Trump Has Yet to Award the National Arts Medals for 2016

[demmiblue]

For decades the United States has recognized its greatest artists — about a dozen each year — with a national medal, an award created by Congress and typically distributed each year by the president at a White House ceremony.

Since 1985, arts figures including Georgia O’Keeffe, Frank Capra and Ella Fitzgerald have received the National Medal of Arts while similar cultural achievement has been recognized by the National Humanities Medal, which presidents have awarded to the likes of Steven Spielberg, Anna Deavere Smith and Louise Glück.

But neither of those medals has been awarded since President Trump took office, the longest gap ever and one that again draws attention to the president’s often awkward relationship with the arts. The deadline for nominations for the 2016 arts medals, which have yet to be awarded, was in February 2017.

“I’m hoping that it is a delay as opposed to a policy decision because I think it’s a good thing for these awards to happen,” said Robert Lynch, the president and chief executive officer of Americans for the Arts, an advocacy organization.

The White House responded to questions about the medals by saying that planning is underway to distribute them as in years past. “We are currently evaluating candidates and will likely issue later this year,” said Lindsay E. Walters, a White House spokeswoman.

It does seem the delay may be simply a matter of an administrative backlog. The National Medal of Science, and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation have also not been awarded since 2016.

But the holdup around the arts medals is notable because of President Trump’s rocky relationship with the National Endowment for Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. His first proposed federal budget would have eliminated these agencies, which, in addition to promoting cultural programs, recommend candidates for the national medals to the president.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/15/arts/trump-has-not-yet-awarded-2016-national-arts-medals.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimesarts

[AlexSFCA]

1. the awards will be distributed based on politics

not art.

[tanyev]

2. Having trouble finding candidates willing to accept a medal from DOTUS?

[dalton99a]

3. "And the winner is... Ted Nugent!"

"Tremendous artist, just tremendous. Great guy!"

[SCantiGOP]

6. or Duck Dynasty

[Ilsa]

4. "Did you say, 'National Farts Medals?' I'm in!" said the Dotard. nt

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. The arts? Spanky doesn't give a crap about the arts,

except maybe for cheesy oil paintings of himself that he can hang in his hotels and golf clubs. Have you ever heard of him going to a play or a concert like the Obamas did? Ever seen him turn up at the Kennedy Center or any other concert hall? He did have a fake Renoir in his dictator-chic NYC apartment, which he insisted was genuine, although the real one was in a museum in Chicago. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/10/donald-trumps-fake-renoir He also wanted to borrow a Van Gogh from the Guggenheim for his private WH living quarters but they refused, offering a gold toilet instead. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/the-white-house-wanted-a-van-gogh-the-guggenheim-offered-a-used-solid-gold-toilet/2018/01/25/38d574fc-0154-11e8-bb03-722769454f82_story.html?utm_term=.19d675cfbb21 But Trump isn't an art connoisseur; he was interested in having paintings by famous artists so he could brag about having them.

The other problem with awarding arts medals is that it can be safely said that most people involved in the arts are not fans of Trump, so he wouldn't want to award medals to them, and they wouldn't want to accept them from him. He may have to award the medals to the likes of Ted Nugent and that guy who paints the kitschy pictures of Trump as Jesus or George Washington.

[handmade34]

7. the Arts make us human

and #notmypresident is lacking humanity so my guess is he has no intention, no need, no clue

[scarletwoman]

8. I can't imagine that any artist worthy of the award would want to get their medal from trump.

Frankly, I think the fewer expectations for normal procedures from this administration, the better.

Let the trump years stand out as an aberration, an error, as much as possible.