Battiata, Mary

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University of Rhode IslandDigitalCommons@URICurran, Edward: Humanities ChairmanNomination Hearing (1985)Education: National Endowment for the Arts andHumanities, Subject Files I (1973-1996)2016Curran, Edward: Humanities ChairmanNomination Hearing (1985): News Article 05Mary BattiataFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/pell_neh_I_21This News Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Education: National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, Subject Files I(1973-1996) at DigitalCommons@URI. It has been accepted for inclusion in Curran, Edward: Humanities Chairman Nomination Hearing (1985) byan authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@URI. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@etal.uri.edu.Recommended CitationBattiata, Mary, "Curran, Edward: Humanities Chairman Nomination Hearing (1985): News Article 05" (2016). Curran, Edward:Humanities Chairman Nomination Hearing (1985). Paper 36.http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/pell_neh_I_21/36http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/pell_neh_I_21/36appeal a Park Service rejection of the disputed portion of the mural and to receive official certification for the tax credit. Wynmark - last month spent $10,000 to paint over illusionary -architectural effects designed by noted muralist Richard Haas cin the ' front of the building. The Park Ser-vice threatened to withhold the tax credit·if the artwork was not wiped out, on grounds that it changed the historic character of the building. - After a work crew painted the front of the 10-story ·building a lleige -tone, the Park Service certified the tax credit. Mark G. Griffin, <me of Wynmark's owners, said he had never heard of the provision allow-ing for a 30-month period to win certification for the tax credit after it had been l\llbmitted -to the hter-nal Revenue Service. "If that -were the' case, I wish someone would h,ave told us," he said: Rogers ackn·owit:dged that "it's probal?.ly true we didn~t give him that information. We usually think a See MURAL, D8', Col, a Circus Contor_tionisi Rudolph Delmonte -·By Michael Kernan W~shington Post Staff Writer Let's see now. You do a back-bend, and when your hands are all the way down on -the floor be-hind your heels, you slowly lift -your legs up so you're standing -on your hands. Then you bend your legs at the hip so th~y ex-tend over your head like a roof. Now you bend your knees-you still with me?-and curl.up until you can tuck your feet under your arms. Then you start doing push-ups. ''- -Rudolph Delmonte is a con-tortionist with Ringling Bros. ' anti Barnum & Bailey Circus. He i is 23 years old, and the first _ thing he says is that he is not double-jointed. -Actually, that isn't the ques-tion_. The question is whetl)er he has any joints at all or is just made of muscle. -"I can't explain the moves;" 1he said. He sketched on a table top with his finger. "My legs are here, my top is here, and my ~rms, like it makes a zigzag . . ." He starts off his act with a one~handed handsta·nd, simplic~ ity itself, and then he balan_ces oh a 3-foot-long wand and does the handstand. on that. Then he -balance:> a small ladder on one of its legs and does.the handstand See CONTORTIONIST, D2, Col 1 ·Curran Backed .._ For NEH\i ·"' ·white -House to S h . N . . ... -., u m1t ·om1nat1on;f -. -~ By Mary Battiata Washington Post St~ff Writer -' -Th-e White House yesterday pJlt an end to months of speculation at_re rumor_ by announcing its intenti~d to nominate Peace Corps Deputy Director Edward A. Curran as chairman of the National -Endow-ment for_ the Humanities. ..- _ Curran, 51, had been considere<l the most controversial of the half-dozen names that circulated in re-cent months as possible successor8 •) . " I I 1 ., to .former chairman William Ben~ nett, who- left the endowment ear- - 1 lie_r this year to become secretary , of education. - · · Curran made headlines three years ago as director of the Nation· al Institute of Education when _ lie -wrote to President Reagan sugge~­ing the abolition of his own agencf; Curran clashed with his-boss, -f~~ , mer secret .. ry of education· Teit# Bell, over the incident and resigl\fd soon after. The letter, howevef; earned him praise from some co~ See HUMANITIES, D2, Col. 1 ,':'. ~<:- 1.~ -. '· EDWARD A. CURRAN t . ~ -r .,.-.Ai-__ .,_ ''.">:· 1~fi:::lf.~~~:~~~~: :JiiC.teeth, while he whirls hoops on. his arms. . · -=:.Jfhe- contortions are' so bizarre that you tend to forget how strong -ll'e':1s: l1\' fact they would be almost mckening to look at· were it not fQr · •!¥'·excruciatingly slow grace with .:which he· moves. ·it is a kind of ballet :~'ruttabted in one body. · · ;;';1 did go ·to ballet school ~at 11," -.~.:said: "I did that for seven years ,~d jazz da~cing for eight years." ~yj,C;Eive years ago he was run.ner-~p ;11(m Mr. Teen-age America m weightlifting. It' is not in the. least -c,~ing. . ' w'·A• :: ~'\·•my mother . taught me every-01_~g -I know. She's from Holland, . -•.@4 she niet my father· here in the ;~trcus. in 1948; He was a lion train-;~~but.they were divorced .and my . !,fatlier. took the act to another cir-Jcifs.' So she worked with me." . 1~Y•: .. _ ·o I h :, · ia:\una e monte, w o was a con--;j~)'tionist and showgirl until 1956, · ;~s .in the wardrobe department ~<itien not ·coaching· her. son. It ·was I Ci1 fli1 tu1 fly wi an · acj !!~~. who made him ·the spangled :cai;e that ·would. have cost, as· he :f~s. $4,000 if- ·ordered from out- · " ··~1tle, , · . · t _ ~~inought up iri Sarasota, Fla~. the -;;tr#ltional winter home of Ringlfng -.. Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, the :_;~g. De.lmonte has been part of .·~-~·circus as1ong as he ·can remem-· '·:tie[, As a kid he worked in the Cir-•. .::IJS HaU ·of Fame there, and he has 1;atway_sJived in its exotic world: the ··h'.~ HUl\JANITIES, From· Dl '<. ~*·fyative · columnists and lobbying .;.qbps .. '. . . . ... , .• ~'.:.Mis stint at the Peace Corps has ~n stormy, according · to friends ~·llii.<l colleagues, who sliy that he often :t@S.·beep at odds with Peace Corps ~·=:r Loret M .. R~ppe ~n agency ?d'-leW& of Clirrari's nolriination was -,~led with. reserve by a rimklllg ._'~\lbli!=SnJawrnaker on ,the Senate -ffe!Ritnitt~ ~lha~ must approve Cur-. rlin's name ~fore sendi,tg' it .on ito _Ple:fult Sen.ate. . . . · · . -. [, ~ have n~t made up my mind on iMt. Curran and will examine his cre-·.dtwials . wheii .he comes before the (:Qmmittee," said Sen: Robert T. -stafford~(R-Vt.); a member of the Labor.aiid; lluman Resources Com-mittee. · · · President Reagan reportedly had, approved the Curran nomination at ' u i b t 0 i least two months ago, but it had been organizatiQn are interested in learn-stalled by. administration moderates ing more about Curran's views. searching for a less controversial, · "We hope for in-depth Senate · mQre .moderate choice. Leaders of · hearings," Phillips said. "[Curran], of the museu'm, university and scholarly course, is· different· from' previous groups that r.epresent many of the NEH nominees in that he does not recipients of endowment money had . come · from higher education and expre8sed fears that Curran lacked. does not have a demonstrated knowl-the experience and- tempera~ent edge of public programs that do not required to preside over the endow- involve schqols." Phillips described ment. the nomination ·as "sensitive" be-Staff ord himself had put a hold on cause of the great discretion t~e en-the nommaqon for a .few weeks by dowin~nt's chairman exercises over notifying the White House that he funding priorities; .. · had questions abo'ut Curran's philos- The National Endowment for the '' ophie~, according to a Stafford . Humanities is a federal agency with. an impact ·and visibility far greater ~~ck::n~ould not be reached for than its relatively small $140 million · budget, and the periodic search for comment but released a statement lts chairman usually produces polit-. saying he was "proud" that the pres- ical fireworks. ident had chosen ·him and that he The endowment awards thousands "looked forward to serving the Pres- of grants and.fellowships to scholars, ident and the American people." .. museums and universities for re-Lisa Phillips, executive director of search and preservation. The chair-the Humanities Alliance, a trade or- _manship haf? often served as a pulpit ganization for many of the 11ation's for administrations' views on the role universities, learned societies and of the liberal arts in American life. museums, said the members of her Bennett, for example, used the . ' l endowment to call for a return to the study of the classics of western his- , tory, literature and philosophy. He is 'described by friends and critics alike. as having steered the endowment away from the cultural pluralism that marked the Carter years. The Massachusetts-born Curran was headmaster of the National Ca-thedral School from 1968 to 1980. He subsequently served on President Reagan's Education Transition · Team and put in one year as asso-ciate director of the Office of Pres-idential Personnel. In 1980 he head-ed a political group called Profession-als for Reagan, and 1s, according. to friends, a close friend of Vice Pres-ident George Bush. Curran graduated with, fl bache-lor's degree .from Yale t.Jniversity in 1955 and earned a masters' degree _ from Duke University in 1968. He was dean of students at a Houston private school from 1957 to 1968, and taught at a private boys' school in Englewood, NJ., for .two. years before that. 

Curran, Edward: Humanities Chairman Nomination Hearing (1985): News Article 05

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Curran, Edward: Humanities Chairman Nomination Hearing (1985): News Article 05

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