NEA Stance on NHI

The National Endowment for the Art’s decision to remove “its” imprimatur from San Diego’s Installation Gallery’s NHI (No Humans Involved) project, which criticizes a San Diego Police Department investigation of prostitute murders, indicates exactly what has been happening in conservative attacks on the endowment: the attempt by intimidation to suppress any (not just supposedly “obscene”) art that deviates from conservative and fundamentalist Christian agendas.

In explaining the NEA’s decision, the NEA’s public relations representative said, “We felt that the exhibit created by Installation Gallery does not necessarily reflect the views of the National Endowment for the Arts.” That’s not the point. None of the grants are supposed to “reflect he views of the NEA.” They are supposed to reflect the various constituencies for art in the nation. The NEA is not supposed to bow to the pressure of one loud-mouthed conservative faction of the country that floods Washington with its lobbyists to impose its agenda on the nation on the grounds that the government is using “its” tax dollars.

Conservative “tax dollar” arguments are simply flawed in positing a single homogenous “taxpayer.” It’s time that some of the rest of us pointed out that our tax dollars have gone to support a few projects like NHI. It was me. I did it. Part of my 68 cents per year (and that of hundred of thousands, perhaps even millions, of other Americans--much more than the $12,000 involved) supported the Installation Gallery project, as well as the preponderance of non-controversial grants that the endowment makes.

PETER KOSENKO, Fountain Valley