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Buffy Wicks -- Was she in a James Bond movie!

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On May 12th, more than 60 artists and creative organizers engaged in civic participation, community development, education, social justice activism, and philanthropy came together for a White House briefing on Art, Community, Social Justice, National Recovery. …

Each of the sponsors of this meeting had been in contact with Yosi Sergant who was then an Associate with the White House Office of Public Liaison (and is now Communications Director of the National Endowment for the Arts.) Once we understood that a larger meeting would enable us to access more advisors and policymakers, it made sense to combine forces and invitation lists.

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This group was inspired to further develop an idea that struck them during the briefing: the establishment of a new “Department of Alternative Thinking.”

The DoAT would be a volunteer brain trust/think tank made up of the country’s most creative and maverick minds (thinkers, artists, innovators, and inventors). It would be set up as a free, public service to the White House and other government departments. The purpose of the DoAT is to integrate creative brain consultation (sideways thinking) into every aspect of governmental decision-making (whether it is the arts, the economy, healthcare, energy and environmental policy, international policy, national security, infrastructure, NASA, education, etc).

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Administration backs off NEA call

The Obama administration sought to distance itself Tuesday from a simmering controversy swirling around a National Endowment for the Arts conference call that appeared to urge artists to endorse White House positions.


The administration’s response followed a renewed assault from conservatives on Monday after the right-leaning blog Big Hollywood posted a full transcript and audio recording of the call.


“The point of the call was to encourage voluntary participation in a national service initiative by the arts community,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. “To the extent there was any misunderstanding about what the NEA may do to support the national service initiative, we will correct it.”


“We regret any comments on the call that may have been misunderstood or troubled other participants,” Earnest continued. “We are fully committed to the NEA's historic mission, and we will take all steps necessary to ensure that there is no further cause for questions or concerns about that commitment.”


The conference call, which took place in August, was organized Michael Skolnick, the political director for hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons. He was joined by Buffy Wicks, the deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, and Yosi Sergant, then-director of communications for the NEA. Skolnick says on the call that he was “asked by folks at the White House and folks at the NEA” to “help bring together the independent artists community around the country,” a statement that was not corrected or denied by the government employees on the call.


Wicks later told the NEA artists listening in that “we’re going to come at you with some specific asks here.”


Sergant followed by explaining he “would encourage you to pick something, whether it’s health care, education, the environment, you know, there’s four key areas that the corporation has identified as the areas of service.”


“My ask would be to apply artistic, you know, your artistic creative community’s utilities and bring them to the table,” Sergant said. “This is a chance for us to partner with the White House and the Corporation for National and Community Service along [with] the arts community in immediately affecting some change in our communities.”


The NEA said Tuesday that Sergant had been “relieved of his duties” in a detailed statement separating the agency from the call.


“The former NEA Director of Communications acted unilaterally and without the approval or authorization of then-Acting Chairman Patrice Walker Powell,” said NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. “This call was not a means to promote any legislative agenda and any suggestions to that end are simply false. Rather, the call was to inform members of the arts community of an opportunity to become involved in volunteerism.”


Right-leaning media outlets have reported on the six-week-old call before, but the posting of the full transcript and the accompanying audio refueled the controversy, and prompted outrage on the right Monday.


“Imagine how some of these artists would feel if their tax dollars were used by the Bush administration to pay for war propaganda,” said Max Pappas, vice president for policy at FreedomWorks, a conservative organization that helped organize the September 12 anti-tax protest in Washington. “It's important to remember it goes both ways, which is why both sides should agree tax dollars should not pay for partisan propaganda. Eventually, your tax dollars will be funding something you don't support.”


“In a time of extreme budget problems, there is a real question whether or not something like the NEA should be funded at all,” added Bill Wilson, president of Americans for Limited Government, a conservative group that opposes the expansion of government. “But if it becomes nothing more than a propaganda arm for Obama, or any president, clearly it serves no legitimate public purpose and should be eliminated.”

The conference call was a central topic in the conservative media Monday.


“In a nutshell, what you have here is the White House using the NEA to more or less demand that they publicly support Obama and his health care and his agenda. Now, the NEA gets all their grant money from the federal government. They were threatened here vaguely that money might stop,” conservative host Rush Limbaugh said on his radio show. “Service disguised as advancing an Obama agenda, propaganda run out of Valerie Jarrett’s office in the White House by Buffy Wicks.”


The influential Drudge Report website also prominently linked to the Big Hollywood post, which quickly became one of the most talked about items on right-leaning blogs.


“The White House has tried to campaign hard for its health-care overhaul, but now allegations have arisen that the Obama administration abused its power by pushing the National Endowment for the Arts into campaigning for it as well,” wrote Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey.


“There are so many funky things going on with Obama and the people he surrounds himself with that it’s hard to keep up,” added Andy McCarthy on National Review’s blog The Corner. “Needless to say, if something like this happened during the Bush administration, there would already be congressional hearings and screams for the appointment of a special prosecutor.”


In his statement, Landesman insisted that the call “was completely unrelated to NEA’s grantmaking, which is highly regarded for its independence and integrity.”


“The NEA is a successful, independent federal agency that has supported the best of the arts and arts education for nearly 45 years,” he said. “We take our responsibility to the American public very seriously and are committed to upholding this public trust.”


Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/090....

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“My ask would be to apply artistic, you know, your artistic creative community’s utilities and bring them to the table,” Sergant said. “This is a chance for us to partner with the White House and the Corporation for National and Community Service along [with] the arts community in immediately affecting some change in our communities.”