Entire President's Arts Committee Resigns In Protest Over Charlottesville

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) – All members of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities resigned Friday in protest over President Donald Trump's response to the violence in Charlottesville.

In an open letter to the president, the members wrote: "Reproach and censure in the strongest possible terms are necessary following your support of the hate groups and terrorists who killed and injured fellow Americans."

The letter was signed by all 17 members, including actor Kal Penn, theater director and playwright George C. Wolfe and painter Chuck Close; all were holdover appointees from President Barack Obama's administration. Several were based out of Los Angeles.

"Ignoring your hateful rhetoric would have made us complicit in your words and actions," the letter read.

The PCAH was created in 1982 as an advisory committee to the White House. It works closely with the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities and Institute of Museum and Library Services.

The letter closes with the members writing: "Supremacy, discrimination, and vitriol are not American values. Your values are not American values. We must be better than this. If this is not clear to you, then we call on you to resign your office, too."