From a column I wrote back in January, 2014.  Read the whole thing HERE.

The anticipation of how Presidents will relate to the arts is often amusing. Broadly speaking, there’s an assumption that Democrats will help them and Republicans hurt them.  In terms of the budget of the National Endowment for the Arts, however, that doesn’t hold water.  And it’s still JFK that has the reputation of being the best friend to the arts of any recent president, when it was his successor LBJ who signed the NEA into law and signed the bill creating the National Cultural Center (christened the JFK Center for the Performing Arts), and it was Richard Nixon who endorsed the first big expansion of the NEA’s budget and its mission.

Nixon was also one of a handful of presidents who played a musical instrument, although it’s uncertain how much that influenced his attitude toward the NEA. Nixon played the piano and the violin, and to my knowledge is the only President who performed one of his own compositions in public, on the old Jack Parr television show back in 1963.

Harry Truman played the piano, and Thomas Jefferson and Woodrow Wilson both played the violin. Bill Clinton played the saxophone and even made the All-State band in high school. Warren G. Harding also played in his high school band, and could play almost every single instrument except the trombone.  While a senator, he played the Sousaphone in a group called the “Caledonia Silver Cornet Band.”  John Philip Sousa dedicated his “Keeping Step with the Union” march to Harding’s wife.

But not every President was so inclined.  Ulysses S. Grant with his tin ear was perhaps at the other end of the spectrum from Harding. “I only know two tunes,” he once admitted. “One of them is Yankee Doodle and the other isn’t.”

I don’t know if Gerald Ford played an instrument, but he made one of the better comments about music I’ve heard from a President. “Music education opens doors that help children pass from school into the world around them,” he said. “The future of our nation depends on providing our children with a complete education that includes music.”

There’s no question that when Presidents engage in the arts—or even occasionally emphasize their importance—a good portion of the public pays attention. But it would require focused, constant support from the White House for the presidency to make any difference in how seriously the public takes them. Unfortunately, most administrations offer the arts no more than passing attention.