Chapter 1: Federal Dollars For Art
Since the beginning days of our nation, many people in government have recognized that the arts have value (for enhancing our country's cultural capital, for quality of life, or to make money). They have sought to benefit as a nation from artists and the culture they enhance. This has raised questions of how to fund the arts and who gets the money.
When it comes to direct financial support for artists from the federal government, there have been issues over and over and over. Surprise! People in government rarely agree about how to spend money. And quality art that is deserving of money is just a whole other level of subjectivity that is hard for anyone (let alone politicians and bureaucrats) to pin down. The goals of the country i.e., the government are usually not aligned with the goals of artists who want to comment on/reject/advance important issues of their day.
In 1965 our government formed the National Endowment for the Arts (the NEA). It originally gave out individual grants to artists. These grants unfortunately caused massive PR headaches. Someone in the country would find out that tax dollars were given to an artist making something they personally don't like or understand and so they would make a big stink.
Karen Finley in her performance We Keep Our Victims Ready (1990).
Remember the NEA Four? Four performance artists (Karen Finley, Tim Miller, John Fleck, and Holly Hughes) had their individual artist grants from the NEA revoked in 1990. Other notable controversies involved Piss Christ by Andres Serrano, Annie Sprinkle's "Post-Porn Modernist" performance, and an exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe's gorgeously explicit photographs. But the first NEA controversy was in 1966 with a grant that was given to poet Aram Saroyan.
Saroyan's poem consisted of one word: Lighght, for which he was awarded $750. This might seem a bit ridiculous to the general public who might be unaware of current poetry trends or even broader art movements such as minimalism. But that's the thing with government grants - people who don't know anything about art can make decisions impacting artists.
Aram Saroyen’s one-word poem, Lighght , (1965)
Fast forward a current example of a non-artist having major impacts on the livelihoods of artists. Governor Ron DeSantis eliminated Florida's entire arts budget for 2025 because of the Orlando and Tampa Bay Fringe Festivals which he called "sexual festivals where they're doing all this stuff". These are all-ages arts festivals for theater, storytelling, circus arts, dance, and other performing arts. Their funding represents 0.002% of Florida's $32m arts budget (around $6,500) and DeSantis used it as an excuse to defund art museums, orchestras, and educational programs across the state.
I am afraid we are going to see more of this ahead with federal dollars for the arts diminishing. This will hurt state and city regranting programs. But don't worry – I promise it isn’t all darkness out there.