The Quincy-inspired petition calling on President Obama to create a secretary of arts just keeps growing. As of this writing, it has more than 214,000 signatures. It also continues to garner press coverage both at home and abroad.

One of the latest published pieces that includes information on the petition is Norman Lebrecht’s column, posted today (January 28), in the London-based Evening Standard.

In the article, headlined, “Barack Obama: Man with a culture plan,” Lebrecht writes: “The winds of change have been blowing ever since [Obama] won the election. On a New York radio show, the veteran music producer Quincy Jones announced that ‘one of the next conversations I have with President Obama is to beg for a Secretary of the Arts.’ Jones, 77, an ally of Martin Luther King and a founder of the Institute for Black American Music, put up an online petition in support of a cabinet voice for the arts. Almost 200,000 people have now signed. Jones urged during the campaign that music and arts should be put back into the syllabus of public schools. That idea was inserted into Obama’s manifesto. Change will soon be coming to subsistence-level, inner-city schools.”

For the record, Quincy is 75 and he didn’t put up the online petition. He inspired New York bass player Jaime Austria to do so after he heard a Q radio interview, but rest is accurate. Quincy, in fact, attended Martin Luther King’s funeral.

As Quincy wrote in his 2001 autobiography, Q, “I had never been that political before, but following the mule-drawn wagon carrying Dr. King’s casket through the streets of Memphis in a crowd of thousands pushed me right to the edge. I had gone down to the funeral with Marlon Brando, Haskell Wexler, James Baldwin, Norman Jewison, Tony Franciosa, Hal Ashby, and Cesar Chaves. We all slept on a hotel floor down there and we were enormously affected by the whole experience.”

You can read Norman Lebrecht’s complete column here.

You can enjoy Quincy speaking about his history and more in the video clip below from Music Industry Television via YouTube.

We recently discovered that the push for a secretary of the arts dates back to 1933, during the Great Depression, just a month after Quincy’s birth.

Peter Weitzner is the New York-based bass player who passed on a podcast of Q’s interview on WNYC’s Soundcheck to fellow bass player Jaime Austria, which inspired Austria to start the petition for the secretary of arts. Now Weitzner has dug up a clip from The New York Times, published on April 28, 1933, which gives the current drive for a secretary of arts some fascinating historical perspective.

The brief news story, headlined “NEW CABINET POST URGED,” states “a proposal that the Federal Government provide for a Secretary of Fine Arts in the President’s Cabinet was favorably received last night at the annual meeting of the Fine Arts Federation of New York.”

It goes on to report that the proposal was made by Joseph H. Freedlander, architect and president of the Federation, who was optimistic that Franklin Delano Roosevelt would create such a department in his government reorganization because the President “speaks our own language.’”

Fast forward nearly 76 years and America is facing its toughest economic period since the Great Depression. With inauguration of President Barack Obama yesterday (January 20), many Americans feel that we once again have a President that “speaks our own language.”

As of this writing, the petition calling for Obama to hear Quincy’s plea for a secretary of arts post is approaching 170,000 signees. We’re hoping that Obama hears the call.

You can view the headline from the news story from 1933 here, but you have to pay a fee to download the entire piece from The New York Times archives.

A great example of how Quincy’s quest to create a secretary of arts position in the U.S. has gone from a dream to a serious discussion occurred at the opening press conference of the Sundance Film Festival, Thursday (January 15) in Park City, Utah.

During the press conference, Sundance founder Robert Redford was “asked whether he could become a potential arts czar, which has become a pet cause of entertainment mogul Quincy Jones,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. Redford responded with a “succinct ‘no,’” according to The Reporter, and that’s certainly his prerogative. Yet the mere fact that the concept is up for discussion at a major entertainment news conference is amazing. We’re thrilled by the support for the petition — started New York bassists Jaime Austria and Peter Weitzner – continues to receive.

As of this writing, the number of signees on the petition has eclipsed the 125,000 mark. To put that in perspective, on Thursday (January 15) it was at 100,000, on Tuesday (January 13) it had 80,000 signees, and when we first reported on it in late November, there were just 1,000 signatures. According to data provided by Austria, on Monday (January 12) alone, the petition racked up nearly 20,000 new signees.

Aside from the snowballing signatures, the petition also continues to garner media coverage, both pro and con. Rolling Stone picks up the story today and NPR’s Morning Edition and Psychology Today blogger Cathy Malchiodi have thoughtful pieces about the debate over government involvement in the arts and whether such a position is needed. (Malchiodi even posted a video clip from Q’s book signing that we shot. We’ve posted it again below).

You can read The Hollywood Reporter’s Sundance coverage here. (Quincy and the secretary of arts concept are mentioned in the third paragraph from the bottom.)

Read Rolling Stone’s coverage here.

Listen to NPR’s Morning Edition segment here.

Check out Psychology Today’s blog by Cathy Malchiodi here.

In less than two months, the petition asking President-elect Barack Obama to name a secretary of the arts to his cabinet now has more than 100,000 signees and continues to grow at an incredible rate. 

The petition was created by Jaime Austria, who plays bass for the New York City Opera and the American Ballet Theatre Orchestra, after he heard Quincy saying he plans to ask President-elect Barack Obama to create a secretary of the arts position on a podcast of WNYC’s Soundcheck. That podcast was sent to Austria by his friend, fellow bass player, Peter Weitzner.

With all the media attention surrounding the petition, both Austria and Weitzner are fielding interview requests from a number of outlets in the U.S. and abroad, including the Irish Times and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation.

As Austria wrote in a message to us this morning, “This has gone global!” He also noted that the representative from the latter outlet signed her letter, “a country with a secretary of arts.”

Stay tuned.

On Monday (January 12), the petition was featured in the Los Angeles Times blog Culture Monster. How fast is the petition growing? Consider this: When L.A. Times blogger Lisa Fung posted her item at 12:31 p.m. on January 12, she wrote, “So far, more than 63,000 people have signed.” As of this writing, the petition has more than 83,000. As Fung wrote, “With ’spread the word’ e-mails recently making the rounds on the Left Coast” it shows no signs of slowing down. 

Jaime Austria, who plays bass for the New York City Opera and the American Ballet Theatre Orchestra, started the petition after hearing Quincy saying he plans to ask President-elect Barack Obama to create a secretary of the arts post on a podcast of WNYC’s Soundcheck.

With all the interest in the petition, we thought it’s as good a time as any to repost a link to that interview. You can listen it below.

Unlike some of the other posts in our The Year in Q series, this one happily isn’t just a look back at a past highlight, but an ongoing concern.

One of the causes that Quincy championed in 2008 was his call for a secretary of the arts. That call was heard loud and clear by Q fans around the world, including Jaime Austria, who plays bass for the New York City Opera and the American Ballet Theatre Orchestra. 

Inspired by hearing Quincy call for a secretary of the arts on a podcast of WNYC’s Soundcheck, Austria created an online petition to President-elect Barack Obama asking him to heed Quincy’s call and create a secretary of the arts post. 

When we first reported on the petition, back in late November, it had more than 1,000 signatures. Austria recently notified us that the number of signatures has multiplied tenfold and now includes more than 10,000 signees. He also pointed out that the list sports many famous names, including singers Marni Nixon and Joan Wile; saxophonists James Moody, Charles Lloyd, Phil Woods, and Branford Marsalis; composers Snuffy Walden, John Corigliano, and David Amram; conductor Marin Alsop, instrumentalist/composer/arranger Jimmy Heath; and drummer Jack DeJohnette.

The petition also continues to garner press attention. First Philanthropy.com reported on it and today The Baltimore Sun classical music critic, Tim Smith, highlighted the petition in his Clef Notes column. You can view it here.

During the question-and-answer segment at Q’s book signing of The Complete Quincy Jones: My Journey & Passions at Barnes & Noble in Santa Monica in December, noted music journalist Don Heckman asked Quincy what he’d do first if Obama created a secretary of arts post and appointed him to the position.

In his response, in the video clip below, Quincy praised Obama’s cabinet appointments, mentioned the music summit announced during the Q Prize honors (made possible by Audemars Piguet and The Harvard School of Public Health), and the recent dedication of a performing arts center in his name at his Alma matter, Garfield High School in Seattle.

Quincy’s call for a U.S. secretary of the arts has inspired an online petition. It was during his recent interview with John Schaefer on WNYC’s Soundcheck that Quincy let the words fly. “The next conversation I have with President [-elect Barack] Obama is to beg for a secretary of the arts,” he said.

During his travels Quincy has observed that people in other countries seem to have greater appreciation for American music than Americans. He hopes the creation of a secretary of the arts in the U.S. will help preserve American music and other U.S. arts and ensure that they remain a vital part of our schools’ curriculum.

One listener who heard Q’s call is Jaime Austria, who plays bass for the New York City Opera and the American Ballet Theatre Orchestra. Austria was directed to listen to a podcast of Quincy’s Soundcheck interview by a friend involved in the New York branch of El Sistema, the organization founded by recent Q Prize co-recipient Dr. José Antonio Abreu. Born in the Philippines, Austria immigrated to the U.S. where he attended the Manhattan School of Music. He has a deep love for American music, particularly jazz.

“As soon as I heard Quincy use the words that he would beg Obama for secretary of arts, I rushed to my computer and typed out a petition.” In fact, Austria admits that he was in such a rush he initially misspelled Obama’s first name and Schaefer’s last name. Nonetheless, word is spreading. As of this writing, the online petition — viewable here — has more than 1,000 signatures.

 Austria is optimistic that this grassroots effort to mobilize like-minded individuals will make Quincy’s dream for a secretary of the arts a reality. Stay tuned.