President Biden Gave Lady Gaga a New Job

Lady Gaga has a new line item to add to her résumé, right next to award-winning actress, beauty entrepreneur, and activist. Yesterday, the White House announced that the superstar singer would be the co-chair of President Joe Biden's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities — an organization that dates back to 1982 when it was created via executive order to advise the president on cultural policy. Historically, the first lady served as honorary chair of the committee, which has always been composed of members appointed by the president.

Gaga joins plenty of artists, scholars, and philanthropists, though she's only one of two co-chairs, alongside producer Bruce Cohen. Other members include musician Jon Batiste; Jennifer Garner, George Clooney, Kerry Washington, and superproducer Shonda Rhimes.

And, of course, it's not all about the star power. Members also include Constance M. Carroll, president of the California Community Colleges Baccalaureate Association; Harvard professor Philip J. Deloria; M. Angélica Garcia, president of Berkeley City College; art historian, museum director and curator Nora Halpern; bookstore owner and former congressman Steve Israel; producer-writer Marta Kauffman; producer Ricky Kirshner; Bad Robot's co-CEO Katie McGrath; Laura Penn, executive director of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society; artist and educator Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya; author and Stanford Professor Emeritus Arnold Rampersad; retired attorney and CPA Kimberly Richter Shirley; educator and journalist Horacio Sierra; writer and actress Anna Deavere Smith; singer-songwriter Joe Walsh; and Pauline Yu, president emerita of the American Council of Learned Sciences.

Deadline notes that the committee was "disbanded during the presidency of Donald Trump."

When sharing the news, President Biden promised that his administration would “advance the cultural vitality of the United States by promoting the arts, the humanities, and museum and library services,” including making efforts in advancing equity, accessibility, and opportunity. The order pledges to “strengthen America’s creative and cultural economy, including by enhancing and expanding opportunities for artists, humanities scholars, students, educators, and cultural heritage practitioners, as well as the museums, libraries, archives, historic sites, colleges and universities, and other institutions that support their work.”