‘Arts Cop’ Role Ruled Out by Agency Chief

Arts endowment Chairman John E. Frohnmayer said Friday that his agency will not become the government’s “arts cop” under a new anti-obscenity law, but will continue to support projects solely on the basis of artistic excellence.

In his first public speech since he took over the National Endowment for the Arts a month ago, Frohnmayer sought to allay fears within the arts community that a simmering political controversy over federal subsidies will lead to threats of government censorship.

“Are we going to be an arts cop?” he asked. “The answer is no.”

Frohnmayer, a former Portland, Ore., lawyer and chairman of the Oregon State Arts Commission, defended his widely publicized decision to withdraw a $10,000 endowment granted to Artists Space, a private New York City gallery, for an AIDS-benefit art show on grounds that it would violate the new federal statute.

His audience, delegates to the annual conference of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, applauded politely as Frohnmayer declared he will strike a balance between “the public trust and total artistic freedom” in awarding taxpayer funds to artists and arts institutions.

“We ought not to be funding obscenity,” he said. He added that the endowment had no business subsidizing “political polemics” either.

“The endowment funds artistic excellence, and there’s a period at the end of that sentence,” he said. “The fundamental point is that art must, and will, speak for itself. If we fund artistic excellence, we won’t have to--and shouldn’t have to--apologize for it.”

Frohnmayer said Wednesday that he withdrew the grant to Artists Space because “the nature of the show had changed from an artistic focus to a political focus.”

He specifically objected to “very hostile, angry and accusatory” statements in the AIDS group’s catalogue attacking Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), chief sponsor of the anti-obscenity law, and others who have taken a conservative position on AIDS issues.

On Friday, Frohnmayer said repeatedly that his decision to withhold the $10,000 in endowment funds, which had not yet been paid to Artists Space, was based on what he perceived as “a serious erosion in the artistic vision” of the exhibition since the gallery’s grant application was approved by an endowment panel in February.