U.S. Cultural Policy – New Deal Era

Ø New Deal (Roosevelt)

s Context: The Great Depression

- First wave: relief and recovery (1930 – 35)

- Second wave: economic reform (“second New Deal” welfare state: 1935 – on)

s New Deal Art

- Works Progress Administration’s (WPA) “Federal One”

» Federal Art Project

» Federal Music Project

» Federal Theater Project

» Federal Writers Project

» Historical Records Survey

- Farm Security Administration (formerly the “Resettlement Administration”)

» Dorothea Lange (photographer)

» Walker Evans (photographer)

James Agee and Walker Evans, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1939).

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)

Ø Background of the NEA

1. Established in 1965

2. First Federal arts program since the 1940s

3. Different economic conditions (prosperity)

4. Different social conditions (more college grads -- GI bill)

5. Different international situation (the Cold War)

6. The emphasis on math and science in the schools (because of the Cold War)

7. The tradition of private funding for the arts (Rockefeller and Ford Foundations)

8. The rise of the Kennedy era: Jacqueline Kennedy and cosmopolitanism

9. The rise of the New York art scene -- the U.S. emerges as a cultural force

Ø NEA v. Finley (U.S. Supreme Court, June 25, 1998)

s Principle determination:

The NEA’s director is not in violation of the 1^st Amendment in enforcing “general standards of decency.”

s NEA controversy

The NEA controversy (late 1980s, early 1990s) – centered on the following artists:

- Mapplethorpe – “X Portfolio”

- Serrrano – “Piss Christ”

- The NEA four:

1. Karen Finley

2. Holly Hughes

3. Tim Miller

4. John Fleck

- Among the reasons that Congress gave for the establishment of the NEA and the NEH:

Government should encourage and support of national progress and scholarship in the humanities and the arts;

A high civilization must not limit its efforts to science and technology alone, but must support the other great branches of scholarly and cultural activity;

It is necessary and appropriate for the Federal Government to help create and sustain not only a climate encouraging freedom of thought, imagination and inquiry but also the material conditions facilitating the release of this creative talent; and

The world leadership which has come to the United States cannot rest solely upon superior power, wealth, and technology, but must be solidly founded upon worldwide respect and admiration for the Nation’s high qualities as a leader in the realm of ideas and of the spirit.

Ø Brooklyn Art Museum (1999)

s Chris Ofili

Painting: “The Holy Virgin Mary”