Lady Gaga, Bruce Cohen to Lead Biden’s Revived Arts and Humanities Committee

Lady Gaga and producer Bruce Cohen (American Beauty, Silver Linings Playbook) on Thursday were appointed co-chairs of President Joe Biden’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, a board featuring top names across the arts tasked with advising the president on cultural issues.

The committee is making its return after a five-year hiatus, when the board disbanded under the Trump administration in protest of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, in which Trump had said there were “very fine people on both sides” of the clash that left one dead. At the time, the 17-member committee sent a letter to then President Trump to decry his “hateful rhetoric” and denounced his efforts to eliminate or severely reduce budgets dedicated to the arts and humanities.

“We cannot sit idly by, the way that your West Wing advisors have, without speaking out against your words and actions,” the letter said, which was signed by committee members like Kal Penn and the artist Chuck Close.

Now, the board is making a return. Last October, President Biden issued an executive order to reinstate the committee, describing the arts and humanities as “essential to the well-being, health, vitality and democracy of our nation.” In addition to Gaga and Cohen, committee members will include Jon Batiste, George Clooney, Jennifer Garner, Troy Kotsur, Shonda Rhimes and Kerry Washington.

See below for the full list of committee members.