US President Joe Biden has appointed Lady Gaga as co-chair of the POTUS' Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, a board that will advise The White House on matters of cultural policy.
The committee was created in 1982 by Ronald Reagan and serves as an advising committee to the White House on many cultural issues, including recommendations to the president and to the heads of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
President Biden restored this important committee last September, as it was disbanded in August 2017, during President Trump's campaign, when its members resigned in protest following the rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Here's the statment from the White House:
"Lady Gaga is known for her philanthropy and staunch support of LGBTQI+ rights and mental health. She has traveled with President Biden to support the It’s On Us campaign to combat campus sexual assault, has worked tirelessly over the years to advocate for equality, and has been an outspoken champion of mental health awareness. At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, she curated a televised concert to benefit the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, helping raise over $128 million. Alongside her mother Cynthia Germanotta, she founded and leads Born This Way Foundation, which supports the mental health of young people and works with them to build a kinder and braver world. Since its inception, the Foundation has demonstrated the transformative power of kindness and its impact on mental health through youth-driven initiatives, research-based programming, and high-level partnerships."
The mission of the newly restored PCAH includes how the arts and humanities sectors can positively impact community well-being, equity, economic development, public health, education, civic engagement, and climate change across the United States.
Here's the full list of members:
- Bruce Cohen, Co-Chair
- Lady Gaga, Co-Chair
- Jon Batiste, Member
- Constance M. Carroll, Member
- George Clooney, Member
- Philip J. Deloria, Member
- M. Angélica Garcia, Member
- Jennifer Garner, Member
- Nora Halpern, Member
- Steve Israel, Member
- Marta Kauffman, Member
- Ricky Kirshner, Member
- Troy Kotsur, Member
- Katie McGrath, Member
- Laura Penn, Member
- Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya, Member
- Arnold Rampersad, Member
- Shonda Rhimes, Member
- Kimberly Richter Shirley, Member
- Horacio Sierra, Member
- Anna Deavere Smith, Member
- Joe Walsh, Member
- Kerry Washington, Member
- Pauline Yu, Member
You can read the full statement here.
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