Word: nea
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Despite congressional approval last week of a toned-down version of a controversial amendment banning federal aid for "obscene" art, Harvard's arts community said yesterday the restrictions still run contrary to the purpose of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA...
...NEA is important because it represents the symbol of public support. It's a catalyst," said Peter Walsh, director of publications and public relations at the Harvard University Arts museums. "I personally find the amendment's language general and vague--unenforceable...
Helms launched the furor this summer, when hedeclared the NEA-funded exhibits of photographersRobert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano offensiveand sacrilegeous. In particular, Helms and othercritics blasted the homoerotic content of some ofMapplethorpe's work and a Serrano picture of acrucifix submerged in urine...
...Widget to underwrite a Renoir show, or one of those PBS nature series (six hours of granola TV, with bugs copulating to Mozart). But try them with newer, more controversial, or more demanding work and watch the faces in the boardroom drop. Corporate is nervous money; it needs the NEA for reassurance as a Good Housekeeping Seal of approval. Our problem, despite conservative rant, is too little Government support for the arts, not too much. Even if we had a ministry of culture to parade the roosters, we would still need the NEA to look after the eggs...
Conversely, why bother to support what market Darwinism seems to condemn to obscurity? "I have fundamental questions," Helms grated, "about why the Federal Government is supporting artists the taxpayers have refused to support in the marketplace." But this was exactly what the NEA was created, in 1965, to do -- and it was the wisest of decisions. Lots of admirable art does badly at first; its rewards to the patron are not immediate and may never come. Hence the need for the NEA. It is there to help the self-realization of culture that is not immediately successful...