Culture Chronicle

At NEA, A Daring Idea to Help Artists Rises Again The Denver Post - May 23, 2010 By John Wenzel

The tale is a cautionary one, told many times by both artists and politicians -- and always with a tinge of regret.

The National Endowment for the Arts, never far from controversy since its creation in 1965, was consumed by a tornado of charged rhetoric in the late 1980s and early '90s as conservative leaders attacked the controversial work of artists it funded.

It was touched off in part by Andres Serrano's photo of a plastic crucifix drowned in a bottle of the artist's urine, but it didn't end there.

As more voices denounced the apparently profane, insulting work the NEA funded, the chilling effect was swift. Potentially controversial works were canceled; funding was pulled from dozens of projects. And the most lasting bit of fallout: Congress canceled NEA funding for individual artists.

Given that, wouldn't it seem foolish to bring up the idea of funding individual artists again? For the full article, click here