Meet the New Executive Director of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH)

In this podcast,  we meet Tsione Wolde-Michael, the new executive director of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH.) Wolde-Michael talks about her background growing up in the twin cities as a 1st generation child born to Ethiopian immigrants, her pull towards history and her desire to work in public history where she was able to do transformative work that would reach a broad and diverse audience. We discuss her time as part of the inaugural staff at the National Museum of African American Art and Culture, her work on the exhibit “Slavery and Freedom” and the museum’s Slave Wrecks Project, her founding of the Center of Restorative History at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and some of the center’s programs. Wolde-Michael gives us a little background about the history of PCAH and President Biden’s recent executive order which not only reinstituted PCAH but expanded its mission.  She also discusses moving from her role as public historian to directing PCAH and the ways in which her previous experience prepared her for this new appointment. Let us know what you think about Art Works—email us at artworkspod@arts.gov.