National Endowment for the Arts Announces Tony Chauveaux to Serve as Deputy Chairman; Texas Arts Commission Chairman Appointed NEA Deputy of Grants and Awards

Business Wire, Sept 30, 2003

Entertainment Editors/Business Editors

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 30, 2003

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Dana Gioia announced today that Texas Arts Commission Chairman Tony Chauveaux will serve as the agency's Deputy Chairman of Grants and Awards. In this position, Chauveaux will be responsible for the planning and management of all discipline-based grants and awards and will serve as principal adviser to the Chairman and Senior Deputy Chairman on the development and management of grant categories and related agency activities. He will participate with the Chairman, Senior Deputy Chairman and other top-level agency officials in formulation of Arts Endowment policies and programs in support of the arts.

Chauveaux, 52, will assume his new position on Oct. 20, 2003.

"I'm pleased to bring on board such a dedicated and experienced person to manage the core work of the Arts Endowment -- its central grantmaking operation," said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia. "I know his great enthusiasm for the arts and his knowledge of the field will make him an enormous asset to the agency."

A member of the Texas Commission on the Arts since 1997, Chauveaux has served as Commission Chair since his appointment by then-Governor Bush in June 2000. Chauveaux's public service also includes board membership on numerous other arts organizations, including the Mid-America Arts Alliance, the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies and the Institute of Texan Cultures at the University of Texas at San Antonio. In his hometown of Beaumont, he has served as Vice President of the Jefferson Theater for the Performing Arts, President of the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Vice President of the Symphony of Southeast Texas, and President of Friends of the Arts at Lamar University. In 1996, he received the Southeast Texas Arts Council Award for Outstanding Achievement by an Arts Volunteer.

Chauveaux is also a self-employed lawyer and has practiced corporate law for more than 15 years at the Beaumont firm of Crutchfield, DeCordova & Chauveaux. He received a law degree from St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio and a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin. He was raised on a ranch in the Texas Panhandle near the town of Claude.

For more information or to request an electronic image of Tony Chauveaux, please contact the NEA Office of Communications at 202-682-5570.