Art World
Jane Chu Confirmed as New NEA Chairwoman
Benjamin Sutton
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Jane Chu, who was nominated by US President Barack Obama to be the next head of the National Endowment for the Arts back in February, was confirmed on June 12 by the US Senate, the Kansas City Star reports. Chu, who has been the president and CEO of Kansas City’s Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts since 2006, overseeing the completion of its construction and its grand opening, replaces another Midwesterner, St. Louis’s Rocco Landesman, who stepped down in 2012.
“I have no doubt that Jane will make Missouri proud,” Claire McCaskill, the democratic Senator from Missouri, said in a statement. “She’s spent years enriching the culture and strengthening the business community in Kansas City, and I’m looking forward to seeing her bring that same leadership to the national stage.”
“She is an outstanding leader who brings people together to get things done,” Kauffman Center board chairwoman Julia Irene Kauffman added.
Chu is the NEA’s 11th chairperson, and is expected to be officially given her new title by the White House in the coming days. The organization boasts an annual budget of $140 million; Chu’s salary in her new role will be $167,000 per year.
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