gallery of Art and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Learn More...

Two New Research Studies Highlight Challenges and Opportunities in the Arts Sector

Two very different research studies were released recently, providing different perspectives on the health of the arts economy and its future vitality. Americans for the Arts announced the findings of its National Arts Index on the health of the arts sector and Heritage Travel Inc. announced its findings on the continuing strength of arts and heritage as drivers of travel spending.

Not surprisingly, the National Arts Index found that arts businesses fell into their biggest slump in more than a decade in 2008 with overall 4.2 percent decline for the arts sector from 2007 to 2008, The National Arts Index is the result of four years of research, examining 76 indicators, including music royalties, Broadway ticket sales, museum visits, philanthropy and the number of college art majors. Learn More...

Save America's Treasures Awards $9.5 Million in Preservation Grants

The last column from the ruins of the World Trade Center honored both the rescuers and those who had perished. Corrosion threatens its future, as well as the fading iron gall ink of the less imposing 18th century Friendly Association Papers. These Quaker documents are a rare window on an experiment to foster peace between colonists and native peoples during an intense period of frontier bloodshed. Although separated by more than 200 years, both are witnesses to key chapters in U.S. history and are part of a larger fabric of objects, documents, collections, structures and places that will be restored and conserved this year with forty-one awards totaling $9.5 million from Save America's Treasures (SAT). Learn More...

PCAH Seeks Nominations for 2010 Coming Up Taller Awards

The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities is inviting nominations for its Coming Up Taller Awards, which recognize and reward excellence in after-school and out-of-school arts and humanities programs. Award recipients receive $10,000 each, an individualized plaque and an invitation to attend the annual Coming Up Taller Leadership Enhancement Conference. The President's Committee encourages programs initiated by museums, libraries, performing arts organizations, universities, colleges, arts centers, community service organizations, schools, businesses, and eligible government entities to send in a nomination. Learn More...

First Lady Michelle Obama Presents 2009 Coming Up Taller Awards at White House Ceremony

First Lady Michelle Obama presented the 2009 Coming Up Taller awards (CUT) at a ceremony in the State Dining Room of the White House on November 4. Groups from 19 communities in the U.S., Mexico, China and Egypt were honored for their outstanding arts and humanities programs that celebrate the creativity of young people, providing them with new learning opportunities and a chance to contribute to their communities. Learn More...

President Obama Appoints Members to Serve on the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities

President Barack Obama appointed 25 members to the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, who will join PCAH Co-Chairs George Stevens, Jr. and Margo Lion and Vice-Chair Mary Schmidt Campbell, who were appointed earlier. Its members also include twelve federal members whose agencies have cultural programs, such as the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the U. S. Department of Education, the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, the National Gallery of Art and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Learn More...

Co-Chairman Margo Lion Helps Kick-Off Lights on After School

President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities (PCAH) Co-Chairman Margo Lion joined Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and other officials in a national kick-off for the Lights On Afterschool annual celebration. With more than 7,500 communities participating from across the nation, Lights On Afterschool is a project of the Afterschool Alliance designed to showcase and draw attention to afterschool programs. Learn More...

PCAH and Library of Congress Premiere the World Digital Library in the U.S.

Dr. James Billington, Librarian of Congress, and Rachel Goslins, PCAH Executive Director, hosted the U.S. premiere of the World Digital Library (WDL) at the Library of Congress. Following its official launch at UNESCO's Paris headquarters in April with representatives of 192 nations present, the American unveiling of the World Digital Library featured local dignitaries from Mexico, China and other partners, as well as presentations by local high school students on how they use this unique online resource in their advanced placement history and social studies classes. Learn More...

New Leaders Appointed by President Obama to the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities

President Barack Obama appointed George Stevens, Jr. and Margo Lion to serve as co-chairs of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. To serve as Vice-Chair the President appointed Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell. Each of these distinguished appointments is exemplary of this Administration's belief that the arts and humanities are at the core of a vital society. Learn More...

Mata Ortiz Pottery Exhibit Opens at the
Mexican Cultural Institute with Support from PCAH

Mata Ortiz potters are extraordinary artisans whose work reflects cultural influences drawn from a 1,000 years of traditions found in the Southwestern U.S. and Sonoran Mexico. The President's Committee is helping to support an exhibition of 43 works by several families and individuals who are master craftsmen of the Mata Ortiz style at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C , August 15 to October 17. Learn More...

Enthusiastic Audiences in Peru Applaud PCAH's AFI Project 20/20

In June, AFI Project: 20/20 completed a trip to Peru, which was one of eight countries and U.S. cities that the program's twelve American and International filmmakers have visited since last fall's debut at AFI FEST. Sold out screenings, workshops with students and discussions with audiences are typical for these filmmakers as they travel to film festivals, universities and cultural centers in the U.S. and overseas. Learn More...

2009 Coming Up Taller Semifinalists

The President's Committee announces the 50 Coming Up Taller award semifinalists selected from more than 400 applications submitted from across the country. Learn More...