Nearly 220,000 sign petition for US arts secretaryNearly 220,000 people have signed an online petition asking President Barack Obama to appoint the first ever US secretary of the arts, and hundreds of new names were being added hourly Friday.The online plea, posted in November by New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of musician Jaime Austria, is addressed to Obama and reads: "Your good friend Quincy Jones said, 'Next conversation I have with President Obama is to beg for a secretary of arts.' "We the undersigned un·der·signed adj. 1. Having signatures or a signature at the bottom or end. Used of documents. 2. Signed or having signed at the bottom or end of a document: support Quincy Jones' plea." When the petition was first put online after Jones made his plea for a US arts minister in a November radio interview, Austria and a group of art-militants were hoping for 10,000 signatures. "When we reached that, we were going to print out the petition, which the host site would allow us to do for one cent per signature," Austria told AFP (1) (AppleTalk Filing Protocol) The file sharing protocol used in an AppleTalk network. In order for non-Apple networks to access data in an AppleShare server, their protocols must translate into the AFP language. See file sharing protocol. . The 10,000 signature mark was reached in the first week of January and quickly surpassed as interest snowballed. The peak day for signatures was January 12, when nearly 20,000 people added their names. Among names seen on the petition by AFP was Vanessa Paradis Vanessa Chantal Paradis (born December 22 1972 in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, Val-de-Marne, France) is a French singer and actress. Career Vanessa Paradis was discovered on the TV show L'École des fans in 1980. . David Amram David Amram (born November 17 1930) is an American composer, musician, and writer. His eclectic use of jazz (including being the first noted for jazz French horn), ethnic and folk music has led him to work with the likes of Thelonious Monk, Willie Nelson, Charles Mingus, Leonard , composer-in-residence at the 2008 Democratic Party convention, signed it and left a comment. "We need this for the future of our country, to give young people the picture that the arts are crucial for everyone to advance their lives by pursuing excellence and developing creativity," Amram wrote. Gordon Gottlieb wrote: "Look at this as a potential bailout for our collective soul", and Lauren Belski said: "Art is the secret ingredient to a successful society ... and economy." A study last year by the organization Americans for the Arts Americans for the Arts is a nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in the United States. They describe themselves as being dedicated to representing and serving local communities and creating opportunities for every American to participate in and appreciate all forms of the showed the non-profit arts and culture industry in the United States generates 166.2 billion dollars in economic activity annually, 12.6 billion dollars in federal tax revenues, and created 5.7 million full-time jobs. The economic stimulus package approved by Congress this week includes 50 million dollars for the National Endowment for the Arts National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Independent agency of the U.S. government that supports the creation, dissemination, and performance of the arts. It was created by the U.S. , the largest annual funder of US arts. A petition on the same website against appointing a US arts secretary had six signatures on Friday. 
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