President Joe Biden has appointed Lady Gaga as co-chair of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH), alongside producer Bruce Cohen (American Beauty, Silver Linings Playbook).
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“Welcome newly appointed members of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, led by Bruce Cohen and Lady Gaga,” read a post on the official committee’s Twitter account. “We look forward to partnering to positively impact the arts, libraries, museums, and humanities work across the country.”
Joining co-chairs Gaga and Cohen on the committee are its appointed members, including musicians Joe Walsh and Jon Batiste, along with actors Kerry Washington, George Clooney, Jennifer Garner, and Troy Kotsur, and television and film writers Shonda Rhimes and Marta Kauffman, among several others.
Created by executive order in 1982, the PCAH functions to “advise the President on cultural policy,” according to its official descriptor, and to help “enhance federal support for the arts, humanities, and museum and library services.”
During the Obama-Biden Administration Cohen served as the entertainment industry liaison for Joining Forces, an initiative supporting service men and women and veterans, founded by Michelle Obama and First Lady Jill Biden.
Through the Obama’s production company, Higher Ground, Cohen also recently produced the upcoming Netflix film Rustin, based on the story of the late civil rights activist Bayard Rustin.
A supporter of LGBTQI+ rights and mental health awareness, Gaga previously traveled with President Biden to support the It’s On Us campaign to combat on-campus sexual assaults.
Along with her mother Cynthia Germanotta, Gaga founded the Born This Way Foundation, which supports the mental health of young people. In 2020, she also curated a televised concert benefitting the World Health Organization COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, which helped raise more than $128 million.
Gaga, who wrapped up filming the upcoming DC Studios film Joker: Folie a Deux, starring Joaquin Phoenix, recently received her fourth Oscar nomination for Best Original Song for co-writing “Hold My Hand” from the 2022 film Top Gun: Maverick.
. Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images
