Arts Advisors in the Kennedy White House

Bolstered by the suggestions in Heckscher’s report, Kennedy created plans and set goals for the arts council. On June 12, 1963, he signed Executive Order 11112, establishing the President’s Advisory Council on the Arts. This group, comprised of both private citizens and government officials, was tasked primarily to “survey and assess the needs and prospects of the various arts throughout the United States, the means used to encourage creative activity and to afford opportunity for participation in and appreciation and enjoyment of the arts, and the relative roles of governmental and non-governmental institutions in relation to the arts.”⁵

In a statement on the establishment of the committee, President Kennedy expressed his desire that the committee would fulfill its objectives, remarking that, “widespread public interest in the arts has not always been accompanied by adequate concern for the basic institutions of our cultural life.” Kennedy was cognizant of the need to cultivate interest in the arts among the nation’s youth as well as the need for the committee to acknowledge and reward outstanding artists and performers.⁶ Less than one month before his untimely death, President Kennedy expanded the Advisory Council from no more than thirty private citizens to forty. He also added the President of the National Gallery of Art, Paul Mellon, and the Chairman of the Trustees of the National Cultural Center, Roger L. Stevens, to the council.⁷

Kennedy's influence continued well beyond his term in office. The National Council on the Arts was established in 1964.8 In 1965, Congress and President Lyndon B. Johnson created the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.⁹ In 1982, President Ronald Reagan formed the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.¹⁰ The Kennedy Center continues to serve as an enduring symbol of President Kennedy's dedication to the advancement of the arts in American culture and society.