THE WHITE HOUSE

                  Office of the Press Secretary
_____________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                        October 11, 1994

                  Remarks by the First Lady
At Reception for the opening of 20th-Century Sculpture Exhibit
                  The First Ladies' Garden

     Good afternoon.  Welcome.  Welcome to the White House and
welcome to this garden.  I am particularly pleased that this
event could be held during October, which is Arts and Humanities
Month, and that so many of you who are such strong advocates and
supporters of the arts and humanities could join us here this
afternoon.  There are many people whom I wish to thank and will
do so toward the end of my remarks because it is an unusually
large number of people who have contributed to this occasion.
     Sculpture, has been one of my favorite art forms ever since
I was a young girl.  And not simply, as lore might have it,
because my first date with my husband was in the sculpture garden
of the Yale Gallery, but because of the way it spoke to me and
what it has always meant to me.  
     I know that all of you believe, as I do, that art has the
capacity to provoke our imaginations.  And I believe where there
is imagination there is hope, and where there is creative
expression there is potential for human progress.  And hope and
progress are concepts and ideals that are as important to us
today as they always have been in the history of our country. 
     Looking at the wonderful pieces that have been assembled in
this garden, we can see the variety and diversity and richness of
contemporary American sculpture.  And we can also see reflections
of ourselves and our society over the last one hundred years. 
     The idea for this exhibition was inspired, in part, by First
Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.  My brief, much too brief
friendship with her, left as indelible impression on me as she
did on the lives of so many.  And of course, this garden, which
is the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, is a lasting, living tribute to
the extraordinary contributions she made to the White House.
     Now some of our finest American artists and their art will
be available to an entirely new audience.  The thousands of
visitors who pass through the White House each day will be able
to look out the Colonnade windows and will be able to share in
the aesthetic beauty and the emotional power of these sculptures. 
That is extremely important to the President and myself.  
     We believe that art is not a marginal part of society, is
not a luxury, but that it has such extraordinary power and is
centered in our personal and collective experiences. Art
therefore should be as accessible to as many people as possible. 
     I have been lucky in my own life to live in places where
great art was close at hand.  I grew up in Chicago, I went to
college in Boston, I was in law school at Yale and was always
exposed to the museums, galleries and other places where art
thrived.  And it was in New Haven that I first saw works of some
of the sculptors represented here today.
     I also want this exhibition to celebrate the artists
themselves.  Most of us don't have the courage it takes to be an
artist.  The courage to unveil one's most profound emotions and
visions to outside scrutiny.  By sharing their feelings and their
ideas with us, these artists not only add beauty to our
surroundings here and around our country, they keep us from
becoming too sedate, too numb, too inured to the complexities and
the challenges of life.  So on behalf of the President and
myself, I would like to thank all of the artists--not only those
represented here, but those throughout our country who contribute
so much to the richness of our culture.  I would like to thank
the supporters of art and artists who help insure that art
reaches more and more of our people.  
     And I would like to thank all Americans for allowing us to
display this exhibit in the White House, which is in fact the
only home of a head of state anywhere in the world that does have
tourists come in nearly every day.  And we have now increased so
dramatically the numbers of tourists, that there will be, in the
months that this exhibit is on display, nearly a million people
who will see this, in this garden for the first time.  
      I would like to thank particularly the people who have made
this exhibit possible and I'd like to start with George Neubert,
the curator of this exhibit and the Director of the Sheldon
Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden at the University of
Nebraska, at Lincoln.  He has been an extraordinary help and
guide to this entire project and we are very grateful.  I would
also like thank Dr. Graham Spanier, the Chancellor of the
University of Nebraska, for giving George Neubert and the Sheldon
Art Gallery staff the time to work on this exhibit.  
     I also want to thank our dear friends from the Iris and B.
Gerald Cantor Foundation, whose generosity helped make this
possible.  And the Cantors have been such great friends, not only
of art and sculpture through the years, but of the President and
mine and we are very grateful for your being here and seeing this
come to fruition.  
     I'd also like to thank my friend, J. Carter Brown, who
worked diligently to take a concept and bring it to this
wonderful reality and also to wish him a belated happy birthday,
which he spent here at the installation in the sculpture garden
on Saturday.  
      And some of the artists whose works are represented in this
exhibit are with us today.  We thank, Richard Hunt, Bryan Hunt,
Ellsworth Kelly and George Segal, without whose artistry we would
not be here celebrating this great occasion.  
     And those lending institutions from my part of the country,
the Mid West, who have lent their treasures:  the Sheldon
Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden, the Washington
University Gallery of Art, the Akron Art Museum, the Museum of
Contemporary Art in Chicago and the Art Institute of Chicago, 
the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Minnesota Museum of American Art,
the Laumeler Sculpture Park and Museum in St. Louis, the Columbus
Museum of Art in Columbus, Ohio, and the Walker Art Center in
Minneapolis.  I am particular pleased that all of these
institutions could have contributed to this exhibit and that we
can say to all who ask how proud we are that these institutions 
are a part of this White House first for us.
     I also particularly want to thank and ask to stand as a
group, the members of the White House Preservation Committee and
the White House Historical Association, if you all would stand
because certainly we could not do any of this without your help. 
Thank you all very much.  I also want particularly to thank Rex
Scouten, the Curator of the White House, who knows everything
that happens here and ever did happen here.  And Sylvia Williams,
from the Smithsonian who is the President of the Association of
Art Museum Directors who helped make this exhibit possible.  And
really to thank all of you for caring about this wonderful house
and for caring about art. 
     It has been a real pleasure for both the President and me
during the months we've been privileged to live here, to explore
the nooks and crannies and to study with great interest and
delight the wonderful book, Art in the White House, to uncover
many of the treasures that are here and to try to add to the
impact that the White House can bring to the art and culture of
our times.  So with that, let me say thank you and please join me
for a reception up on the State Floor.  Thank you all very much.