UPDATE: [ed. note: The Washington Times reports … Another Americans for the Arts participant on August 10 call.] END UPDATE

Americans for the Arts has recently sent a request to Big Hollywood to retract the statement that they were a participant in the August 10th National Endowment for the Arts conference call: [emphasis added]



Robert Lynch President and CEO, Americans for the Arts

“Immediate corrections about Americans for the Arts need to be made to stories that you have published in various newspapers, blogs, television, and radio programs.

“Americans for the Arts was not a participant on an August 10, 2009, conference call involving the National Endowment for the Arts. …

“The Washington Times later published an unconfirmed invitation list to the August 10 conference call, speculating that actress Kerry Washington had participated on the call. The affiliation next to Ms. Washington’s name is incorrect. Ms. Washington is not, nor has ever been, a board member of Americans for the Arts.”

During the conference call in question, it was suggested by a participant that the moderator, Michael Skolnik, send a contact list for all those that were on the call. We were then requested by Skolnik to send our contact information for a contact list that would be distributed later in the week:

SKOLNIK: Mark, great suggestion and we will. If anyone has not e-mailed directly –this is Michael again — please do so, and I’ll give you my e-mail address. I think I’ve heard from most of you. But just in case you’ve spoken to Yosi or someone else, please e-mail me with your contact information. I’ve put together a large list of the people. So my e-mail is … I will definitely distribute an e-mail list by the middle of this week.

Two days later, on August 12th, Skolnik sent the following email [click to enlarge] to the group. In the email, at the end of the first paragraph, he states, “please find attached a contact list for those who were on the call.”

In the attachment was a full list of those that participated on the conference call. Included in the list was Kerry Washington. Her bio reads:

actress/arts activist. She sits on the board of The Creative Coalition and Americans for The Arts (arts and arts education advocacy organizations) and serves on the board of two organizations committed to the use of theater arts for social change: V-day and The People Speak.

[ed. note: below is a document created from the original spreadsheet Michael Skolnik attached to his email.]

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