Panel

In the past several decades, questions have been raised about the value of the arts for a democratic culture. Of late, the debate on the role of the arts has become vitriolic. How has this come to pass and what danger, if any, does the idea of a politicized art present to the citizenry? Can the government support the arts while allowing for the integrity of an autonomous realm?

We have invited a group of individuals who have weighed in on this topic to help us think through these issues as we face the ’96 Presidential campaign.

Moderators
Joan Harris
Adonis Hoffmann

Participants
Alberta Arthurs, Rockefeller Foundation
William Bennett, writer
Michael Brenson, critic
Stanley Crouch, critic
Gerald Early, Washington University
Henry Louis Gates, Harvard University
Todd Gitlin, NYU
Anne Hollander, President of PEN
Robert Hughes, Time magazine
David Lehman, writer
Arthur Levitt, SEC
Norman Mailer, author
Carolyn Maloney, U.S. Congress
Salim Muwakil, In these Times
Arthur Penn, director
Frank Rich, New York Times
Jim Sleeper, Daily News
Wendy Steiner, University of Pennsylvania
Catherine Stimpson, McCarthur Foundation
Oliver Stone, film director
Particia Williams, Columbia Law School
George Wolfe, Public Theater