National Council On The Arts

President Bush named New York state Sen. Roy M. Goodman on Tuesday to the National Council on the Arts. Goodman is a 10-term Republican state legislator and former New York City finance commissioner and treasurer.

Lee Greenwood's main claim to fame is writing and singing the hit patriotic hymn "God Bless the U.S.A." Soon, however, it will be Greenwood's blessing that will matter on the American arts scene -- at least the part interested in tapping into federal largesse via grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Appointed by President Bush and confirmed by the Senate, the Nashville-based country singer is scheduled to be sworn in Nov. 17 as one of the 14 regular members of the National Council on the Arts.

The advisory board to the National Endowment for the Arts voted unanimously Friday to omit any written requirement in its grant guidelines that federally supported art observe standards of "decency." NEA Chairman John E. Frohnmayer also said emphatically that he would not set himself up as a "decency czar."

This month, recommendations for three artists' grants were denied by the National Endowment for the Arts, causing a new wave of controversy for the embattled arts agency. Calendar asked Andy Grundberg, chair of the photography panel that recommended the grants, to provide an insider's view of the proceedings and current state of affairs at the endowment. Grundberg is a former photography critic for the New York Times and is currently director of Friends of Photography in San Francisco.

The National Endowment for the Arts said Tuesday that a series of meetings Friday through Sunday of its 24-member advisory board would be open to the public as a result of a court suit filed by four news organizations. The announcement that the meeting of the National Council on the Arts would be open for the first time in its 25-year history was made by NEA Chairman John E. Frohnmayer. Frohnmayer said that the decision was made after a suit was filed Monday morning in U.S.

Lee Greenwood's main claim to fame is writing and singing the hit patriotic hymn "God Bless the U.S.A." Soon, however, it will be Greenwood's blessing that will matter on the American arts scene -- at least the part interested in tapping into federal largesse via grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Appointed by President Bush and confirmed by the Senate, the Nashville-based country singer is scheduled to be sworn in Nov. 17 as one of the 14 regular members of the National Council on the Arts.

The top lawyer for the National Endowment for the Arts has resigned, The Times learned Tuesday, possibly setting up a confrontation with senior White House officials, who are expected to try to place a conservative in the position. The resignation of Julianne Ross Davis, NEA general counsel since January, 1990, was disclosed in an April 12 memorandum signed by NEA Chairman John E. Frohnmayer. Davis, who practiced law with Frohnmayer in Portland, Ore.

The advisory body to the National Endowment for the Arts has recommended denial of two grants totaling $80,000 to the University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Contemporary Art, which last year was swept up in the controversy over work by photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. In a separate action, the National Council on the Arts voted to defer a decision--perhaps until August--on 18 theater grants characterized as potentially controversial.

The House of Representatives subcommittee that will produce legislation to extend the life of the National Endowment for the Arts has scheduled its first and apparently largest hearing on the issue this year for March 5 at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu. The hearing, arts endowment officials said Friday, will provide the only opportunity in the process of renewing the endowment's legislative mandate at which endowment officials will be asked to provide testimony.

One of the nation's most influential arts support groups has written off as "no longer realistic" any remaining chance for the National Endowment for the Arts to escape congressional controls on the content of federally funded artworks.

In a besieged atmosphere of high security and criticism, the National Council of the Arts met this weekend to discuss grants and its own future. The council, which is the presidentially appointed advisory body for the National Endowment for the Arts, appeared to be weary of the controversy that has dogged acting NEA chairwoman Anne-Imelda Radice since she assumed her position in May. Shortly after taking over from the deposed John E.

Should the United States establish a government agency to put the nation's artists, museums, theaters, concert halls and other arts organizations at the political service of the White House? Is the nation ready, in other words, to organize and support its very own Ministry of Culture? Well, fasten your seat belts because here it comes--ready or not. Two weeks ago, the National Council on the Arts took a giant step toward the creation of just such a politically controlled operation.

Documents unearthed in a year-old Los Angeles lawsuit against the National Endowment for the Arts indicate that the NEA's chairman may have rejected four performance artists' grants last year for fear of reprisals by politicians and conservative newspaper columnists, not for artistic reasons, plaintiffs charged Tuesday.

The National Council on the Arts approved grants Saturday for two controversial performance artists whose applications were rejected a year ago, a move that could reopen political debate over federal funding for potentially offensive works of art. The council voted to award the grants against the apparent wishes of John E. Frohnmayer, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, who must make the politically sensitive decision to uphold or overturn the awards--perhaps as early as this week.

Just after 9 a.m. Friday, Washington time, in a drab meeting room notorious for acoustics that are marginal and air conditioning that is worse, National Endowment for the Arts Chairman John E. Frohnmayer will gavel to order the 109th meeting of what he likes to call "the greatest deliberative body on arts policy in the world."

The top lawyer for the National Endowment for the Arts has resigned, The Times learned Tuesday, possibly setting up a confrontation with senior White House officials, who are expected to try to place a conservative in the position. The resignation of Julianne Ross Davis, NEA general counsel since January, 1990, was disclosed in an April 12 memorandum signed by NEA Chairman John E. Frohnmayer. Davis, who practiced law with Frohnmayer in Portland, Ore.

The National Endowment for the Arts faced new controversy Tuesday as a conservative Washington think tank released a political broadside directed against the agency, even as several in the arts community continued a protest over a rejected grant. In Washington, the Heritage Foundation called for specific restrictions on the kind of art the federal agency can support and leveled new accusations that the NEA has "censored" traditional art forms.

The advisory council to the National Endowment for the Arts voted overwhelmingly Friday to rescind a controversial requirement that artists certify that federally funded work they create will not be obscene--a stricture that has precipitated a bitter, growing protest among artists and arts groups. The 17-2 vote calls for the reversal of a decision by NEA Chairman John E.

The National Endowment for the Arts faced new controversy Tuesday as a conservative Washington think tank released a political broadside directed against the agency, even as several in the arts community continued a protest over a rejected grant. In Washington, the Heritage Foundation called for specific restrictions on the kind of art the federal agency can support and leveled new accusations that the NEA has "censored" traditional art forms.

The advisory board to the National Endowment for the Arts voted unanimously Friday to omit any written requirement in its grant guidelines that federally supported art observe standards of "decency." NEA Chairman John E. Frohnmayer also said emphatically that he would not set himself up as a "decency czar."