1. Witness for the Arts.
- Author
-
Kidd, Dustin
- Subjects
MUSEUM finance ,EXHIBITIONS ,AIDS ,ARTS & society ,ART museums - Abstract
In 1989, the National Endowment for the Authors gave and then rescinded partial funding for an exhibit that dealt with the impact of AIDS upon the arts community of Manhattan. The exhibit was held by the gallery Artists Space and was entitled "Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing." The NEA chair claimed a number of reasons for removing the funding, including the idea that the show was deemed too political. Although the NEA reinstated the funding on the day the show opened, the controversy breached the tenuous trust between artists and the NEA and sparked a debate about the political character of the arts. That debate, along with related controversies, shaped subsequent cultural policy formation, including a shift away from funding individual artists. This paper examines this story with a focus of the surprising ways the controversy allowed the art world to influence political practices. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2007