On April 12, 2010, Joseph P. Riley, Jr., Mayor of Charleston, South Carolina, delivered the 23rd Annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy to a crowd of arts advocates and distinguished guests in the Concert Hall of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Mayor Riley’s speech focused on the art of city design and the role mayors can play in transforming their cities into dynamic and more livable cultural communities.

Mayor Riley closed his lecture with a call to action:

“I challenge all of us in our country to take the Mayor’s Institute to scale, to create a movement, to get everyone involved, to build on President Obama’s wonderful commitment to a national urban and metropolitan policy. Let’s have a White House conference on the arts and the art of city building.

“Let’s get everyone involved, every city, every governor, every state DOT, every school district, every corporation, everyone who has the opportunity to touch or to impact, to make a decision about the city, that they do it with the new understanding and appreciation that our nation’s success, cultural, social, and economic, depends on how great our towns and cities are.”

2010 Transcript

Welcoming Remarks
Robert L. Lynch
President and CEO, Americans for the Arts

Introduction
Senator Mark Begich (D-AK)

Lecture
The Honorable Joseph P. Riley, Jr.
Mayor, Charleston, SC

Performances
Washington Performing Arts Society's Men and Women of the Gospel Choir
Stanley J. Thurston, Artistic Director

Video Interview prior to the 2010 Nancy Hanks Lecture

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