THE DIARY 06: Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson - The Power of Culture
When in 2021 President Joe Biden nominated Maria Rosario Jackson to lead the National Endowment of the Arts, he not only nominated a woman with a long and distinguished career bringing and promoting the arts in communities around the United States, but also made history, giving the position for the first time to a person of African American and Mexican American descent.
In these rapidly changing times, Jackson is particularly ready and fitted for the job. Jackson grew up in Los Angeles, the daughter of a postal service employee and a teacher, both determined to inculcate an appreciation for creativity and art in their children. Her city allowed her to grow in a diverse, multicultural environment and she is well aware of the power of the arts to create social change. “(My parents) wanted us to be proud of our origins and curious about the histories, struggles, and aspirations of other people, aware of our similarities, our differences, and our shared humanity,” Jackson has said. “I have brought those same values to the work I have done throughout my career as a professor, researcher, board member, advisor, and administrator committed to understanding and advancing how arts and culture help build healthy, opportunity-rich communities.
Created in 1965, the National Endowment of the Arts, an independent Federal Agency, is the largest funder of the arts and arts education in the United Estates. From theatre to dance, to poetry, music, literature, painting or cinema, it is an incredibly powerful engine for national and international culture, providing funds for a wide variety of projects that can go from the promotion of culture in rural areas to support for youth interested in creative writing or musical theatre.
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“If you look around the world and throughout the ages at strategies that have been intended to conquer, oppress, diminish, the first thing that is taken away is the authentic ability to make meaning and express, to create, to tell your own story, which is what arts and culture does.”
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Maria Rosario Jackson photo - via the National Endowment for the Arts
With deep roots in Urban Planning, working mostly with underserved communities, and a rich background in strategic planning, policy research and the intersections with philanthropy and on-the-ground efforts through government and non-profit organizations, Jackson understands that many think of art and culture as secondary when it comes to urgent needs. Dedicated to building healthy communities by elevating the role of arts culture and design. But she has a different point of view. “In order to really understand the community, its history, its aspirations, where it is in this moment, you also have to look at the culture expression as another layer or as a way of deepening your understanding of what’s going on there now, what’s happened in the past.”
Already making strives with her leadership, Dr. Jackson, who also chairs the National Council on the Arts, is working along with other NEA staff members continuing to focus efforts to strengthen local arts ecosystems throughout the country, expand equity and access to the arts, and advance arts and culture throughout the federal government. Building upon the NEA’s commitment to engagement with, and celebration of , Native arts, this month - in sync with National Native American Heritage Month - the NEA introduced the Equity Action Plan for fiscal years 2022-2026, which builds on the continued efforts to expand inclusion and equity to Native communities and tribal colleges and universities.
“For me it’s always been yet another dimension of how you begin to understand a group … if you look around the world and throughout the ages at strategies that have been intended to conquer, oppress, diminish, the first thing that is taken away is the authentic ability to make meaning and express, to create, to tell your own story, which is what arts and culture does.”
Among many other initiatives, The National Endowment of the Arts is a leading funder for The Herbie Hancock Institute’s National peer-to peer Education Program and invited students to perform at this year’s National Council on the Arts Meeting. https://hancockinstitute.org/education-program/peer-to-peer-program/.
photo above via Hancock Institute // National Peer-to-Peer All Star Jazz Sextet with Lisa Henry Right and Don Braden 3rd from Right Receive Standing Ovation from Roosevelt HS Students and Faculty, Sioux Falls.
