Presidential Aspirants Offer 'Pledge for the Arts'

[Jerseycoa]

Two weeks after the American Arts Alliance (AAA) launched a bid to persuade all major-party presidential candidates to sign a "Pledge for the Arts" -- a chance to explain how their administration would promote and support American culture -- six contenders for the top job have agreed to sign on.

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The campaign of Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), while stating that it "does not sign campaign pledges," nevertheless released a statement last week in which the candidate expresses his unequivocal support for the arts. "The arts play an essential role in American life, and as president, I would nourish the arts within American education and culture."

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Last week, Back Stage reported that Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the winner of the Iowa caucuses , was the first presidential aspirant to sign the pledge. Since then, the campaigns of Gen. Wesley Clark, Gov. Howard Dean (D-Vt.), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) have all agreed to do the same.

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At the beginning of January, the NHCFA asked each Democratic presidential candidate for an arts policy position paper and learned that the Kerry campaign, along with the campaign of Gen. Wesley Clark and the now-terminated campaign of Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.), had already developed one.

Source: Back Stage, January 29, 2004