President of the National Civic Art Society, a non-profit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. that promotes the classical and humanistic tradition in public art and architecture. Eleventh Chairman of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, an independent federal agency comprising seven presidential appointees who are the aesthetic guardians of Washington.
On September 16, I’m going to be the keynote speaker at Common Dialogue Day at Siena Heights University in Adrian, Michigan. It’s a day the school sets aside each fall to discuss a major theme. The theme this year is “Getting … Continue reading
Capitol Hill Luncheon and Briefing on the Eisenhower Memorial July 18, 2014, at Noon Rayburn House Office Building, room 2247 The National Civic Art Society cordially invites you to a lunch briefing on the planned National Eisenhower Memorial. The briefing will … Continue reading
On Saturday, September 28, 2013, I’ll be giving a talk at the biennial conference of the Michael Oakeshott Association. (Full conference program here.) The theme of the conference, which is being held at Colorado College, is Modernity and Its Discontents. … Continue reading
On March 19 2013, in front of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation, I testified along with Rep. Darrell Issa on a bill to scrap Gehry’s design for the National Eisenhower Memorial. The New York Times and … Continue reading
I don’t know what to make of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land (and perhaps never will), but F.L. Lucas’ 1923 New Statesman review is enjoyably devastating. A poet and scholar, Lucas would during World War II come to work as … Continue reading
Below is an essay I published in Public Discourse last month. It is an adaptation of the June 1, 2012 testimony I delivered before the U.S. House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands on “The Future of the … Continue reading
On Friday February 2, 2013, I’ll be giving a talk about Frank Gehry’s design for the planned Eisenhower Memorial to the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society at the University of Virginia. The society, which claims to be the “oldest continuously … Continue reading
Natur und Kultur: Das Weib [Nature and Culture: The Female]. A book of photographs collected by Dr. Peter Landow, Berlin 1925.
For reasons too embarrassing to mention, I recently stumbled across the U.S. Army Field Band Jazz Ambassador’s educational video “Inside the Big Band.” At around the 15:40 mark, the outfit explains how to play funk and hip hop, as only … Continue reading
At the Lincoln Memorial —By Archibald MacLeish Within that door A man sits or the image of a man Staring at stillness on a marble floor. No drum distracts him nor no trumpet can Although he hears the trumpet and … Continue reading