Core77

William Drenttel's got a wonderfully impassioned essay up on Design Observer, calling for new imperatives and ambition for NEA, and offering up a bucketful of suggestions below the fold. Here are a couple sweet spots:

However, one discipline under the auspice of the NEA portfolio made little progress during these years: design (or, in the vocabulary of the NEA, the "design arts"). Design was not prioritized with major national initiatives; no designers serve on the NEA's advisory board, the National Council on the Arts; and only three designers (Viktor Schreckengost, Florence Knoll Bassett and Lawrence Halprin) out of 80 named for the National Medal of Arts during the Bush years. In fact, there were virtually no important design policy contributions enacted during the Bush Administration with the exception of Laura Bush's endorsement of the National Design Awards for the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.

[...]

Designers are deeply associated with the current generation of thinking around innovation and their services and expertise should be brought to the table at the NEA. Every study in recent memory has shown that the arts lie at the core of urban renewal and the economic well-being of our cities. And, as the research mounted by Dana Gioia had demonstrated, we are better citizens when the arts help us participate fully in our culture and democracy. But today there is a particular urgency--given the dramatic economic and political issues before us--in stepping forward to make significant and lasting change.

On the heals of last month's U.S. National Design Policy Summit, (indeed, Dori Tunstall chimes in on the Design Observer piece), there's much to think about in terms of a coordinated effort here. The notion of "official design policies" is cropping up all over the place--in many cities and countries around the world--and one could argue that the urgency and scale of some of the problems we're facing necessitates such an approach. Chime in on the comments.