Dana Gioia wants to use his position as chair of the National Endowment for the Arts as an advocate for arts funding. “The arts in America are enormously vital, and I think the public support remains strong. What we are facing right now is a very severe – but temporary – budget crisis for the arts brought on by the recession. On a state level, it looks like we have two hard years to manage through. Luckily from a federal level, the NEA budget [$115 million] has actually grown, and our position in helping state and regional councils will be firm.I see my role in Washington to be a national spokesman for arts funding. … I refuse to believe that arts funding is a controversial issue in the United States.”