NEA Chides Museum for Cash Giveaway

The National Endowment for the Arts on Friday mildly scolded a San Diego museum for allowing three artists to hand out $4,500 of federal grant money in $10 bills to illegal immigrants.

In a decision made by acting NEA Chairman Ana Steele, the agency announced that handing out the $10 bills was an “unallowable expense” and did not fit the terms of NEA’s grant to San Diego’s Museum of Contemporary Art, which was to cover “materials, supplies and honoraria.”

But the NEA will not seek return of the money, and museum officials said they intend to charge the $5,000 grant to other sources to avoid conflict with NEA regulations.

The handout, called arte reembolso-- or an art rebate--and conducted by artists David Avalos, Louis Hock and Elizabeth Sisco, was meant to stimulate discussion about the benefits of illegal immigrants to the U.S. economy.

The three were selected by the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Centro Cultural de la Raza for a $5,000 grant as part of the “La Frontera/The Border” show, which is underwritten by a $250,000 grant from the NEA, as well as money from the Rockefeller Foundation and private donors.

The NEA investigated the art rebate after Rep. Randy Cunningham (R-San Diego) called it “outrageous” and a “contemptuous use of taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars.” The project was also blasted by syndicated columnist George Will.

But the artists insist that the $10 bills were artistic materials in the same sense as paint or bronze.

Hugh Davies, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, said his museum stands by the artists. “They have outstanding credentials and have created art for many museums,” he said. “This art had at its core a very compassionate concern for undocumented immigrants and found a very volatile mode of expression.”