Cummings, Government and the Arts

Government and the Arts: An Overview by Cummings
• Throughout the early years of America, like England, the government hasrelatively little direct government patronage of the arts.
• It was frequently contrasted with the European lavish state support for thearts, where patronage of the arts is a normal government responsibility.
• Americans were busy with other things.
• Many great Americans like John Adams worried that a strong focus on the artsmight be linked with an excess of luxury and corruption of the citizens.
• Early government leaders had considerable knowledge of the arts.
• American leaders became involved in decorating the new public buildings in DC.
• John Trumbull’s paintings in the Capitol lacked quality, thus defeating allattempts of future American artists in decorating the Capitol.
• Horatio Greenough, commissioned to create a sculpture in the honor of GeorgeWashington’s centennial birth year, was very controversial and essentiallyremoved from Capitol grounds because in it, Washington was seated in a godlikepose with the lower half of his body covered only by a drapery and the upperhalf was naked.
• In the 19th century, the government left the arts alone.
•At the beginning of the relationship between government and the arts, a numberof Americans began to record some world class achievements in the arts.
• James Smithson left 100,000 British pounds, enabling the government toestablished the Smithsonian, which began the cultivation of the arts andsciences.
• Great family fortunes started accumulating, so this led to the development ofgreat private art collections, and the establishment of museums to where theprivate collections eventually made their way.
• In the late 19th century, private philanthropy for the arts began.
• After the Civil War, many immigrants came to the US, and brought with theminterests in different forms of art.
• The government played an important role in maintaining the legal framework ofthe arts in terms of direct subsidy and the promotion of the arts.
• Moderate federal tax rates provided for some additional incentive for privatedonations.
• The New Deal was the first comprehensive federal arts program in the US.
• It was the largest public arts program in the history of the world.
• It was a radical change from previous government relations with the arts.
• During WWII, the first federal arts program was dead.
• At the end of WWII, the Dept. Of State established the American Commission forthe Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas,which ordered American military forces to save the art collections that theNazis stole and returned them to their museums.
• In the 1950's, artistic activities continued to be supported primarily at thebox office or in the marketplace, and by a remarkable system of privatepatronage.
• In the 1950's, the government was interested in international culturalexchanges, the design and decoration of public buildings, governmentcollections such as the National Gallery of Art, and the design of coins andstamps, since art was largely used as a tool of US foreign policy in the ColdWar.
• Compared to European governments, the US government had a limited involvementin the arts in the 1950's.
• The lack of involvement was a result of the view that the arts were notimportant enough to spend tax dollars on them, philosophical opposition togovernment involvement and possible interference in the arts, and the questionof what kind of arts would receive the appropriate funding.
• In 1959, an argument in favor of creating an arts foundation was made popular.
• The John F. Kennedy administration made a case for a greater federalgovernment role in the arts, however JFK was cautious about getting too farahead of Congressional opinion on arts policy issues.
• August Heckscher became the first special consultant to the president for thearts.
• After JFK’s assassination, Lyndon B. Johnson supported legislation renamingthe National Cultural Center to the John F. Kennedy Center for the PerformingArts and providing up to $15 million for its construction.
• Roger Stevens was appointed as the special assistant to the president for thearts, and helped introduce legislation which created a Federal Advisory Councilon the Arts.
• In the 1964 election, many members of Congress who opposed federal artslegislation were defeated.
• In 1965, the LBJ administration submitted a legislative proposal to create aNational Foundation for the Arts and Humanities and the bill was passed.
• The Arts Endowment’s funding was decreased in the late 1960's due to the warin Vietnam.
• When Nixon became president, he doubled and redouble the budget of the Artsand Humanities Endowment.
• The Ford administration also provided budget increases for the arts.
• After Reagan won the presidency and Republicans captured control of theSenate, many anti-arts program views were present.
• The Reagan administration called for a 50% budget cut of both the Arts andHumanities endowments.
• The President’s Commission on the Arts and the Humanities, however, issued areport that said that the arts needed the full financial support of theprevious administration.
• The 1986 Tax Reform Act sharply curtailed charitable private donations.
• A National Endowment program was created in 1986, which stressed the importantof art education from kindergarten through the 12th grade.
• In the 1980's, artists were concerned that the publicly funded arts tended toreflect the social and artistic values of mainstream, upper status, whiteAmerica, and neglected minority communities.
• The newly elected Bush administration in 1989 appointed John Frohnmayer wasthe chair of the National Endowment for the Arts.
• The works of Andres Serrano contained controversial photo of a crucifixsubmerged in urine.
• The Corcoran Gallery of Art cancelled the Mapplethorpe exhibit, whichcontained a number of homoerotic photos.
• The House voted to reduce the Arts Endowment funds by $45,000 whichrepresented the amount of money linked to the funding of the Serrano andMapplethorpe exhibits.
• Some conservative members of Congress condemned the National Endowment for theArts for funding with taxpayers’ money on art that most taxpayers considerobjectionable, arguing that such art opposed the moral sentiments of manyAmericans.
• Taxpayers should not pay for support of pornography or offensive art.
• In 1989, the House barred the funding of art that is obscene.
• In Cincinnati, the director of the Contemporary Arts Center, Dennis Barrie,made sure that his gallery did not have federal, state, or local governmentfunding and thus presented the Mapplethorpe exhibit.
• Barrie and the gallery were indicted by the city on obscenity charges.
• A bipartisan commission recommended that imposing restrictions on the contentof works of art supported by the Endowment is unnecessary, but at the sametime, declared that obscenity is not protected speech and the NEA is prohibitedfrom funding obscene works.
• In 1990, the Senate Labor and Human Resource Committee voted in favor of afive-year reauthorization that would leave the question of obscenity up to thecourts.
• The House Postsecondary Education Subcommittee also left it up to the courtsto define obscenity, but also gave states more power to allocate arts fundingwhere it deems best.