Bradley Joins Protest of NEA Grant Rejections

Saying rejection of National Endowment for the Arts grants to four performance artists “amounts to an obscenity,” Mayor Tom Bradley joined a national protest today demanding formal appeals in the case--which has become a major escalation in the NEA political crisis.

At the morning press conference, Bradley also announced winners of more than $3 million in city cultural grants--a list that included several artists and arts organizations caught up in the NEA controversy.

Similar press conferences were held simultaneously in Seattle and New York, at which local city officials and artists attempted to turn up the heat on NEA Chairman John E. Frohnmayer for rejecting the four grants in an attempt to appease the endowment’s conservative critics.

At the NEA in Washington, a spokeswoman said there would be no statement on the situation from Frohnmayer, who has been unavailable since he announced rejection of the four grants.

The endowment has given no reason for the fellowship rejections, insisting that internal NEA policies preclude such public explanations. However, most observers believe that Frohnmayer denied the grants to quell a political furor created by conservatives angered over the sometimes explicit and politically charged content of the work of the four artists involved.

Flanking Bradley during the announcements were performance artists Tim Miller and John Fleck, who were among the four grantees rejected nearly two weeks ago. Fleck and Miller, along with New York performers Karen Finley and Holly Hughes, jointly announced the filing of appeals with the NEA.

The City Hall press conference was also attended by famed choreographer Bella Lewitzky, who recently turned down $72,000 in NEA funding because she refused to sign an anti-obscenity certification required of all endowment grantees this year. The city grant announcement issued by Bradley showed that Lewitzky received $27,000.

The city grant list also included a $2,555 award to artist Cheri Gaulke, who was recently targeted in an investigation by the U.S. General Accounting Office demanded by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), the NEA’s most visible political opponent. Helms demanded that the GAO obtain the dates when Gaulke and several other artists showed work or performed at two New York City arts spaces over a six-year period.