O.C. Groups to Continue Legal Action : Arts: Organizations will proceed with protest efforts despite a congressional vote rejecting anti-obscenity certification for NEA grantees.

Orange County arts organizations that have begun legal action against the National Endowment for the Arts’ anti-obscenity certification will proceed with their protest efforts, despite a congressional vote to lift the restriction for 1991 NEA grantees.

In adopting a bill to extend the life of the endowment for three years, Congress last week rejected a controversial requirement that 1990 NEA grantees certify they will not produce or present obscene work.

Arts groups or individuals who accepted 1990 grants, however, will still be bound by the anti-obscenity pledge, because it will not be repealed retroactively, NEA spokeswoman Virginia Falck said Tuesday. The 1991 fiscal year began Oct. 1.

“The obscenity law that applied to 1990 grants would still apply,” even if organizations notified of 1990 grant awards have not signed the cash request forms that contain the certification, Falck said. “A 1990 grant is a 1990 grant and a 1991 grant is a 1991 grant.”

The certification, labeled by critics as attempted censorship, prompted the rejection of several 1990 grants. Three institutions, including the Newport Harbor Art Museum in Newport Beach, subsequently sued the NEA, charging that the anti-obscenity clause violates freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.

Newport Harbor trustee James V. Selna said Tuesday that “if the NEA intends to continue to enforce the certification for ’90 grants, we will proceed with our lawsuit.”

A retroactive repeal would have meant “we won” the suit, Selna said. He believes, however, that the suit helped influence Congress in its decision to reject virtually all content controls on government-funded art.

“It’s only guesswork on my part, but in all the (recent Congressional discussions on the NEA) there was mention of the lawsuits and institutions refusing to make the certification,” Selna said. “So I think Congress was aware of the position taken by our museum and others in the arts community and I have to assume that helped.”

Costa Mesa’s South Coast Repertory, one of several theaters and other theater artists to file a friend-of-the-court brief supporting a separate suit challenging the NEA, will also proceed with its action, according to SCR board chairman John Stahr.

The brief, filed by the New York-based Theatre Communications Group, supported choreographer Bella Lewitzky’s suit against the NEA’s anti-smut certification.

“I think we will proceed with our brief, and I think that the First Amendment issues raised in the brief will ultimately get to the court,” Stahr said.

The removal of content controls on 1991 grants has no bearing on the Art Institute of Southern California’s rejection of a $15,000 grant for 1990 because the Sept. 15 deadline to accept the money has passed, according to Russell W. Lewis, president of the Laguna Beach school.

But faculty member and composer Mark Wheaton, recently awarded a 1991 individual artist’s grant, will accept it because it requires no anti-obscenity certification, Lewis said.

“Obviously, I’m pleased to see they are dropping the restrictions,” he said.