PLEASE EXCUSE THIS INTERRUPTIONTO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAM

I had hoped to shadow one of my co-workers today so I could bring you another installment of What DODAD (What does the opera do all day?). But winter had something else in mind for opera staff--that something being a wannabe blizzard and bronchitis. (Indeed, Cleveland is a giant snowglobe of germs.)

So, instead I spent the day prowling the web and Tweeting a lot. I came across this article about artists urging Obama to establish a Secretary of Culture position. Quincy Jones is at the forefront of promoting the idea.

" 'Whether you call it a minister of culture or not, it would be wonderful to have someone with a policy role to coordinate arts education, cultural diplomacy and support for arts organizations. Those activities are not coordinated but divided among many offices,' said Michael Kaiser, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts."

'Right now, we have an ecology of the arts that is very scary. We need a proactive person, or agency, that is going to talk to foundations, the state agencies, the organizations about this situation. Right now, we are leaving the arts organizations to themselves,' he said.

But, Kaiser said: 'I am not optimistic that Congress would create another department. It is expensive, it is another bureaucracy -- but we need coordination.'"

Interesting. Just another negative effect of the recession is that people start thinking arts are a luxury. Let's say it together now: The arts are NOT a luxury!