Some Quotes from the Lecture:

“The vogue word in the vocabulary of education has become ‘accountability,’ and the essence of that is ‘measurement.’ Math and science and reading results are measurable, but how do you score, with absolute objectivity, a child’s ability to learn to dance or tootle a horn or emote onstage?”

“When children take training in some performance art—music, dance, drama—does cognitive improvement take place in their brains? For example, it’s obvious that some kids with a knack for learning to play a musical instrument also have a knack for mathematics. Does that mean that studying one actually helps the other?”

“The incentive to practice instills a habit of discipline in students that will be needed in the workplace, and thereby may help American graduates compete in global markets.”

“That’s why some of us who seek to discover how the study of the arts affect the brain would do well to open our own minds to the hidden treasure in the arts. By encouraging some study beforehand—or even by using new technology to heighten understanding while the show is on—we take audience members into the artists’ confidence, thereby enriching the receptive experience of what is created onstage or on the screen or in the air.”

About William Safire:

William Safire, winner of the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary, joined the New York Times in April 1973 as a political columnist. He now writes a Sunday column, “On Language,” which has appeared in the New York Times Magazine since 1979. This column on grammar and usage has led to the publication of books and makes him the most widely read writer on the English language. Before joining the Times, Mr. Safire was a senior White House speechwriter for President Nixon. He had previously been a radio and television pro-ducer, a U.S. Army correspondent, and began his career as a reporter for a profiles column in the New York Herald Tribune. From 1955 to 1960, Mr. Safire was a public relations executive in New York City. He was responsible for bringing Mr. Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev together in the 1959 Moscow “kitchen debate.” In 1968, he left to join the campaign of Richard Nixon. He is the author of four novels, including Freedom, a novel of Lincoln and the Civil War. His diction-ary, The New Language of Politics, has helped two generations of politicians and voters understand one another. His anthology of great speeches, Lend Me Your Ears, is the best seller in that field. Mr. Safire was born in 1929 and attended Syracuse University; a dropout after two years, he returned a generation later to deliver the commencement address and is now trustee. He has served as a member of the Pulitzer Board, and is now chair-man and chief executive of the Dana Foundation, a philanthropic organization supporting brain sci-ence, immunology, and arts education.

About the lecture:

Nancy Hank served as president of Americans for the Arts (formerly the American Council for the Arts) from 1968 to 1969, when she was appointed chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, a position she served through 1977. During her eight-year tenure at the National Endowment for the Arts, the agency's budget grew 1,400 percent. Until her death 1983, Nancy Hanks worked hard to bring national prominence to the arts. The Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy was established in 1988 to honor the memory of Nancy Hanks and to provide an opportunity for public discourse at the highest levels on the importance of the arts and culture to the nation's well-being.

Transcript of William Safire's lecture, for the 2006, 19th annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy.