A Thankless Job Well-Done

After four skillful years at the helm of the National Endowment for the Arts, Jane Alexander is leaving that turbulent position. She deserves much of the credit for restructuring the endowment and for saving it from the many who tried so hard to kill it.

Throughout her tenure, Alexander, the sixth chairman in the agency’s 32-year history, conducted herself with dignity and grace, holding her opponents in Congress to the same high standards of behavior. She left a long acting career to take on the thankless NEA chairmanship, then fought bravely to establish what should have been apparent: the notion that government support for the arts is a benefit to the nation.

We hope that her message won’t be lost after her departure, and that the next chairman won’t have to go through such grueling trials.

Alexander’s successor will at least have a firm base from which to continue the tasks of the endowment, including direct assistance to arts organizations and artists and encouragement of community involvement in the arts. Federal NEA funding dropped during her tenure, but without her the agency would almost certainly have disappeared. To survive with limited funding, Alexander charted an innovative funding approach that emphasized partnerships and cross-disciplinary initiatives.

Perhaps Alexander will resume her acting career. She can be secure in knowing that she gave the performance of a lifetime in sustaining a national voice for the arts and artists.