NEA’s Hitting the Road to Canvass the People

While this month’s blizzard was closing schools and shutting down federal offices on the East Coast, a panel on visual media was convened in Washington by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Everybody showed up. One artist from Los Angeles flew as far as Richmond, Va., rented a car and, never having driven in snow before, plowed 100 miles through a driving storm while even the mail trucks were staying off the roads.

“That’s determination,” NEA chairwoman Jane Alexander declared proudly.

But that blizzard trek could feel like a minute waltz compared with what Congress has in store as the NEA begins to feel the effects of the worst budget assault in its 30-year history.

Its funds have been cut a staggering 40%. Its staff has been stripped by half. Its grants have been slashed. And many congressional Republicans have made clear that they would love to wipe out the agency entirely in two years.

So the NEA has decided to take its case to the people in a privately funded tour called American Canvas. The six-city mission will determine whether Americans want to nurture the arts with federal money, even if Congress does not.

“Do people care at all about the arts? Do we need to keep pushing this at them? And if they care, how are they going to support it?” Alexander says, outlining the questions that her agency intends to take on the road this spring. “I would like to see some systemic funding for nonprofit arts in America . . . and some commitment to sustaining it, rather than this year-in and year-out begging.”

In the six cities, which have yet to be selected, the NEA plans to talk with Rotarians, union leaders, educators--people whose opinions on the arts are not generally heard. The results are to be released next fall.

Meanwhile, the NEA must carry out the biggest restructuring in its history and still fulfill its goal of keeping the nation’s arts accessible and thriving.

Under the current circumstances, it appears doomed to fail. Artists already have begun calling about grants that the NEA, restricted to giving most of its money to organizations rather than individuals, can no longer by law deliver. Grant applications have been severely reduced because there is no longer the staff to process them.

Even the slashed budget, caught in the stalemate between the White House and Congress, is expected to be effective only through March 1. NEA staff members are not certain of their fate beyond that.

Today’s evidence of the budget crunch is most readily seen in the NEA offices housed in a historic federal building in downtown Washington, where desks are empty and the staff is suddenly small enough to meet in one room. But, Alexander said, effects soon will be felt in communities all over the country.

Museums will close early and exhibits will be cordoned off for lack of supervision, she maintains. Rural art centers that depend almost exclusively on federal funds will go under.

“Suddenly you will just see a boarded-up building, a sign saying, ‘This gallery is closed indefinitely,’ ” Alexander said. “It’s like a little light going out.”

One of the NEA’s purest goals is, in her words, “to be sure that the artists do the art.” But while some painters, writers, filmmakers and playwrights will come up with creative ways to fill the gaps, Alexander predicted, others will simply give up the craft.

“This is going to mean many, many people will not venture into the arts as a career,” she said. “That’s a real loss to the community.”

Under direction from Congress, the agency is looking for alternative ways to fund or supplement the arts without federal money. Under consideration is everything from state lotteries to tax-form checkoffs.

But business contributions are falling and private foundations are reluctant to make up for the lost federal funds. Alexander said that foundations expect to have to make up for federal health and welfare cuts, leaving little for the arts.

Although the NEA was happy to have come out of 1995 with its life, it hardly has room to rejoice. Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan appears to be preparing to make the agency a campaign issue again this election year and the exodus of retiring members of Congress includes some of the NEA’s most loyal supporters.

“My heart aches,” Alexander said.

Still, when asked if she thinks her limping and assaulted agency might actually survive, Alexander did not hesitate.

“Yes,” she said quickly. “But then, I’m an eternal optimist.”