Is Obama using Arts for Political Purposes?

This from Big Hollywood:

I was invited by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to take part in a conference call that invited a group of rising artist and art community luminaries “to help lay a new foundation for growth, focusing on core areas of the recovery agenda - health care, energy and environment, safety and security, education, community renewal.”

Attending the meeting/conference call were:

Yosi Sergant, the Director of Communications for the National Endowment for the Arts; Buffy Wicks, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement; Nell Abernathy, Director of Outreach for United We Serve; Thomas Bates, Vice President of Civic Engagement for Rock the Vote; and Michael Skolnik, Political Director for Russell Simmons.

Significant in this group were the Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement and the Director of Outreach for United We Serve. If you do not know, United We Serve is the White House Effort to organize a National Service Movement built around Americorps.

According to the NEA website, the NEA's purpose is to:

The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Endowment is the nation's largest annual funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.

I do not see how the purpose of the NEA matches anyone desire to steer the organization to further "health care, energy and environment, safety and security, education, community renewal."

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