Bill Ivey

William James Ivey (September 6, 1944 – November 7, 2025) was an American folklorist and author. He was chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) from 1998 to 2001 and chairman of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) from 1981 to 1983 and 1989 to 1991.

Early life William James Ivey was born in Detroit, Michigan, on September 6, 1944. He was reared in Calumet, a mining town located in the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

He also served as the chairman of the NARAS from 1981 to 1983 and then again from 1989 to 1991, the only individual elected to two separate terms. and in 1994 President Bill Clinton appointed Ivey to the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

Following government service Ivey founded the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy, at Vanderbilt University, serving as director from 2002 to 2012. The center was endowed by Mike Curb, American musician, record company executive, motorsports car owner, and former politician. He returned to Washington in 2007 as team leader in arts and humanities for the Barack Obama presidential transition. Ivey has written and lectured extensively about the importance of cultural policy and the value of cultural engagement in the pursuit of a high quality of life. He coined the phrase "Expressive Life" to define the part of the human experience shaped by cultural heritage and creative practice. From 2007 to 2018, Ivey was senior advisor for China to the American Folklore Society. has been awarded honorary degrees from the University of Michigan, Michigan Technological University, Wayne State University, and Indiana University, and was a four-time Grammy Award nominee in the Best Album Notes category. Ivey served as senior advisor to the Mike Curb Foundation, as a trustee of the Washington, D.C.–based Center for American Progress, and was visiting research scholar to the Indiana University Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology. including producing and writing Country Music Hall of Fame: 25. Ivey was advisor to the PBS television series, American Roots Music, and was writer and co-producer of In the Hank Williams Tradition, also on PBS. In 2016, he was co-executive producer of the documentary on the impact of rock music on the collapse of the Soviet Union, Free to Rock.

Writing In 2007, Ivey co-edited, with Steven Tepper, the book Engaging Art: the Next Great Transformation of America's Cultural, and In 2008 Ivey's book Arts, Inc.: How Greed and Neglect Have Destroyed Our Cultural Rights was published by the University of California Press. Cultural Awareness in the Military: Developments and Implications for Future Humanitarian Cooperation, and Cultural Discourse: China-US Intangible Cultural Heritage Forums. He has also written articles on the music industry and the role of various players within it. Ivey has also written about music history, including the lack of diverse representation in the early decades of 20th century music recording.

Personal life and death Ivey lived in Nashville, and at the time of his death, was in a relationship with Susan Keffer.