CONFERENCE HITS REAGAN’S ARTS STAND

The Reagan Administration’s arts policies came under strong attack here at a national conference of arts funders.

“Ronald Reagan is the first President of the last quarter-century to have mounted an assault on programs to support the arts,” declared former Congressman John Brademas, now president of New York University, in a keynote address to the second National Conference of Grant Makers in the Arts at the Museum of Modern Art.

The 150 grant makers, representing foundations and corporations from around the country, were here last week for a three-day conference entitled “Public Access to the Arts in America.”

Citing what he called “the grim combination” of federal cutbacks in funds for the arts, new tax measures that threaten to curb charitable contributions to the arts and the competition for funds that is bound to result, Brademas told his audience that “it’s very difficult to expand access when the financial pie is shrinking.”

Brademas, an Indiana Democrat who served 11 terms in Washington, as a Congressman earned a reputation for sponsoring arts legislation. He praised the “bipartisan” support for the arts during the six administrations--three Democratic, three Republican--under which he served from 1959 to 1981.

“For the past 5 1/2 years, however, we have had a President determined to reverse the bipartisan commitment to the arts,” he said, citing a gradual decline in the annual budget for the National Endowment for the Arts.

Referring to the current Administration’s annual attempts to cut by as much as one-half the NEA budget, and its continued attempts to eliminate the Institute of Museum Services, Brademas said: “It is sheer nonsense to expect that state and local government, corporations or foundations can fill the immense gap in funds for the arts that would be the consequence of (such) proposals.”

Brademas also strongly criticized recently approved federal tax legislation that would curb deductions for charitable contributions and business entertainment expenses.