The Cultural Bleed of the NEA

Playing It Safe and Avoiding the New

The Prof as called for a multi-blog commentary on the recent resignation of Dana Gioia as head of the NEA and I'm certainly not one to ignore the Man from North Carolina, so here goes.

Gioia did a lot for the NEA - he bolstered the budget, instituted lots of reading programs, pushed jazz as America's only indigenous art form - all after a fifteen year beating the agency took after the fallout from the NEA Four* and Congress's insistence that the NEA was not their responsibility.

So, if the former corporate executive-turned-poet did such a bang up job, what the fuck has happened in the past six years that leaves a bad taste in my mouth?

Simply put, instead of fighting the conservatives so offended by the work of individual artists or spending the money allocated on actual art, Gioia made the NEA the arts branch of the Department of Education.

There are those that would argue that by making the NEA a singular champion for literacy, Gioia saved the NEA. I'd argue that by changing it's focus from supporting non-commercial artists to funding reading programs and Shakespeare performances in middle schools, Gioia didn't so much save it but create it in the image that the conservatives felt was an appropriate use of funds. I would argue that by funding literacy programs in the absence of funding individual artists, the NEA has become a proponent of using the NEA as a replacement for proper educational funding.

In his term as the NEA boss, Gioia has created Shakespeare for a New Generation, billed as the largest tour of Shakespeare in American history and geared toward getting professional productions into schools. Also has been the popular Jazz Masters series of awards and are usually given late in a performers career after they have established themselves. Finally, he spearheaded the Big Read program designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. He got increases in the NEA budget to do these things; he worked closely with the White House on these initiatives.

So, to quickly recap his contribution to the endowment of artists in the nation, Gioia created a giant theater tour of a European Playwright over 400 years dead, a retirement plan for old jazz guys, and a literacy program. Certainly there's little room for any Mapplethorpes or Piss Christs in that mix, huh? Which is exactly the point.

The NEA was established in 1965 to "support excellence in the arts, both new and established; bring the arts to all Americans; and provide leadership in arts education." Under Gioia we have very little support for the new and, instead of providing leadership in arts education, it has become arts education (and reading education as well).
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* In 1992, the NEA Four (Karen Finley, Tim Miller, John Fleck, and Holly Hughes) were denied grants for performance art, on the basis that the proposed work (including Finley's proclivity to smear chocolate over her naked body) was considered profane and sacrilegious. They sued and were awarded the grants in 1993 which ultimately resulted in the NEA, under pressure from Congress, ceasing to fund individual artists.