NEA Advisers to Close Most of August Meeting

Apparently fearing public disclosure, the advisory board to the National Endowment for the Arts plans to meet in closed session for most of an impending three-day meeting at which controversy over politically troublesome grants is expected.

The meeting is scheduled for Aug. 3-5 at NEA headquarters in Washington. Documents obtained by The Times today indicate the council will hold more than half of its announced meetings in private. Members will also attend two closed social events--including a confidential dinner preceding the meeting at which significant amounts of NEA business have traditionally been discussed.

Sources close to the situation say the proportion of private discussions at next month’s meeting appeared significant, since the council is expected to engage in potentially confrontational debate over a decision by NEA Chairman John E. Frohnmayer last month to deny fellowship grants to four performance artists, after he reportedly polled the advisory group.

The performers--who have been dubbed “the NEA Four” by one national artist group--have all demanded formal appeals of the grant rejections. It was learned that at least one member of the National Council on the Arts intends to attempt a formal reopening of the issue.

The other potentially troublesome issues that are expected to be included on next month’s agenda are:

* An initiative to reconsider a controversial vote taken by the national council in May that denied two of three grants to the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Contemporary Art. The institute was the original organizer of a controversial endowment-supported show of photographs by the late Robert Mapplethorpe.

* A possible move to reconsider a council vote in May to open grant review meetings to the public.

* A recommendation that two of “the NEA Four” receive grants this year from an NEA program that fosters the work of artists working in especially progressive art forms and media.