Public Funding And The Arts And Humanities David Mendoza National Campaign for Freedom of Expression Seattle, Washington & Washington, D.C. Public support for the arts and humanities is not an indulgence, but a necessity. In recent years, attacks from the radical right have threatened to hamper freedom of expression. This article outlines ways you can help protect society's vital signs inherent in free expression. In early 1989, the arts became the focus of attacks by the radical religious right, thus adding the arts and humanities to the list of targets in their "Culture War." The initial volleys came from the Reverend Donald Wildmon, head of the American Family Association in Tupelo, Mississippi, to be taken up by Senator Jesse Helms. Since then, the arts and humanities have been one of the most visible and constant battlegrounds of the radical religious right. During the 1992 presidential campaign, Pat Buchanan used the National Endowment for the Arts to attack George Bush after the New Hampshire primary, leading to the dismissal of John Frohnmayer, who was then the NEA chairman. After the election, the right focused on President Clinton's appointments to lead the NEA and National Endowment for the Humanities. Buchanan and others attempted unsuccessfully to derail the nomination of Sheldon Hackney as NEH chair. Why the arts and humanities? The arts and humanities produced in our time will reflect our society's dreams and ideas, hopes and fears, mistakes and advancements, for generations to come. The arts - literature, visual, design, music, theater, dance, film and the humanities - history, languages, society, philosophy, religion, and politics - represent the entire spectrum of culture. Inherent in the American cultural ideal, these disciplines explore new directions, challenge the status quo, and confront the most complex social issues of our time, including some that the radical right considers offensive or contrary to their world view. These include feminism, sexual orientation, multiculturalism and diversity, revisionist history, environmentalism, and reproductive rights. The mark of a great society is its culture: its arts and humanities. These are the evidence of civilization left to posterity long after the people and societies that conceived and created them have returned to dust. Public funding for the arts and humanities, therefore, is not a matter of indulgence but of necessity. The arts and humanities serve multiple national purposes that merit public support, including: Education, not just by imparting knowledge, but by enhancing cognitive development, improving analytical thinking, motivation, inspiring teamwork, and improving self-esteem; Fostering a sense of community by promoting understanding of history, cultures, and ideas; Instilling social values by helping people recognize common bonds and connections to spirituality; Stimulating the economy through positive impact on job creation, tax base enhancement, increased tourism, improved community development, and growth of auxiliary service jobs. All of these purposes can be realized only if freedom of expression is protected. While not very large in budgetary terms, the programs of the NEA and NEH serve as an important catalyst and source of recognition for artists and arts programs throughout the country. Beyond this, these agencies were founded in part to represent the principle commitment on the part of the nation to the protection and furtherance of cultural diversity and freedom of expression. Diversity can lead to divisiveness, or it can be a source of energy, vitality, imagination, and creativity. The purpose of the arts and humanities is to develop a shared understanding and respect for diversity in order to ensure that diversity is a source of strength, not a weakness. Free expression debate, discussion, even outrage are recognized as freedom's vital signs. The arts and humanities can speak of things that cannot be spoken of in any other way. Censorship kills imagination, squelches creativity, stifles intellectual inquiry, and drains vitality from a society and its culture. Free societies embrace the opportunity to bring the arts and humanities, unrestricted and uncensored, to those who, without public support, might be excluded from access. Those who are not free to question or offend the status quo, as well as those who are not free to encounter, comment upon and criticize such expression, are not equal participants in a democratic society. And those who withstand the pointed criticisms of others are strengthened in their beliefs. For five years, British writer Salman Rushdie has been under a death warrant (a fatwa) issued by the Iranian government for exercising his freedom of artistic expression. Rushdie says: "Free societies are societies in motion, and with motion comes tension, dissent, friction. Free people strike sparks, and those sparks are the best evidence of freedom's existence." What YOU Can DO The following straightforward tasks can be undertaken by individual citizens and/or groups and can have a significant impact on freedom of expression. INFORM YOURSELF Get the facts on current issues and events surrounding attacks on freedom of expression. Stay informed. Things are happening constantly these days. Keep your ears and eyes open The main battle over freedom of expression and the arts and humanities involves "public funding" i.e. "taxpayers dollars." In 1960 the move toward providing public (government) support to the arts and humanities began. In that year the New York State Council on the Arts was created by then-Governor Nelson Rockefeller. In 1965 the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities were created under President Lyndon Johnson. Since then, every state in the union, and the territories, has created a state arts agency, and many counties and municipalities have, as well. How much tax money goes to the arts and humanities? It varies from state to state, and city to city, but the bottom line is that a very tiny part of the public budget is used for culture. The NEA budget represents less than 1/200 of 1% of the federal budget, or about 64 cents per person. To find out what arts programs are funded in your community or state with public funds contact the state arts agency. (Most state arts agencies are located in the state capital.). State arts agencies maintain records of their grants and those made in your state by the NEA. Some city and county arts agencies are part of local government and some are private non-profits. Your state arts agency will be able to tell you if there is a city or county arts council where you reside. The humanities have a similar history of public funding. Since the creation of the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1965 (simultaneous with the NEA), each state has formed a humanities council/commission. Unlike the state arts agencies, not all are part of state government. In some cases the arts and humanities agencies are combined; in other instances the humanities commission is a private non-profit organization. There are very few municipal or county humanities commissions. The arts and humanities grants that are targeted by the radical right mirror their agenda described throughout this workbook. They focus on subjects including gays and lesbians, multiculturalism, feminism, reproductive rights, revisionist history, and views of religion and patriotism that do not coincide with their own. EDUCATE OTHERS Share your information with friends, colleagues, co-workers, members of groups you belong to, students, at social gatherings. Form a discussion group or put the issue of freedom of expression on the agenda for a meeting of an existing group. Bring the topic up at dinner parties and over coffee or drinks. Set up panel discussions with local community members who might be informed on free expression such as attorneys, social/history educators, librarians, artists and arts administrators, journalists, record and book store owners, etc. Use videos (see "Resources") at meetings to educate and promote discussion. ACTIVATE THE MEDIA If you do not find coverage of free expression issues (NEA and NEH, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, record lyrics legislation, book banning, etc.) in your local newspapers or on your radio and television, call them and get the name of a reporter to work with. Then offer to provide them with information to educate them on the issues. Usually the person who will cover this is not an "art critic" but rather a news reporter. If you become a key source of accurate information you are doing the media a favor. Tell them that the wire services (AP, UPI) do not always carry complete information on these issues. Start with National Public Radio (NPR). There are many items produced by various local NPR-member stations that are available to other stations. Get several people to call the station and express interest in this coverage. Call local talk radio hosts and suggest the topic of censorship or freedom of expression or tax support for art. ACTIVATE YOUR NETWORKS and GROUPS Get statements from organizations. If you are a member of a local, statewide or national organization suggest that they issue a statement in support of freedom of expression. Then get it published in the organization's newsletter, send it to the local media, and elected officials (see "Contact Public Officials" below). This serves two purposes: 1) if there is a statement you can get it and distribute it locally to other community groups and media; 2) if there is no statement, your inquiry can encourage the organization to make a statement. Set up a phone/fax network. These networks dont have to be huge to be effective. If you can get 5-10 people in a network in your community or neighborhood to respond to a phone-tree alert, this is 5-10 people more than yesterday who will be informed and can act. CONTACT PUBLIC OFFICIALS Call, write, fax, mailgram your viewpoint to your members of Congress, state legislators, governor, city council, mayor, President Clinton. Letters ARE IMPORTANT. They count them. And you must do this MORE THAN ONCE. The opposition does! Visit your members of Congress when they are at home for district breaks; these are usually around holidays like Easter, Passover, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Christmas. Set up meetings in advance and bring a group of people with you. Prepare your thoughts and agenda in advance. Be forceful, not intimidated. Testify before hearings on free expression issues or ask someone whom you think has been articulate and informed on these issues if s/he would testify. Print postcards pre-addressed to your U.S. senators and representatives with a specific message regarding a free expression issue. Distribute them at performances, meetings, events, festivals, book and record stores, etc. Leave a space on the side with the message for the person to write their own name and address and even some personal comments. Create a petition with a strong statement at the top such as "I AM A TAXPAYER, I VOTE, AND I SUPPORT FREEDOM OF EXPRESSIONand I oppose/support..." START A FREE EXPRESSION COALITION By working together with other organizations, you can significantly strengthen you efforts. Responding to Common Questions and Criticisms (Adapted from a document distributed by the Emergency Campaign to Save the Arts, a project of American Arts Alliance, American Association of Museums, National Assembly of Local Arts Agencies and National Assembly of State Arts Agencies.) 1. "The NEA is elitist." Nothing could be further from the truth. The way to ensure that the arts in the United States are elitist is to eliminate the Endowment so that only rich people can afford them. Without Endowment support we would risk not having outreach programs for children, free concerts and theater in the parks, and special ticket prices for students and seniors. Many of the more than 300 multicultural organizations supported by the Endowment would have to decrease their programming significantly if they could no longer receive NEA support, thereby cutting off a diverse group of Americans access to the arts. As well as supporting museums and operas, the NEA supports folk artists and their work though the Folk Art Program, helping to preserve the traditions unique to our shared American history. By pure numbers, the Arts Endowment has fostered a non-elitist arts environment in this country. When the NEA started in 1965, 80 percent of all dance was located in New York City. Today dance is spread across the country; indeed, in the same period of time, dance audiences have increased twenty- fold. This is true of every significant arts discipline thanks to the NEAs leadership and monetary support. 2. "Who decides what receives public funding?" Grants at most levels of public arts funding are determined by the peer panel process. At the NEA, peer panels include citizens from all across the country working together to provide support to artists and arts organizations all across the country. These decisions are then reviewed by the National Council for the Arts, a presidentially-appointed body, and the Chair of the NEA. This three-tiered system is democratic and accountable, and is backed up by highly competent and thorough staff work. This process exemplifies the federal government and its citizens working together to achieve common goals. 3. "Why fund the arts when we have other pressing needs in our society, such as homelessness, drugs, and violence?" The budget for the National Endowment for the Arts represents 1/200th of one percent of the national budget. We spend less than one-half of a cup of coffee (64 cents) per year per taxpayer on everything the Endowment does. A retreat from funding the NEA would signal that Congress does not care about creativity, and that art, music and design are not important to the American character. A retreat on the national level would precipitate a retreat on the state and local arts council level, and the network we have so carefully put in place over the last 29 years would be imperiled. Currently, there are over 3,000 local arts councils nationwide. When the Endowment started, there were 162. Arts indeed would be for the elite, because our Expansion Arts Program to the multicultural community, our rural arts programs, our Folk Arts Program and others would all vanish. Arts education would not be promoted by the federal government. We would not be teaching our children, at least not with federal government support, that the arts help make sense out of chaos; that they teach the tolerance learned through viewing things from different perspectives; that they allow children to learn with both hemispheres of their brains. And finally, it would signal a country so uncomfortable with itself that it is afraid to dare, afraid to take chances, afraid to visit the unfamiliar. Always in our society, we have promoted the vigorous clash of ideas as being the most fundamental way of achieving the truth. For the federal government to retreat from this proposition would signal far more about us than the demise of the National Endowment for the Arts. 4. "NEA funding is a small percentage of many arts organizations' budgets. Why does it matter?" The Endowments funding has always served two purposes: 1. The money itself. 2. Recognition by the NEA that the applicant is producing excellent art. That endorsement allows much greater fundraising and signals to the business and private community that this grantee is indeed worthy. Moreover, emerging, multicultural and smaller budget organizations are far more dependent on NEA support than some large budget institutions. Just knowing that the Federal government cares about a particular project often can inspire those working on it to far greater achievement. Resources After more than five years of battles over the arts and humanities, there are many good resources available. Here are some that NCFE recommends: Books Arresting Images by Steven D. Dubin (Routledge) Bookbanning in America by William Noble (Erikkson) Culture War edited by Richard Bolton (New Press) Culture Wars - The Struggle to Define America by James Davison Hunter (Basic Books) Sex, Sin, and Blasphemy (A guide to America's Censorship Wars) by Marjorie Heins (New Press) The Cultural Battlefield - edited by Louis Crozier; due out summer '94; (Avocus) Videos State of the Arts: Art of the State, produced by Branda Miller (available from NCFE) Publications ACLU Arts Censorship Project Newsletter NCFE BULLETIN (quarterly) National Coalition Against Censorship Newsletter People for the American Way Artsave Newsletter (quarterly) (All three groups listed below maintain extensive clipping files for background information on a variety of free expression incidents, litigation, and legislation.) Organizations ACLU Arts Censorship Project - 212 944 9800 ext. 704 (also local ACLU affiliates) National Campaign for Freedom of Expression - 800 477 6233 People For the American Way/ArtSave - 202 467 4999 (local offices in Florida, North Carolina, New York, Colorado, California) =================================================== How to Win: A Practical Guide for Defeating the Radical Right in Your Community Copyright 1994 by Radical Right Task Force Permission is granted to reproduce this publication in whole or in part. All other rights reserved. For more information contact: Pat Lewis National Jewish Democratic Council 711 Second Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20002 (202) 544-7636 =================================================== This document is from the Politics section of the WELL gopher server: gopher://gopher.well.com/11/Politics/ Questions and comments to: gopher@well.com .