Proclamation 5741—National Arts Week, 1987

The arts lie at the heart of our Nation and of the heritage we cherish. The freedom we enjoy allows our arts to breathe the spirit of liberty and to ennoble, inspire, and nourish us. During National Arts Week, when we celebrate the arts and thank the artists, patrons, and audiences who give them life, we salute a precious dimension of America.

From our early days as a Nation, countless public-minded citizens have considered support of culture and the arts their joy and their responsibility. Their efforts have brought about an American partnership among individuals, corporations, foundations, and taxpayers that sustains the arts and makes them accessible throughout our land.

Across America the arts are flourishing. Everywhere, individual artists are at work, and symphony orchestras, museums, theaters, dance and opera companies, and folk arts groups are busy in cities and towns alike. As we express our gratitude to these Americans we also renew our commitment to the partnership that supports them and brings their work, and that of the rest of the world, to American audiences—and we reaffirm our devotion to the life of the mind and the soul.

The Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 154, has designated the period of November 15 through November 22, 1987, as "National Arts Week" and authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this event.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the period of November 15 through November 22, 1987, as National Arts Week. I encourage the people of the United States to observe this period with appropriate ceremonies, programs, and activities.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 12th day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twelfth.

RONALD REAGAN