WILL THE OBAMAS' INTEREST IN THE ARTS CREATE AN INFLATION OF APPRECIATION?

Barack and Michelle Obama and their daughters spent the evening of Feb. 6 in the presidential box at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, applauding the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Evidently it was the first family’s idea of a fun Friday night out. But in a capital where every presidential inflection and turn of phrase is parsed for glimmers of meaning, that front-and-center display of enthusiasm for one of the “high” or “classic” arts boomed like a 21-gun salute. Read more.