Rocco Landesman, the new chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, is setting off on a tour of arts organizations around the nation. In this article he also discusses the important role art has to play in an economic recovery, “they have a real economic impact in America…creating jobs and bringing in money…I can go to Congress and the administration and say, ‘The arts should be part of domestic policy, should be part of coming out of this recession, should be a part of the revitalization of our communities and neighborhoods…We need to move [arts] into the West Wing…in the place where they’re making decisions about economic initiatives…We need to be at the table with the grown-ups, and that means the West Wing.”

via NPR

“Michelle Obama has presented a Coming Up Taller award (which recognizes and supports outstanding after-school arts and humanities programs) from the President’s Committee on Arts and the Humanities to a Texas A&M student and an education curator for the University of Houston’s Blaffer Gallery in a White House ceremony.”

via The Houston Chronicle

A friend of mine passed this on to me and I think it translates well to anyone working in the arts. It’s a short, but powerful clip of Ira Glass discussing the importance of perseverance.
Here’s what he has to say.

Keep at it,
Agent Smith

8 feet of water + 15 days to sit = lots of damage….or if you’re a resilient artist, lots of inspiration.

Galveston’s DesignWorks bounces back after Ike | Fine Arts | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle.

Not in Houston, but close enough.

“The Bone House was Dan’s baby, the 12th house to embody his Phoenix Commotion’s wild mix of art, ecoconsciousness and serious attention to affordability — all in Huntsville. Dan and his crew had fashioned the strangely beautiful house out of things destined for the dump: scrap lumber, old signs, old T-shirts. Bottle caps covered one floor, wine corks another. Mosaics made of broken mirrors and old CDs glinted from the walls of the studio in back…

The “Phoenix” part used to be purely a metaphor about rebirth and reuse, he said. Now they had actual ashes to rise from.”

via Can the Bone House rise from the ashes? | Fine Arts | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle.

“Anne Wilkes Tucker, curator of photography at the MFAH, …said she strongly disagrees with those who attribute [photojournalist] Garcia’s success to dumb luck. “When Willie Mays was exactly in the outfield where the ball came down, that was not an accident,” she said. “Photojournalists are like athletes in that way.”

via Iconic shot of Obama began as just another assignment | Fine Arts | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle.

The guys who turned the Art League Houston bungalows into traffic-stopping art on Montrose are at it again. Hopefully this time with less impact on local traffic flow.

Gray: Inversion creators are back for more | Arts columnist | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle.

Douglas Britt brings to light some interesting administrative developments over at the University of Houston’s Blaffer Gallery…

Arts in Houston: Blaffer seeks new deputy director, calls terms of Vollmer’s departure ‘confidential’.

Congrats to Franklin Sirmans, the Menil Collection’s curator of modern and contemporary art ['NeoHooDoo' curator], for being chosen as a recipient of one the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation’s inaugural Gold Rush Awards.

via Arts in Houston: ‘NeoHooDoo’ curator gets Gold Rush nod.

Don’t give Joel Sandel that old canard about how it’s impossible to piece together an acting career in Houston unless you get hired as a company member at the Alley Theatre.

Sandel’s been doing just that for 20 years, chiefly as a mainstay at Main Street Theater, but with regular work at the Houston Shakespeare Festival and other companies — and only two gigs at the Alley, thank you very much.

Follow the link below to read the full article.

via Years of work made Sandel one of Houston’s top actors | Fine Arts | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle.