Helms paints picture of a penniless NEA
Joined by Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.), Helms urged his fellow senators to zero-out the $100 million allotted for the arts agency by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Helms said the NEA is "contemptuous of traditional moral standards," and that its grants serve "phony, self-appointed artists who insist on using the American taxpayers' money to finance anything they want to drag up from the sewer and declare art."
For Helms, Ashcroft and a handful of other conservative Republicans, the NEA continues to serve as a supporter of controversial artists such as Andres Serrano and Robert Maplethorpe. But in response to its critics, the NEA no longer funds individual artists, handing grants instead to arts groups and local agencies.
NEA spokeswoman Cherie Simon expressed confidence that the Senate eventually will keep the NEA alive, but was concerned about proposals to shift most of the agency's budget to state agencies. The NEA currently allots 35% of its budget for state arts grants, but Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) would like to see states get 75% of the arts money. Other proposals would move all of the arts money to state agencies.
Simon warned that ceding all of arts money to states would leave the U.S. "as the only civilized country without a federal arts presence." Simon also said such a move would be prove disastrous for touring theater groups that depend on federal aid to take shows and performances across state lines.
In an effort to build public support for the NEA, the American Arts Alliance announced Monday that it is sending out 1,500 public service announcements starring Paul Newman to TV stations and cable systems. Although the ads do not mention the NEA by name, the three PSAs feature the theme that public support for the arts is "a small price to pay for beauty."
A vote on the NEA's $100 million funding is expected today as part of the Senate's consideration of the $13.7 billion Interior Dept. budget.
