<b>JOEL WACHS</b>

If I ran the NEA I would:

1. Speak up for the arts! Tell our story. Creativity is our nation’s greatest natural resource.

2. Mobilize the arts community. Nobody can advocate for the arts more powerfully and more eloquently than artists themselves.

3. Put the arts back in our schools. Make the arts accessible to every American.

4. Integrate the arts into every department and agency. There isn’t a government program or project that couldn’t be enhanced by a cultural component.

5. Insist that arts funding not be seen as a handout. Artists have something of enormous value to offer society -- their talent and creativity -- for which they should be both recognized and compensated.