Sallyport - The Magazine of Rice University - Winter 2002

Music Dean Tapped to Lead NEA - Through the Sallyport
Winter 2002
VOL.58, NO.2
Music Dean Tapped to Lead NEA
President Bush has taken one of our deans. While that may not be good
news for Rice, it certainly is wonderful news for the country. On
September 19, the president announced his intention to nominate
Michael Hammond, dean of Rice’s Shepherd School of Music, to chair
the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and Hammond’s
nomination was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on
December 20.
“America will gain an eloquent,
dedicated spokesman for the arts in
the appointment of Michael
Hammond as the eighth chair of the
National Endowment for the Arts,”
said Rice president Malcolm Gillis.
“For 15 years, Michael Hammond
has been to the Shepherd School of
Music what Edgar Odell Lovett
was to Rice as a whole. Both are
examples of leaders of great vision
and integrity.”
Hammond succeeds Bill Ivey, a
Dean Michael Hammond
folklorist and musician. “I am
honored by the Senate’s
confirmation of President Bush’s nomination of me as the chairman of the
National Endowment for the Arts,” Hammond said. “As Americans, we are
all heirs to an incredibly rich and diverse artistic and cultural heritage. It is
essential, particularly at this difficult period in our history, to draw support
and inspiration from that heritage and to encourage and support the finest
work of our own time. The Endowment for the Arts is committed to these
tasks. I shall work to increase its role in making the arts an ever-more
valuable part of our lives, connecting us to the past, illuminating the
present, and inspiring our future. I will advocate especially for policies and
practices that enhance the experience of our young people by giving them
the insights and skills that lead to understanding and participation in the
arts.”
The NEA was created in 1965 and, with a budget of almost $105 million, is
the largest single funder of the nonprofit arts sector. The NEA offers
educational programs, preservation, and fellowships and has awarded
115,000 grants in all 50 states. Examples include grants to winners of the
National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in fiction and poetry, funding
for the Public Broadcasting series Great Performances, and the design of
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Hammond has served as dean of the music school at Rice since 1986,
leading it to its standing as one of the finest university-based music schools
in the nation. He wrote the architectural program for Rice’s new music
building, Alice Pratt Brown Hall, and has served on the university’s
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