Ryan Lerer on WNYC.

With us now is the president of the Juilliard School.

You know the place right near Lincoln Center.

You know the worldwide reputation.

Damien Wetzel.

And it's not just the Juilliard School of Music, as people may think of it. They also do dance and drama education.

And he is here to talk about the school, performing arts education generally, and access to music and other performing arts education.

One of President Wetzel's dreams, I'm told, is to make Juilliard tuition free.

President Wetzel, thanks so much for joining us.

Welcome to WNYC.

Thanks so much, Brian.

Great to talk with you again.

It's been a little while, and it's great to touch base. Yeah. And just to make the segue

from the politics that we usually talk about on this show, you were once a member of President

Obama's committee on the arts and humanities, right? And what was that? What was the context of advising a president of the

United States, which is a political position, not a, you know, creative arts position per se,

advising the president of the United States on the arts?

Well, in a word, it was thrilling, I will say. I served for eight years on that committee

alongside a huge range of artists from Yoyama and Kerry Washington to Chuck Close and others.

And the whole idea was, and the president actually said that at this point, at one point.

We walked into a room where we were meeting about a landmark study that we'd commissioned

on the state of arts education, and he said, okay, what are we going to do?

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