Dana Gioia - National Endowment for the Arts

Dana Gioia is Chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts. According to whitehouse.gov: Dana Gioia, an internationally acclaimed poet, critic, educator and former business executive, was appointed by the President and confirmed unanimously by the Senate in January 2003. Mr. Gioia has worked most recently as a poet and critic and is best known for his 1991 book Can Poetry Matter? about the role of poetry in contemporary culture. Musically trained, he served the past six years as classical music critic for San Francisco magazine and has been a long time commentator on American culture and literature for BBC Radio. Working to support his writing, Mr. Gioia was an executive for General Foods in New York for fifteen years, eventually becoming their Vice President of Marketing. He received a B.A. and a M.B.A. from Stanford University and a M.A. in Comparative Literature from Harvard University.

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Well-endowed art

Written by LeeWochner on

From: leewochner.com

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Dana Gioia has announced he’s leaving his post in January so that he can return to writing poetry. (The Chair is prohibited from getting published while in office.) While I wish him well, I have to say I’m sorry to see Gioia go; he’s done a terrific job, bringing Shakespeare to communities across the country that in previous years have gotten nothing for their arts dollars, getting private funding for projects that enrolled Iraq War veterans in documenting their experiences, and making friends and allies everywhere for a department that was used as a kickball for most of the 90’s.

Gioia is so highly respected that the venerated Onion put him on their front page today. Here’s the news of his last, and largest, project at the NEA.

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