Dana Gioia
Dana Gioia
Michael Dana Gioiais an American poet and writer. He spent the first fifteen years of his career writing at night while working for General Foods Corporation. After his 1991 essay "Can Poetry Matter?" in The Atlantic generated international attention, Gioia quit business to pursue writing full-time. He also served as the chairman of the National Endowment for the Artsbetween 2003 and 2009. Gioia has published five books of poetry and three volumes of literary criticism as well as opera libretti,...
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth24 December 1950
CityHawthorne, CA
The arts need social recognition. The money will come if people think it's important.
It's important that America recognizes its own great artists while they're still alive.
Art is an irreplaceable way of understanding and expressing the world,
It seems to me that awakening to the full potential of what your life might be - beyond the possibilities of your own family, your own class, your own race, your own neighborhood - that is one of the great gifts that art affords.
Poetry offers a way of understanding and expressing existence that is fundamentally different from conceptual thought.
Poetry speaks most effectively and inclusively (whether in free or formal verse) when it recognizes its connection - without apology - to its musical and ritualistic origins.
There are some truths about life that can be expressed only as stories, or songs, or images. Art delights, instructs, consoles. It educates our emotions.
The purpose of arts education is not to produce more artists, though that is a byproduct. The real purpose of arts education is to create complete human beings capable of leading successful and productive lives in a free society.
Through Great American Voices, the NEA is building bridges between the military and arts community, ... This tour gives singers a chance to perform for new audiences and brings great music in live performance to military families.
Jazz may well be considered America's most treasured and most influential export, ... From its earliest days until now it has continued to grow creatively -- yet the people who have given us this art form deserve far greater recognition.
Jazz is one of the great, truly native American art forms. Along with the movies, it's probably the art that the rest of the world associates most deeply with America.
People have to recognize that the arts are a major industry and need to be at the table for the recovery plan, ... There is no way for these local economies to recover unless we invest in the cultural life. Culture was Louisiana's second-biggest economy, right after oil. These organizations have suffered enormous losses.
We felt that Random House had a deep commitment to the book.
Reading is declining in every age group, cultural group, every region and income level. Unless something is done, we will continue to see those declines.