Bening Talks Art

When Annette Bening introduces someone as "one of the best things to come out of the Bush Administration," audiences perk up. That was how the thesp announced Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Dana Gioia, at a Town Hall Los Angeles event at the Hammer Museum in Westwood Wednesday night.

Event was titled "A Conversation with Dana Gioia and Annette Bening."  Bening, who was welcomed by Town Hall Los Angeles and Arts for LA to the discussion, left much of the talking to Gioia, who touched on subjects like the growing budget of the NEA, stating that "we are one of the success stories in Washington right now."

Bening, and close to a hundred art patrons, listened intently to Gioia as he spoke about how to convince the rest of society that art is important. "I think American artists and American cultural leaders have done a terrible job explaining to the rest of society why art is important,” said Gioia. “We have to create a dialogue with society -- we need to change our rhetoric.” (D. Seif)