Word: nea
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LAST OCTOBER, Congress approved a measure sponsored by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) that took away the NEA's ability to make its funding decisions on the basis of promise and merit. Now artists--or organizations that sponsor artists--applying for a grant must sign a pledge promising not to produce anything that may be considered "obscene." The Helms wording defines obscenity as that which "appeals to a prurient interest," "depicts or describes in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct" and "taken as a whole, lacks serious artistic and cultural value...
Several important NEA and NEH grant recipients--including Joseph Papp of the New York Shakespeare Festival--already have announced their intentions to refuse grant money, totaling more than $300,000, until Congress changes the law. Rep. Pat Williams (D-Mont.) and Sen. Claiborne Pell (R-R.I.) have introduced legislation to free the NEA and NEH from constraint for at least five years...
Harvard can afford to join the chorus of voices in support of the new bill, thereby improving its odds of passage. As a percentage of its total budget, Harvard receives relatively little NEA money, so refusing to accept any grants would have little effect on the operations of the University...
...case is different with the American Repertory Theater (ART). About $400,000--9 percent of its operating budget--came from NEA funds last year. Refusing to sign the obscenity pledge would severely hurt the organization's ability to operate. But accepting the money, on the other hand, would blast the group's artistic integrity...
...case, no one who applies for NEA grants plans to be obscene. The late Robert Mapplethorpe--whose homoerotic photographs put Helms on the warpath in the first place--surely did not consider his pictures obscene, or gross, or even mildly icky...