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Quincy Jones has officially called for President Obama (President Obama!) to create a Secretary of the Arts position in the U.S. cabinet. There’s an online petition for the cause, which has 170,350 signatures (and counting).
Enjoy our list of nominees for the position:
1. Tom Waits
(No explanation needed.)
2. Rick Derringer
Since Bush already claimed Lee Greenwood. (Watch this video.)
3. Makoto Fujimura
A contemporary artist with a traditional Japanese flair, appointed to the National Council on the Arts in 2003? Perfect!
4. Ellen DeGeneres
Some might argue that she’s not technically an artist. But she’s hilarious, and let's be honest—the cabinet needs to lighten up a little.
4. Bruce Springsteen
You know, the workingman’s artist.
5. Willard Wigan
So what if he’s not American? He can make a sculpture inside the eye of a needle! He even made one for the Obama Family—which was obviously a hint.
6. Ornette Coleman
He won a Pulitzer Prize for music and fits the bill all around.
7. Tim Gunn
This decision is based more on his mentoring role on Project Runway than his job as chief creative officer at Liz Claiborne. Plus, he’s got a whole day named after him (April 27) in Palm Desert, Calif.
8. Quincy Jones
We’re not saying he has an ulterior motive.
9. Martin Scorsese
Ol’ Marty founded the World Cinema Foundation, he’s won an Academy Award, he received a Kennedy Center Honor, and he was awarded the French Legion of Honor. Let’s put another feather in his cap.
10. owen the owen.
This Great American Artist illustrated Paste’s own An Indie
Rock Alphabet Book. We think it'd be fun to call him Secretary owen the owen.
Who would you nominate for the position?
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My pics for SA, thought Tom Waits would also be my first choice...
• ?uestlove
• Tom Robbins
• Wynton Marsalis
Also, can I recommend Eugene Mirman as Secretary of Comedy?
I don't know. Do we really want the government interfering in the arts? Even if we feel like an Obama administration would be great for the arts and give them carte blanche, after the last eight years, could anyone confidently say that the next presidents would be as good? I mean, what exactly would Secretary of the Arts do? Decide who gets funded and who doesn't? Decide what's appropriate and what isn't? Decide which performances are subsidized and which aren't?
That said, I'd nominate Peter Coyote because he's got the experience with his work on the California Arts Council 30 years ago that ultimately changed the way art is funded in this country.
If not him, how about someone really controversial like Amiri Baraka or Brian Wilson or the ghost of Tupac?
I wholeheartedly suggest Tom Robbins, stoned of course, Cormac McCarty, Bob Dylan, Steve Martin, Brett & Rennie Sparks (better known as The Handsome Family) and writer, film maker, painter singer-songwriter, political satirist Dan Bern as the Secretary.