President Obama apologizes to me!

Well... technically to all of us... cough, cough...

Hi Lenny,

I am pleased to share the following breaking news.

President Obama issued a personal, hand-written apology for his self-described “glib” remark that he made on January 30^th, concerning the pursuit of art history degrees and jobs at a manufacturing plant in Wisconsin. The apology, which was recently made public, was addressed specifically to University of Texas at Austin Professor Ann Collins Johns after she submitted a comment through the White House website. Every day, we see the power of advocacy in making a difference. Thanks to citizen-advocates like Professor Collins Johns and the 5,300 Arts Action Fund advocates who signed our online petition to the President, our collective voices were heard.

Please know that Americans for the Arts Action Fund sent its petition to the White House with our special thanks to the President for issuing his apology. We also underscored our request for him to meet with arts and economic policy experts, representing both the nonprofit and for-profit arts industries, to brief him on the untapped potential of these industries to help improve the economic growth, jobs creation, and trade surplus of the United States.

Thank you for your involvement in the Americans for the Arts Action Fund.

Keep advocating,

Nina Ozlu Tunceli
Executive Director