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President Biden Issues Executive Order on Promoting the Arts, Humanities, and Museum and Library Services

  • by Elliott A Pollard

Last Friday afternoon, President Biden—following presidents before him—welcomed October as National Arts and Humanities Month. 

With the announcement, President Biden issued an Executive Order on Promoting the Arts, Humanities, and Museum and Library Services that does two noteworthy things. The executive order:

  1. Re-constitutes the President’s Committee on Arts and Humanities, which was disbanded during the Trump administration after all its members resigned in protest of the administration’s reaction to the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville. The newly constituted committee is charged with raising the visibility of and building public support for the arts and humanities as well as museums and libraries. The committee will also serve in an advisory capacity to the president as well as to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
  2. Recognizes the essential role that the arts and humanities as well as museums and libraries can play in addressing the administration’s broader policy goals, particularly economic development, building resilience in historically underserved communities, tackling the climate crisis, preserving cultural heritage, and lifting up more and diverse voices. What’s more, the executive order urges coordination with the NEA, NEH, and IMLS across all federal agencies with the goal of advancing these broader policy goals. 

As NEH Chair Shelley Lowe (Navajo) has noted, “We are thrilled that the Biden-Harris Administration has chosen to recognize the essential importance of the humanities to the health and success of our nation and communities by designating this month of observation and reconvening a presidential committee to augment NEH’s efforts to reach all Americans.”

We look forward to learning about the president’s appointments to the newly reconstituted committee, and we are hopeful that it will help raise the visibility of humanities work unfolding across the country. We are also eager to see the committee join the broader humanities community in its efforts to harness the power of the humanities to support communities across the country in confronting their most pressing challenges.