Charlton, Linda

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University of Rhode IslandDigitalCommons@URIBiddle, Livy: Chairman of the National Endowmentfor the Arts (1977-1979)Education: National Endowment for the Arts andHumanities, Subject Files II (1962-1996)1977Biddle, Livy: Chairman of the NationalEndowment for the Arts (1977-1979): NewsArticle 03Linda CharltonFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/pell_neh_II_28This News Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Education: National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, Subject Files II(1962-1996) at DigitalCommons@URI. It has been accepted for inclusion in Biddle, Livy: Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts(1977-1979) by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@URI. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@etal.uri.edu.Recommended CitationCharlton, Linda, "Biddle, Livy: Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (1977-1979): News Article 03" (1977). Biddle,Livy: Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (1977-1979). Paper 11.http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/pell_neh_II_28/11http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/pell_neh_II_28/11, Blend of Arts and Government / Livingston L. Biddle Jr. By UNDA CHARI.TON -----·------------WASlllNGTON, Nov. 2-When. Uv-· 1ngston !.. Hicldle Jr. wa., nominated as chairman of the National Endowment . for tlie Arts, the appointment-which hu It< critics-had an· unusual svm-metr;,~ Mr. Biddle drafted the kglsia-1 tion that set up the endow-M1n men! 12 years ago. The 59-ln the vrar-old Mr. Biddle wa' at ihlt time a spenal assht-Ne11·1 ant to Senator Claihorne : I . Pcll, Democrat or Rhode lsland, a college classmate who wa, called at today's confirmation hearin;:s on the Diddle appointment. "The father 'of the [arts) endowment." For the la.st 14 years, ever since ha worked at putting together the first IPgislation rstabhshing the National Council on the Arts in I %3, Mr. Bid-dle hu worked in the arts field-since .J9i5 as Congressional liaison director for the endowment, and since last year as the director of the suhcoml!littee on educ.ttlon, arts and humanit1c~ of the Senate Committee on Labor and PulJ-lic Welfare. Called :\tost Experienced It was this very subcommittee that met this morning to consiMr the Biddle nomination, which h expected In he approvt"d by tl.e Senate without diffl-cultyJ Senator Pell, as an old friend, patron and collPagu!' or !\Ir. Diddle, dis-qualified h1m~e1r from the chairman-Jhip, but the atmosphere in the hearing room wH one or old home week. : Serlator J!'nnings Randolph, 11 West Virginia Democrat actmg as chaim1an, told '1r. Biddl!', "I think the arts gener-ally will be the benelkiary" of his ap-p<>1nlment. !\Ir. Pell read aloud the let-te-r h~ had wntten to PresirlPnt Carter last August, urging Mr. Biddle's selec-tion. ~r. Biddle, he had told the Pr!'si-dent, as "more experienre in dealing .with !'latioM b!'twrrn the arts and the F1deral Grwernment" than anyone e-lse ato11ncl. Thrre was no doubt abnut the rntnmlttre's srntim1·nts. , MNition was also made of the fart that r.1r. Biddle is aim a novelist, with four lyrnk!i to his credit, two of them bt~t-s~llers That in fact, is why he came ~o Washington; his four novels had a~ had Philadelphil backgrounds, and h<j "thought it would be interesting to hrdaden my hor1rnns" by getting to kno\v !lomething about the city that is "thi focal point or so much or the nation1s life." 2 Yearr as Reporttr The1 he ran lntn Senator Pell, an old rri,1:ncl. at a party in Philadrlph1a and "rrrnt1onrcl mv thought~ tn him" Thr Stnalnr replied, according to l\lr. Riddle.I"!( you really are looking for Wash1ogton experirnce, come and work for mt" lie WH "looking fnr a gencral:st who could write," and Mr. 1l1ddl1•i was that. 'lhe novel wrlh a· t~V:\h1~n;;to11 bJcl<ground is still unwrit-liv 1g,ton Ludlow B1tldle Jr. wa, born 1 n r.tyrn Mawr, Pa, on Philadrl-phia'i Main Lint>, May 26. 1918 Ill' gradiated from Princeton University in l!J.IOJ s1wnt two vNrs as a 11rws11.1r~r American tiel,1 ser.lcP as an arr.~ulance dri\'er In 1912. Until the war'• end, he ser.·ed In the Mirlrll FHf, the :\ledl-ttrraneftn, North Africa and Europ11 and was twice c!Pcorated He ma rrird right after the WAT and hH two chilclrrn, Cordelia Dietrich, who is studying nrting, and l.l\ingston I.. Biddle 4th, who is finishing arrh1trc-tural srhnol, 11ncl three grandchildren. His wife died in I 972, and in I ~l7J he married Catherina llaart, a Dutrh·born painter. They live in a tlHee·stnry gray· painted brick house in Georgetown. 'Kind of a Drenm' Mr. Biddle took a hrrak from Wash-ington In the late 1960's, serving tor three years as a professor and chair· man of the division of arts at Fordham University in New York City. In 1971 and 1972, he was also chairmen or the ho.Hd of directors nf th~ Prnnsylvani:i nallet Company in Philadelphia, where he ha<(alrn scr.·ed as prcsid~nt or Chil-dren's Strvke Inc. A slender man, almost selr·efraring in manner, with a quiet, somewhat nasal voice, thick glasses and fluffy gray s1dehur~s. Mr. Biddle conreclrd in an interl'iew yesterday that, "I had a kind or a dream all along that I would someday love to ha\ e a hand in guiding the programs 1 tr lrd to develop." Mr. Biddle's appointment, like that ot his counterpart at the National En-dowment for the Humanities, Josrph D. Duffl'y, has been attacked as inap-propriate and as a portent of "politiol-ization" of the Frder al Go'.'ernment's involwment with the arls and-hwnani-t ies. "I'm not really annoyed et all," Mr. Biddle said in rt•ply to a riuestion about his feelings about the criticism. "I just so disagree with the premise that the arts anrl the political proussthe <lrmncratic process-do not mix .. , ir they (the art~) He not there, where rise do they belong?" Controvcr~y Is Cited In his statement to the SenA!e suh-committre today, ~tr. lllddl~ ac!drt,'<·11 the "suggestion" that the art, may h& "subjrct to inarpropriate government•! prcs;urrs." and ,,id that "es,rnfl,,I safrr,unrds - such "' the N:1tinnal (",1uncil on the Art,, 11 gro11p of pri1 ate ritiuns, who p,,,, on r,rant appli•'R-t1nn,-wrre written Into the rnitial kgtsla t1on. lie abo spoke ahout the "elitlsm-P"JlUlism" rontrO\'l'rsy that the art, encl humanitirs arpo1ntm1•nts have st1rrr.t, saying th~t ... 'rlifr,rn' c~n indeed mean quality ... and 'pnpu-lr;m' I would su,:rr't can mren 'arc~,,· , •. v. hy not hrrdgr thr\e two \\ nrrl~ • .. a11ri ,,mpl·; ~.1y th.it t<•~<·thn thry can mrun 'a•• ns to th1• hr,r.' I ool<ini: b;ir:I<, ~1r. Biddle ~aid ye<trr-c!:1y. "I frl'i !hill WC have ('llfllC rrum R lcvt'i Of ndinde and ~hpt11 i'm to a lt'\'el of accrptan1 e" of the impor-tancr or the orts and the importunrc or l'll\'t'lnnw11t11l '11Jl0(1rt for rhr arl, H 11 Jr(.,..., 'Yl>flr. 11mH,~•"'u l•" Livingston Biddle ----- -·-------~------that the art' would have "an ever-larg er audience, untrl many more peopl than today can hener1t Crom the art and until more people attach a deepr scn'e nf priority to the arts rn I.her own daily lrvel." ., The New York Times New York, New York November 3, 1977 

Biddle, Livy: Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (1977-1979): News Article 03

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Biddle, Livy: Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (1977-1979): News Article 03

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