Artistic freedom
Mike Yared
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/culture/
The Bush administration has been in office for nearly a year, but
Republican views on arts funding have yet to affect the National
Endowment for the Arts.
A survey of the NEA's newest package of 819 grants totaling $19.4
million reveals considerable variety and a wide range of political
views, contrary to predictions that a Republication administration
would squelch avant-garde art.
Only one grant is known to have been rejected from the NEA's
winter package, which is to be released today. It is the smaller of
the NEA's two annual grant announcements and reflects decisions made
in November by the agency's 20-member council.
The council is made up of Clinton appointees, half of whom are
serving on expired terms because the White House has not yet replaced
them. One member's term expired in 1998, six expired in 2000 and one
was to expire this year. One of six slots on the council for a member
of Congress is also vacant.
Michael P. Hammond, President Bush's nomination for chairman of
the NEA, is awaiting Senate confirmation. Mr. Hammond is dean of the
Rice University School of Music in Houston. Rice received a $20,000
grant during this funding cycle for a publication documenting an
architecture project on "shotgun houses," which are American row
houses with African origins.
The rejected grant came from the Maine College of Art, which
applied for funding for an exhibition by William Pope.L, a performance
artist. He may be best known for a performance work in which he walked
around the Harlem section of New York wearing a plastic male sex organ
that occasionally deposited an egg onto the sidewalk.
The application for his project apparently was approved by the
council but rejected by acting Chairman Robert S. Martin, a Bush
appointee. NEA spokesman Mark Weinberg refused comment on the topic.
Mr. Pope.L this year planned to wear a Superman suit and crawl
from his mother's house in the Bronx to the Statue of Liberty. It was
not clear how the artist proposed to complete the last part of his
journey, with the statue surrounded by water.
In other works, Mr. Pope.L, who is black, covered himself with
mayonnaise to symbolize "bogus whiteness" for one 1991 work at the
Franklin Furnace, a New York performance art space.
Although the vast majority of NEA grants went to dance, theater
and opera companies, a few showed political tilt.
For instance, Feminist Press Inc. of New York received a $10,000
grant for its work with the International Woman's Writing Project.
Upcoming books include "Dance with a Poor Man's Daughter" by South
African author Pamela Jooste and "The Rape of Sita," a novel by
Lindsey Collen exploring Mauritanian society.
Oakland Community College in Farmington Hills, Mich., received
$5,000 to fund a special issue of Witness magazine, a liberal
Episcopal publication. The issue will deal with aging in America.
The Austin Film Society received $20,000 for post-production
costs for "Let It Roll: A History of the Texas Penitentiary," a
documentary on an inmate-led revolt in the 1960s and 1970s.
Frameline of San Francisco received $16,000 for a film series
sponsored by Modern Masters of Lesbian and Gay Cinema on filmmakers
who influenced homosexual media in the past 25 years.
The Kitchen, a Manhattan theater, will get $20,000 for a workshop
for students and young professionals known as the Sidney Kahn Summer
Institute. The Kitchen and its parent company, Haleakala Inc., has
featured explicit acts by feminist and homosexual performers.
Larger grants included $100,000 given to the Alvin Ailey American
Dance Theater for an upcoming national tour encompassing 95 shows in
24 cities in 16 states. The Art Institute of Chicago received $90,000
to support a touring exhibition, "Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure."
The oddest grant may be $20,000 given for the architectural
design of an eagle aviary for the Zuni Pueblo, an Indian reservation
in far western New Mexico.
Local grants to Virginia organizations totaled $132,000,
including $60,000 to Associated Writing Programs of Fairfax for
production and distribution costs of a job list, Web site, magazine
and its 2003 conference in Baltimore. The Roanoke Symphony got $5,000
for a new work by composer Margaret Brouwer, to be premiered in the
spring of 2003. The Virginia Waterfront International Arts Festival in
Norfolk got $5,000 to fund performances by two dance companies.
Maryland received $140,000 in grants, including $15,000 to the
Baltimore Choral Arts Society for a work titled "Sing for the Cure."
Center Stage Associates in Baltimore got $50,000 to support production
of Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale," and the Round House Theatre in
Silver Spring got $18,000 to support the world premiere of
"Shakespeare, Moses and Joe Papp," a play by Ernest Joselovitz.
The District got $641,000 in grants, including $30,000 to the
Wooly Mammoth Theatre Co. for its production of "Big Love" by Charles
Mee. The Washington Performing Arts Society received two grants of
$40,000 and $20,000 for separate projects and the Shakespeare Theatre
got $60,000 for the production of "The Duchess of Malfi," by Jacobean
playwright John Webster.
The National Symphony Orchestra got $75,000 for a festival
celebrating the contributions of foreign-born composers. Studio
Theatre Inc. got $25,000 to support the production of Sophy Burnham's
new play, "Imagined Prometheus." Dance/USA got $80,000 to support
various round tables, regional forums and its 2003 winter council
meeting.
Literary scholarships of $20,000 each were handed out to these
regional writers: Matthew Klam of the District, Paul J. Hendrickson of
Takoma Park, Barbara Hurd of Frostburg, Md., Chris Adrian of Norfolk
and Christi Ann Merrill of Charlottesville.
The National Endowment for the Humanities, a sister agency to the
NEA, also has 13 seats on its 26-member council waiting to be filled
by the Bush administration. Its new chairman, Bruce Cole, started work
there last week.