National Endowment for the Arts becomes more national, less elite

I heard an interview tonight with Dana Giola, the newest chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.

The NEA has been criticized a lot in the past - sometimes validly, other times not - as being an institution that funds art with a very limited appeal and in some cases art that offends a large majority of the US population. Giola's focus is the funding of art that appeals to a large portion of the population while not appealing to the lowest common demoninator. More importantly, his idea is to take art to parts of the US away from the large population and arts centers such as New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

Here's the link to the
Chairman's Forum at the NEA.