Does the NEA still matter?
Posted by Martha Lavey on 9/14/2009
Rocco Landesman, the new chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, has little patience for the disdain with which some politicians still seem to view the organization.
In a recent New York Times profile Landesman, the new chair of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), generated controversy by declaring that it was the responsiblity of the NEA to reward excellence and that the recent history of the Endowment to democratize the arts needed to be tempered by a discrimination and recognition of artistic merit.
His remarks are an implicit acknowledgment of the role that the NEA occupied in the “culture wars” of the past decade when the NEA was cited as an example of the “decadent” and “elitist” culture of the arts. The response to that conflict by the agency was to fight for its political survival by emphasizing a support for arts education. The agency rescinded its policy of support for individual artists and instead, turned its effort toward making the arts more available to a larger constituency. The result was that the agency placed great value on the educational, social efficacies of the arts (diversity, access, community) and avoided the controversies generated by work that could be deemed “profane,” “faithless,” “elitist.”
What do you think the role of the National Endowment should be? Do you agree with Landesman that it is time for the agency to demand greater funding and to make bold in its granting practices? What can the Endowment do? Does a government agency, dedicated to the advocacy and support of the arts, still matter?
September 30th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
I think Landesman is picking a fight that he probably can’t win. I absolutely believe its been long overdue for someone to make some noise raise the awareness of this issue. The problem is, who’s going to listen.
I don’t think it should be the job of the US Government to fund any kind of art anymore. If anything, I think funding is a job best suited for the individual who wants to create their art. I think the NEA in its current form has run its course. I think that now is a good time for artists and art based organizations to take a more proactive role in their fate. Art exitsed before the creation of the NEA and it will exist after its gone.
I would hazard a guess that most of the plays made on the Steppenwolf stage do not carry a large label in the program or a sign in the lobby prominently stating that the play you are about to watch was made from and because of your government tax dollars. Its not in the program last time I looked. What is in the program is the name of the various artists who helped create, imagine and produce those plays. Further in the program are the names of the various individuals who helped those artists by giving their dollars. Those are the people that make it happen, not the government.