Zelda Fichandler, Founding Director of Arena Stage in Washington, D.C./Chair of the Graduate Acting Program and Master Teacher of Acting and Directing at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, gave the 15th Annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy on March 11, 2002 at the The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. 

About the lecture: 

Nancy Hank served as president of Americans for the Arts (formerly the American Council for the Arts) from 1968 to 1969, when she was appointed chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, a position she served through 1977.  During her eight-year tenure at the National Endowment for the Arts, the agency's budget grew 1,400 percent.  Until her death 1983, Nancy Hanks worked hard to bring national prominence to the arts.  The Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy was established in 1988 to honor the memory of Nancy Hanks and to provide an opportunity for public discourse at the highest levels on the importance of the arts and culture to the nation's well-being.