NEA Chief to Keep Obscenity Pledge

The chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts expressed hope today that “the crisis will soon pass” over federal support for controversial art with a Senate proposal to let the courts decide whether works are obscene.

But chairman John E. Frohnmayer held fast, at least for a while longer, to his much-criticized requirement that NEA grant recipients sign a pledge not to use federal funds to produce art that might be considered obscene.