but. >> and they give for being here today. last semester it here deal i had the privilege to teach a course of intellectual legacy station -- legacy of william f. buckley, jr. dedicated to the anticommunist as a principal and philosophical position. buckley once told me his most important book may have spent honesty of a friend that he and

characteristically barely rights or says anything but creates a and literary interview with whittaker chambers. again be c. chambers bare his soul directly to a young admirer, a friend and colleague. reading parts of the books i was struck by the deep emotional intensity in humanity that flows from the pages. he tries to account to himself how he made his choices. where he fell and plundered but there is no going back and doing the right thing can mean everything. for his family, a country, a generation. bill buckley was a dramatic

and emotional man. it is unsurprising chambers of moves profoundly. and bill buckley had influences but the common one in his life of the chamberses the most mysterious and intense. i applaud the work of "witness" to follow god and man at yale for the second eight annual buckley program conference. to get started we have three distinguished gentlemen who know much about the subject. lee edwards the distinguished fellow from conservative thought at the heritage foundation. dr. edwards is a leading historian of american conservatism. ranging from biographies of

reagan to william f. buckley. and the founding director of political journalism at georgetown and a fellow at the jfk school of government at harvard. john lewis gaddis one of the leading historian of the cold war. professor john lewis gaddis won the pulitzer prize for his biography and his work cold war. finally m. stanton evans the graduate of yale 1955.

he has been one of the most leading members of the conservative movement's. his book blacklisted by history gives the account of the age of mccarthyism during the cold war. evans is three separate -- recipient from syracuse and john marshall law school and has won the accuracy irvine award for excellence in journalism. please join me to welcome our panelist. [applause] lee edwards would you like to start? >> it is such a pleasure and

honor to be here. i was flattered to be asked for the first one last year. and i see some good friends out here and people including senator buckley he deserves a round of applause. [applause] lets us begin with a paradox. whitaker chambers was a soviet spy who became the most important american defector from communism. the attractions of communism began in august of 1948 when he identified algiers yes the golden boy as a fellow

member of the underground communists of of the 1930's. his was a former assistant to franklin d. roosevelt the acting secretary general from the founding conference it in san francisco and also named from the carnegie endowment for peace and a radically denied chambers allocation. a great deal more than the rest of station was at stake into communism and those associated with nixon a prominent member of the committee would be dealt a devastating blow. the guilty and communism occupy a part of the

political landscape and furthermore chambers and hiss each represented one side. one represented freedom and western civilization and the other the etiology of totalitarianism. both the left and the right to understood america and the world was at a critical point* in history consider the major political events that transpired between august 1948 when chambers confronted hiss and may 1952 when chambers published "witness." 1948 the communists through a justice of akia coup

d'etat the first seizure by force of a popular government and spending washington. at the shanghai shacked the following year the communist would assume command of the world's most populist nation. 1950 was the devil the site is surrounded to british authorities admitting he was a nuclear supply the same month out tear hiss was convicted of perjury the statute of limitations of espionage expired. and then arrested harry gold to identify rosenberg as fellow conspirators in a

plot to give nuclear secrets to moscow. in june north korea invaded south korea to present the u.s. with the choice. turn back the invasion for the key piece on the chessboard of asia and in 1952 whittaker chambers published "witness" which argues the united states faced a transcendent crisis. not of politics or economics but of faith and secular liberalism with a watered-down version. no wonder the liberals have never forgiven chambers nor could they forget him. to offer a few observations from others in the case another man is alger hiss be

tissue cannot fully understand chambers without examining hiss. i can call upon inexpert witness tribune reporter edwards who observed alger hiss 500 hours during the congressional hearings in the two trials resulting in his conviction. april 1956 mr. edwards, my father, addressed a large audience of undergraduates at princeton before his long negative hiss was scheduled to speak. alger hiss on foreign policy? what else can one say about the invitation one is politically correct always

political correct. [laughter] here is what edwards said to the students "you will be observing as brilliant and adroit and charming personality as i have witnessed in more than 30 years of newspaper experience. you find a hard to believe you're listening to a man of willful perjury as a traitor and a spy. on the house committee denied the allegation that he was a communist. " and never witnessed a more convincing display of righteous wrath quote my father said he said he never laid eyes upon whittaker

chambers and blinked at a photograph is an utter amazement "was the moment later confronted with chambers' himself to confess he had indeed been known the man and intimate the and had even given him an automobile quote but he was not embarrassed the pitcher of injured innocence why he had failed to recall the man whose appearance was that exactly of the man that was shown him. this explains the he had known chambers under another name of george cross the never occurred to think the committee might be talking about crossly eight deadbeat

newspaperman. at this point* i began to realize alger hiss was a dangerous man. the charge against his former friend and co-conspirator was not espionage but communist affiliations. so as the government did in the 30's that men like dean acheson -- dean acheson said publicly he would never turn his back on alger hiss. understanding of versos slightly he was a man of passionate and pathological convictions of his own rectitude regardless of overwhelming evidence of guilt.

set forth by a hour colleagues out gregory and in his case informed the american people there was the internal communist threat that the 1940 presidential campaign truman called any such notion a red herring that the communists had infiltrated the government up to and including the white house. defending the alger hiss was a liberal obsession this -- hiss chambers case perched to the left with the inability to look at the soviet union objectively and concede it was clear and present danger. with the intimate connection

between communism and liberalism "when they took up my playing to a mechanism chambers wrote in "witness" i also hit were the forces of the great socialist revolution in the name of liberalism has been inching the icecap over the nation for two decades quote 41x liberal was president ronald reagan who awarded the medal of freedom in 1987 to whittaker chambers. when asked why he replied 100 years from now people will have forgotten the details by one of them to remember that alger hiss went to jail as a traitor ed whitaker chambers was honored by his fellow

citizens. hiss conviction verified anticommunist as a potent element of american politics. a cave bill buckley a caused by which to unite libertarians against the common enemy. historian george nash and others have argued that without anti-communism there be no unified movement beginning in the 1950's and without a conservative movement no presidential candidate barry goldwater 1964 or president-elect reagan in 1980. "witness" is an essential work and may have been in the state more anti-communist than any other book including reagan who could quote from memory the first pages of the forward for many years

afterwards. libertarian columnist chamberlain and the prince of darkness commentator novak. whittaker chambers was one of the great men of our time wrote the conservative publisher al regnery because of his see enormous talent as a writer. steadfast courage in the face of the campaign, his witness to god's grace and the fortified power. whittaker chambers placed every conceivable taste conservative in his debt for all time. thank you very much. [applause] >> we'll ask our panelists to speak from sitting down. professor john lewis gaddis.

>> thank you to the organizers. it is safe to say of professors have a certain guilty speakers that was forced to confess for the first time although i have been teaching covert history and where of the importance of the book we are talking about, although my colleague just embarrassed me by telling me she has been assigning this book to her students, the fact is and tell nathaniel persuaded me to do what i have not actually read "witness." [laughter] i take consolation with a

recent confession you have seen of "the weekly standard" he had only just gotten around to reading the bible. [laughter] and epstein said in a commentary there is great stuff there. [laughter] that is what i felt about "witness" over the last 10 days reading every line. sitting up late this if you pass by my house you can see a lovely light that is my lamp that has "witness" on its. it was compelling and kept me up and there is great stuff. for example,, quote max then must do what they've been great not yield to what seems probable. there is wit on the multiple soviet spy apparatus in the

1930's, the russians believe in bulk of their faith is reflected now got only organizes the world. if distinctions are made about personalities and a fundamental way. in the pitch and purpose of life but before i got to the end i found myself wishing that whittaker chambers had hired one to work with him on this book. as epstein says of the bible, there are lots of big gaps.

even the sacred text implies that it cannot be sure and in places. perhaps that is true through the final half. what i came away with was deep admiration and respect and as i got to note it was a sense of exasperation that i was reading things. with that since really resonated with me and struck me as a very familiar notion. where does that emotion come from? with admiration and exasperation? i thought of my students. [laughter] and my own efforts to

connect with what i write and what i think and the difficulty i don't know what i think and tell i right but the real reason "witness" evoked mixed emotions came from the parallels with which i had a closer connection. the unimaginative titled american life. to go back and look 800 pages is not a brief with not one single reference to whittaker chambers in it so i appreciate the forbearance biographer at hand and house for not mentioning this

embarrassing fact in his long review of my book last winter. although he did refer briefly to chambers in the second volume of the memoir to take a couple of pages to say he followed the case carefully but was still unsure as many people were in 1972 of who to believe. it is much more clearly now the to the courageous scholarship to offer the pioneering work that nobody could reasonably doubt the truth from soviet sources over the last 20 years.

you could still get in trouble if you shout from manhattan alger hiss was guilty. [laughter] what so strongly struck me was less out it holds up but what i had not expected is what seems to be the number of similarities between the personalities of whittaker chambers and a man i spent time with, and george -- john f. kennedy. neither chamber's the category or the pigeonholes

that we would put personalities into. cannon house wrote of chambers he was from a political revolutionary and that chambers and tempers never stopped quarreling about him but now here in the new public review when pressed to think of another individual to repudiate himself agonizingly at time that his words could be summoned today of almost any foreign policy position he

has become his admirer but also his detractor so this cockney to thinking about parallel lives what if it was a brief intellectual exercise to think of the parallel lives. a favorite beach like the other that is war i will spend the rest of my time. chambers was born 1901. living to the age of 60 the other live to the age of 101 hence the delay of publishing the biography. [laughter]

with profuse apologies to me from the subject. [laughter] and it seems to have a difficult childhoods it was the death of his mother two months after he was born but suicide of a beloved brother. they both had i believed education princeton but neither ever felt a part of any type of the establishment. both men were affected with pessimism that it went back further to post world war i that more optimism in the lives but for chambers but

his time at the war college then at the policy planning where he could make it work as he wished with the total support with the secretary of state the period of optimism were fleeting. both mint sounded the alarm to the roosevelt administration as early as 1939 through diplomatic reporting through moscow third 1944 / 1945 fell to an effective but then found themselves isolated and ostracized from going out on a limb but it came more quickly so self

congratulations most atypically in the modern age was almost impossible. that is remarkable. one reason it is religious faith that was deeper for men as they age but to reside in this city of god that face is minimal expectations that could be accomplished with the capacity of the nit and gullible country of the united states to survive in a sinister world never deeply dedicated as a

whose only acts of witness eliminated the path for survival the despair was so deep that you natalie contemplated suicide but took steps to make it possible. as he describes it in "witness" he went to of garden store that picked up bug killer that was cyanide based and opened the can and tried to mix it with water and throw a towel over his head to breathe the fumes and hope to not to break up but he could not read the instructions so he got the proportions wrong. [laughter]

with the brief ambassadorship in moscow the situation was so grim that they insisted the california equipped him with the suicide pills that he be interned so that is the purpose of the suicide pills in his case he told me he flushed them down the top of it eventually. but that he ordered that is significant both men preoccupy themselves with great fears of space says chambers said the new deal and of the fallout from it was part of a gigantic communist conspiracy in nuclear weapons cannot be

deployed at the fates of the earth. but most significant they were farmers but the limited refuge and family life was made possible and finally those were great writers but they're pros keeps the idea is against time and space and as making suggested it would do that in the future that east on page each man produce works that will re-read and when we celebrate here today. is jim here? he is on the way. he summed him up in a single sentence with an

accomplishment and never came close to achieving "an independent thinker of the first order to add a critical moment saw something clearly that others saw but through the haze and by an act of seeking other courage for any misjudgments he may have had subsequently quote for by hope jim would not mind if i change to words to sum up whittaker chambers through an act of singular borrow courage earned absolution for any misjudgments he may have previously committed. thank you for your

attention. [applause] >> thank you very much. we will go and tell 3:45 p.m. with questions and answers. >>. >> it is a pleasure to be backed i had many a class in this building it is exactly the same as it was 60 years ago. something's do not change. i was a freshman year when "witness" came out to i read it at the time everybody was against it although nobody had read it to. [laughter] i did and said this is exactly what is going on. that was my introduction to bill buckley well i was an

undergraduate. and a friend of mine until he passed away. the last time it took the train to washington was to see bill but it signed a lease to take it all the time and i always enjoy riding the train and the problem was you had to go through new york. rival is reminded of the little girl who tries to say the lord's prayer to said lead us not to penn station or. [laughter] truer words were never spoken i did read "witness" shortly after it came out as i was a sophomore i have reread it many times cents

as it takes careful study and i approach it as the new book that i co-authored that chambers emerges as a central character that was not my intention. but the more realized chambers was a critical figure with too many senses to list. with the tremendous gift of language for history of the domestic coal. he himself was a primary source and you have to go to the primary source it is risky to rely on secondary

sources. also is a guide there are benchmarks as i delved into something myself i realize these centrality and only in his case but the more i learn to of his service and sacrifice with the nature of the internal problem in the 1930's or '40's he gave most testimony he was then around the 40's there realized i

formulated right had called evince lot of inadequate paranoia the matter how bad you think something is it is always worse that was certainly the worst -- case of our government on all of which fronts chambers was most constructive and these were confirmed repeatedly it was formidable in a level of penetration.

alger hiss was but one. another was harry dexter white. the second point* just to follow up that he told us to intimate in "witness" and is confirmed over and over again good descriptions that were sent back and forth with the moscow boss and the agents it was broken in by our patrologist there are other records that have come forth with the kgb agent in

most of of the fbi files. with a bevy of other suspects in the government÷ particular lead during the of war. all this over and over again confirms which chambers would say and goes beyond what chambers had to say.ñ he did not know what's the fbi knew. the second to major point* is the chamber's assertion the real issue is not a. [inaudible] source buying with the cloak and dagger images but policy

influence with these people÷ñ were doing with greater success was to atilt american policy in favor ofñ the soviet interest he made that point* strongly and dad was confirmed with my recent studies. with the run up to pearl harbor with the approval of slave labor to moscow where hiss was a major factor. those are e3

slave labor to moscow where hiss was a major factor. those are examples with perot soviet operatives tilted policy within the communist interest. and confirmed over everything i have seen since that contributed to a morose temper and pessimistic with good reason. he is cassandra and not from the 40's but 1939 nothing was done. that was ignored at the timeu nobody wanted to hear such

things but he then ran into greater efforts for when the case surfaced this made himñ extremely pessimistic with the sense of doom in the final chapters that was personal as a suicide attempt and fortunately did not succeed. he thought it was the freeññ world because the government knew very well what was going on. he was right but he himself was in considerable peril right before the house

committee that the said-- said in private but the fbi knew 1945 not only that but going before the house committee august 16, 1948 with the various white house aides' plans were made to indict chambers. but not hiss that persisted through the wall of the end of 1948. writing a cold war history in 10 minutes is difficult.ñ

hiss was far more important than he would appreciate. because they did not have the problems riding cold war sources.ñzy the only document is a book of a thousand within minutes of the meetings in terms of the aftermath. unfortunately win favor repot station -- compiled with the secretary of state when he left the state department he took them withñ

him not as a sinister means but taken away and not returned.ñ but many revelations have been secret to for decades. it turns out in the university of virginia i could get them there.ñ they show the rule of alger hiss more sensitive for in a compilation. he was the one who knew what he was doing. [laughter]

being secretary of state over two months he was a novice the presidentç roosevelt the record shows was almost dead. confused on many issues he knew what he was doing he was all over the place. chambers said something that was very pessimistic he was leaving the winning side for the losing side. he was wrong. what convinced him he was right was people to ignore

the truth this came through the grand jury session 1947 for all the communist and soviet agents were paraded through the list is long they were allowed to walk the justice department said there is only one witness against them therefore we cannot convict and let them walk. the other witness they could have had was chambers after they broke a case with the grand jury sessions that changed the course of

history. whittaker chambers natalie says history and wrotez a history but changed history and to this day they don't appreciate how important he was in this pivotal episode where he broke through to cover up the long negative break up the concealment to bring out the conviction of alger hiss after that the version of cold war history was changed dramatically. my time is up. thank you for your. [applause] >> fait que. we have about 15 minutes for questions. also governor daniels is here at our conference today. [applause]

>> this is in the nature of observation i was appreciative of the talk andg i have to say the sitting to the chambers of was struck by another comparison extemporaneous to the conference but lance armstrong. [laughter] here we have another case of

an extremely charming man professing innocence in the face of a very large body of contrary evidence. that comes mostly from his teammates who are men of integrity, and not as charming as lands' armstrong himself but alger hiss we have whittaker chambers and if you have seen the pictures of these two men will have to be struck by the enormous difference of appearance. urbane, well-dressed and chambers? pour the dressed, bad teeth, he is certainly not a charmer and it seems to me

it is a small sample that it behooves us to think we need to be wary of charm. [laughter] peak says it may be slob in the wins the day. [laughter] [applause] >> i appreciate your observations. not just chambers but there were five witnesses nathaniel, so it was not just chambers. and the documents his name

is not in there but there is a reference but it is conclusive that it was what he said. >> just to speak quick over many years with a quick observation of hiss "witness" but "witness" is a fascinating book is the indictment of communism. is day fascinating account but half of it of his experience in the 30's right he became a communist that is not always obvious but is

important as a primary source. i am writing about j. edgar hoover by question is for m. stanton evans as a figure who has a great reputation against the battle of mccarthyism how to use the hoovers role? with your research with the relationship of other figures and where you come down? >> i am a great fan. going through the archives going over 400,000 pages that i got legally through the freedom of information

act. [laughter] with fbi agents in the room? and also the of their major witness against all suspects. hoover was a stall war patriot. no question. and meticulous of record keeping. did anybody see the casting of leonardo da capriotes? who came up with that? i would have preferred brad pitt. [laughter] the movie has falsehoods' but most of what we're given negative present company

reminded what mccarthy said every word she writes is a lie including a and and it's up. that is my jaundiced view. [laughter] i think hoover has been smeared the same reason chambers was speared. the fbi guys did not expect anything they spend a lot of time backtracking and basically to checking up on people through wiretaps which there are many transcripts. once you read the route wiretap you do not want to go back. that is the real stuff. the real thing.

not edited. what they did over and over was find out who was telling the truth. long before the case became public. >> something that puzzled me with the new literature coming out for the relative invisibility. it seems to be an interesting situation. to show that wallace was regularly reporting to the kremlin in 1945 and 46 with

the truman administration as secretary of commerce. but also with the 1948 campaign, the frustration that general marshall had made to approach the soviets of negotiation that was blown wide open that suggest wallace and the kremlin running on the progressive party ticket for president. who is the real hero? with the whole history? someone who has got in a bad rap is whittaker chambers alger hiss case and also the president of united states franklin d. roosevelt, who for whatever reason, we may never know, ed dropped

wallace from the ticket 1944 and sent him on the inspection trip to siberia. [laughter] that he confused the gulag with the farm. but to play the game somebody should write the counterfactual novel. assume roosevelt does not drop wallace from the ticket and wallace becomes president of the united states at the time this breaks loose. what would have happened at that point*? why don't more people talk about this? >> one more question. with the famous letter to my children for word chambers rates the following pullback communism is what happens

when the name of mind and been free themselves from god. below that, there has never been a society irritation without a guide. but history is cluttered with the wreckage of nations that became indifferent to guide and died and sums up the crisis of the western world exist to the degree it is indifferent to guide and to the western world shares communism materialist vision quote. . ..

bringing together the various strains of conservatism that the conservatives, the libertarians and others want to do that to bring them together. i think at one level with certainly was personified by the soviet union as a clear and present danger and the bill

reached out to traditionalists like russell kirk and said please, let's come together and film this magazine and form this movement that was also part of what he was trying to do. i think at the same time if you look at whiteaker chambers it didn't really matter to him at all and you can see that there were all kinds of things for example after writing witness there were contracts he offered that can make an extraordinary amount of money on a follow-up or any other number of books but he said what had to be said and decided to retire in west minister in the shore of maryland so i don't think it was materialist at all and that wouldn't have interested buckley

or the conservative movement at that time by this danger which became so clear to them in the soviet union. >> thank you very much. we will reconvene in ten minutes. [applause] we explore the historical building and special collections of the providence. the site chronicles the history of ryland in the city of providence. we visited the area with the help of cox communications, a local cable company. that >> to climb up the steps and

make your way in and arrived at the top of the steps and look in and see it filled with books and the bus, it's inspiring. i love when we have visitors come in for the first time. they walk in the front door. usually it is something new to the building the first thing i hear is a gasp and the next word out of their mouth is my goodness, this is what a library should look like. and part of what i find, sometimes overwhelming leavitt totally gratifying, is this institution has existed for hundreds of years, and every day when i come into work, i get to contribute to history. it's a wonderful unique library cultural center in the historic section of providence. we are one of about 17 membership libraries that still exist in the country today.

and i naturally proud to say it is one of two membership libraries that exists in rhode island. we have sister organization that actually predates us in newport and that is the library. the word atheneum is based on the soil where it is a temple of learning. but the atheneam is a place people came to converse and talk about their ideologies, their theology, they're learning, their science exploration, and was a convenient place for learning and still is today. we trees our history back to 1753 when the library company formed by the merchants and the men of the day to form a library

greater than any one individual could come and they did that in order to share the sources, and at that time the city was growing and they wanted to make that information available to all. the providence company existed throughout the city often being in the town government and they purchased the material from england. the original collection was about 345 titles. we unfortunately have a tragic event in the late 1700's where there was a fire on christmas eve with 345 titles they had originally purchased. they lost many in the fire except for about 70 that were still in circulation. we actually have some of the founding collection. and what's really interesting is they have a foresight to link the notation so they knew they

were falling real original founding collection and as i got back into the library. so, if you see closely upon the top there is a little tiny pencil times so they made that notation in the original register and they also made it on the books so they were looking to and we continue to try to replace the original volumes as they become available. so, they were tracking them early on. they ended up still purchasing more books and being in different buildings throughout the city. later in the 1800's there was another organization called the providence atheneam that formed in 1831. in 1836 the providence was formed as a result of these organizations. and we ended up being in the arcade for a couple of years

while this property was being built on the college benefit come and then we moved in here in 1838 and opened the doors on what was the market place at that time, and the former president of brown university had a corsi and standing outdoors awhile open the crowd has gathered and he is talking about let us not leader for the east side, for the west side, the south side, but for the city of providence so that all made partaken, so we stay true to that nation. the historical significance of the building is quite profound. the building itself, the original building was built in 1838. the architect was william strickland who was a young

architect, really one of the early founders of the american institute for architects, and this is one of his only examples of architecture here in the city its special in many ways obviously from what you see visually. this is just an amazing space. i always refer to it as an inspired, and while the viewers cannot experience actually being in this case other than visually, there is just a real smell of old books and i always like an end to frank in, but it's a very personal space, and i think people come for that sense of building and they come because there is a sense of community. we don't have library cards.

it's almost like cheers where everybody knows your name when we walked into the building. we are not necessarily a quietest library either because it is in the center of the space and as they come in we also predated the library movement. when the providence library company was formed was based on the benjamin franklin idea where the company founding fathers actually had a company and they bought shares and so we invest in that and use those resources to purchase their books. to the earlier organization, they had done a similar thing so basically we were organized and membership base library so the members of the organization purchased shares and then made them available to their families and so forth. when the public library movement came into being, then of course they were using their resources from the community and was

published to support those libraries. membership libraries are still supported by members and so we consider ourselves coming from that tradition an independent member supported library open to the public. so that means our funding, unlike the public library, basically comes from our only resources. we are fortunate that the people that started this institution years and years ago fought as well so we do have an endowment that we rely on, but most of our financial means come from the members themselves. and if they purchase the membership. while they are open to the public, people can come in and utilize the space, enjoy this case, come to programs but if they want to actually borrow a book then they will purchase a membership fee and that is the model with much fund-raising. we are with 1,000 members today.

as far as the type of person that finds the atheneam is usually someone that is intellectually curious. it's been fraught with history. there's probably a bibliophile and the smell of books, the feel of the books come someone that is culturally invested in the community and wants to be savitt the engage. someone that is looking for new experiences through our programming. one of the reasons why a tourist comes through to visit the anthenaeum is undeterred these amazing stories about how edgar allan poe quoted helen wittman who was a poet herself and writer and prominent woman here in providence, and she had become quite mannered and much

to her family's satisfaction to because he had somewhat of a reputation that she would come here and use the anthenaeum and edgar allan poe was known to have visited her here and quoted her year in the stacks. we have a copy of the poem that has been published in the american would review and the story is that they were meeting and she had pointed it out and said have you seen this poem? he said sarah, i wrote that for you. so his signature is in pencil. our collections really represent the reading interest of the populist at that time, and as a combination of perhaps the reluctance of the founding fathers and the librarians that continue to work here and didn't want to discard anything we've

retain those collections and so now those collections represent in sight and to a group of people that were trying to form a library at the time when their own civilizations are really taking forward. in civil unrest and economic unrest, american revolution. and they've somehow still continued to keep it whole and today we continue to be circulating library is true to the mission, but also a very vibrant, active cultural center where we are an amplifier if he will of local arts and culture. we have really tried to embrace that part of our mission by working with the city, members of my sta