WHO SET UP GOVERNMENT ‘PROPAGANDA’ CONFERENCE CALL? Newly Revealed White House, NEA Audio Contradict
by Patrick CourrielcheAnother conference call has materialized, revealing a concerted effort by government to use the arts to address political issues.
Lee Rosenbaum, a blogger for Artsjournal.com, posted her experience with a meeting that occurred on August 27th and confessed that she also felt “uneasy” about the government’s arts effort. The meeting invitation (viewable here) went out to all “member local, state, and regional arts agencies, community-based arts organizations, and national partners of Americans for Arts.” Americans for Arts is a non-profit arts organization that has received substantial grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.
As with my conference call, the art group was invited to the meeting to work together to “tackle some of the nation’s toughest issues: education; health; energy and the environment; community renewal; and safety and security.” Also like my call, it included a private citizen moderating the phone call with key White House representatives participating. Kalpen Modi, Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, was to represent the White House and key representatives from the National Endowment for the Arts were also to participate.
Even more disturbing than learning that the White House and NEA are using the arts to address specific issues, is to learn what was discussed on this new conference call. Rosenbaum mentions that there was much talk of “leveraging federal dollars” to get artists and cultural organizations involved in social-service projects.
Leveraging federal dollars? This is the problem with marrying issue specific topics, like health care and energy, with a group that is funded by tax dollars; it increases the potential of taxpayer-funded propaganda.
As mentioned in the invitation, the NEA was to be on this phone call. However at the last minute, as Rosenbaum blogged, “Modi informed us that ‘unfortunately our colleagues from NEA and NEH [the National Endowment for the Humanities]’ were tied up in meetings and couldn’t participate, as had been planned.”
Could it have anything to do with the article I posted two days earlier? We can only guess but Rosenbaum also hopes that they might have been “having second thoughts about commandeering their constituents for this political adventure.”
What appears to be emerging is a concerted and deliberate effort by the White House and the NEA to encourage the art community to create issue specific art. This new conference call shows the same modus operandi, including a “third party” individual moderating the call to apparently distance the NEA and the White House from initiating the meeting.
The National Endowment for the Arts has yet to comment regarding their involvement with this effort, except for one small, but damaging, comment by their Communications Director Yosi Sergant.
When asked by Kerry Picket of the Washington Times about the NEA’s involvement in inviting artists to my conference call, Sergant said that “the NEA didn’t invite, we were a participant in a call, there was a third party that did the invitations.” When asked for a copy of the invitation, Sergant responded that the invitation “didn’t come from us…so I don’t have it…” He went on to state that Michael Skolnik was the “third party” and that the Corporation for National and Community Service was the party who set up the conference call. This dialogue can be heard here:
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We’ve already proved there are two dishonest remarks in this statement from the NEA in a previous post, namely that the NEA did have the invite and they did send it out to the art community.
When the “Corporation” (referenced by Sergant) was asked by Josh Miller of Foxnews.com about my conference call, a representative stated that “the call was organized by an ‘individual interested’ in the group…”
Interesting. Because this same interested individual, Michael Skolnik, contradicts both of these federal agency’s statements in his opening remarks of the conference call I was on.
Skolnik states that it was the White House and the National Endowment for the Arts that asked him to bring together this independent art group. Skolnik’s statement can be heard here:
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These obvious contradictions, as well as the documented dishonesty on the part of the National Endowment for the Arts, support a conclusion that the NEA may feel their involvement with this effort is outside of their mandate. George Will, Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper journalist, appears to agree with my conclusion. On this past Sunday’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, George Will referenced the NEA’s involvement in the conference call and stated, “I don’t know how many laws that breaks but I’m sure there are some.”
With the building evidence of bad behavior by the NEA, you’d think this federal agency would have issued a statement explaining their position on this “brand new” direction for the arts. But as the cliché goes, the silence has been deafening. This taxpayer funded agency and their civil servants haven’t even returned phone calls from legitimate press outlets such as the Boston Globe, Foxnews.com, or the Washington Times.
Even more deafening is the silence on the part of the mainstream media. Documented dishonesty by White House appointed officials should easily draw the ire of our media watchdogs. But the liberal media, historically a protector of the arts, has turned its back on the community of which it adores. Like the Van Jones story, it appears that the blogosphere and conservative media are the only two forums that break news anymore. And the news that they break has dire consequences for those involved regardless of the mainstream media’s blind eye.
We need the National Endowment for the Arts to respond to these issues immediately. The NEA needs to issue a statement explaining the agency’s involvement in encouraging the art community to create art on issues being vehemently debated, contradictions made by their Communications Director, and lack of response to the inquiries of both the concerned public and press outlets.
As the former deputy chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Lynne Munson, stated in a recent post, during her tenure as deputy chairman “any action resembling this call would have triggered immediate dismissal.” I think we’ve shown action resembling this call.
Bad behavior must have consequences, or else that behavior becomes the norm. The actions of the National Endowment for the Arts are leaving the agency vulnerable to attacks on its credibility and rationale for existence.
The NEA needs to address this issue.
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695 Comments
"leaving the agency vulnerable to attacks on its credibility and rationale for existence"
What is the rationale for its existence? I would think artists would want art to stand on its merits, not on government money.
Quite frankly, there should be no national endowment for the arts.
And no more money for NPR either.
Similar efforts worked well during the American Depression but not so well in the Thirds Reich.
Keep The Government OUT of my life!!! I want freedom NOT bigger Government! Capitalism will make you free. Socialism will make you a slave.
If I put a Hope and Change sticker in a glass of urine – will they pay me?
Artists can't make a living doing what they do.
They want a government subsidy.
Keep exposing these people, Patrick. This should never happen in the Republic.
Excellent column. And the silence is deafening to say the least.
The main stream media should be ashamed of their behavior, they are miserable failures when it comes to reporting the truth.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Bill Bongiorno, Greg Mueller, Jo DeNicholas, Drudge Report and others. Bill Bongiorno said: GOVERNMENT ‘PROPAGANDA’ CONFERENCE CALL? Newly Revealed White House, NEA Audio Contradict, http://tinyurl.com/l7787l [...]
"Kalpen Modi, Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, was to represent the White House and key representatives from the National Endowment for the Arts were also to participate."
Or most people know him as Kal Penn
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0671980/bio
So this is his role in this administration? That's just great Kumar.
I am an artist. i would cut off my hands before accepting money from the government for my art work.
When the hell are people going to realise that government is the enemy of all freedom and liberty.
Well over 200 million have been slaughtered by governments and baurocrats in the last 90 years. That does not include the millitary slaughter.That is just the mass murder by the above. Government using art to indoctrinate is criminal.
Shut the NEA down. Now.
artist should be forced to grow up and get real jobs instead of welding two odd shaped pieces of metal together and calling it art
This is getting more and more medieval, as pointed out by this parody: "Obama Announces Creation of Royal Arts Patronage Program" http://optoons.blogspot.com/2009/08/obama-announc...
Any spokesperson that gets paid by a group will have a tendency to speak for that group. We all know that!
Artists need to eat too, and if their art is crap and they still get paid to make crap then where's their motivation to do anything else?
Propaganda = government saying something you don't like.
That there's something out there that someone wants to call "propaganda" merely indicates that the popularly elected official is doing something about the status quo. Which is to say: THEY ARE DOING SOMETHING!
Art should not be supported by the government.
Thank You, Mr. Courrielche, for your writings on this important topic.
Get the Federal Government out of my life! Military, interstate highways, PERIOD!
The NEA should be ashamed of themselves. Why any artist would think we should support them, if their art doesn't, is beyond me. If you can't make it with your talent, you should get a day job and practice your art on the side, or until it is good enough to be your sole means of support. It is arrogant to expect the rest of us to pay for your mediocrity…..but it really is tacky to get into bed with government to force this awful plan down our throats…it is pimping for the administration. Sleazy is the only way to describe that sort of behavior.
This stuff that 's happening that the Obama Whitehouse is commandeering is getting downright frightful.
Could lead one to think about conspiracies and paranoia.
What I see is the Great Obama building up armies wherever he can. They're hard at work on building up a citizen army. They have most of Media, Acorn, Soros, legions of lefty/commie groups, Obama's attempt to get into the classroom…
And most disturbing, how they're always going back and rewriting the "history".
Is this still America?
I am an artist and view this effort with much suspicion.
I will say this the NEA does have a vital roll to fill in our culture today, they help small communities with arts programs and help to fund community outreach and school programs, They help with festivals and culutrally significant programs. But it should not be used as a Golblinian program for propaganda.
You are risible. Government funding for the arts, in our vulgar Philistine society, is crucial. We're not exactly talking Stalin statues and Franco memorials here.
Too bad the NYT, which printed the REAL propaganda of Bush/Cheney via Judith Miller, didn't come under your glass.
Or maybe FOX "News"?
As for the "artist" above, who would NEVER take govt money: Who cares?
The main stream media is devoid of reporters it is populated by repeaters. They repeat the democrat party line word for word.
In this day and age you have to get the real news from the alternative media and your own investigative analysis of the legislation put for by the far left leaders in congress.
We can defeat this attempt to take over America by these facist wannabe's.
"Leveraging federal dollars." What can I add to that. Information is a commodity. The statists will use any means possible to control that commodity. And the media is quietly complicit in tax-payer supported dissemination of the President's agenda. Fourth estate my ass.
This is yet an other government sponsored, tax payer financed "information operation" (otherwise know as propaganda) similar to the concerted US/UN IPCC Global Warming/Climate Change campaign, all of which have the stink of the "New World Order" Obama keeps talking about. For a Manchurian Candidate, he and his soviet-style socialist minions are doing good work compromising the foundations of our republic.
If you throw enough $hit against the wall something will stick. Until then the can eat what on the floor. Did I just say that? Sorry folks just working on an Art project to expand the senses of the Progressive movement.
That's right. And it's ILLEGAL. (What is it with this administration and the 'do anything but do SOMETHING' mentality?)
Oh, and congratulations on another idiotic post. Keep it up! You're batting 1000!!!!!
Ok, you get the Billy Madison quote for this….
what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I've ever read. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response was there anything that could even be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having read it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul!
Totalitarian art has always been a lucrative field for the graphically inclined to exploit…so what's new? The Stanford collection of 8000 pieces of Soviet and Nazi propaganda should be put on display for the purpose of educating the public on this timely subject.
I'm assuming the writer probably voted for Obama. I appreciate his honesty for calling something wrong, wrong.
Demand proff of Obama's eligibility. Demand his records be unsealed. ALL OF THEM!!!!
This "vital role" is something that communities themselves, patrons and volunters should be doing, NOT the federal gov't and our tax money. The communities can decide if they want to fund paintings of Jesus created with human waste or fund string instruments for elementary school kids.
I say the NEA needs to go. We can't afford it with all the other liberal spending going on.
I'm an artist and my father was before me.
Neither of us would take a dime from the NEA it's nothing more than a mutual stroking society.
Never trust the government………….keep up the great work!
Why yes, CgntvDssdnt – they are doing something.
Most of us would prefer that they did something positive instead.
Sounds like you're going to voluntarily give up your Social Security payments, and refuse Medicare coverage when you become eligible. NOT! Shut up you hypocrite.
Government funding for the arts is not "crucial". Especially considering the vulgar art the NEA has funded.
That you brought 'FOX "news" into it shows you're a partisan IDIOT who understands nothing.
Once again, an independent blogger brings to light an important bit of news that the majority of the "fourth estate" has completely ignored.
Thank you, Patrick, for doing the job which CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, NYT, etc. have utterly FAILED to do.
Let me get this straight… White House Office of Public Engagement, or White HOPE. Hmmm…. you gotta be kidding me, right?
Face it. This Admin, this President, doesn't like our form of government OR our economic system. He wants to change them both. The type of government he wants starts with an F, but if you spell it out your posts are removed from most internet sites. It involve a strong leader who passes out ownership of various industries and resources like the quick version of monopoly where they deal out the cards rather than making you go around picking them up. Join ANY pro-O site and you get all sorts of invitations to join mobs and demonstrations and picket people from "the other side"……
And we should quit supporting the UN and tell them all to hold their little "I hate America Club" meetings somewhere else.
Patrick,
Thank you so much for your courage!
This is all part of a much bigger monster called "Ideological Subversion" which has been going on for about 50 years.
There is an excellent recent article that describes how it works and a great series of interviews given by an ex-KGB member back in 1983-1985 that details what it is and how to spot it.
It reads/sounds like a play-by-play of what we are experiencing today.
Please read/watch and learn as I did so that you understand exactly where all of this gov't control of message this is coming from.
People in the arts community are simply being used as "useful idiots" to promote a radical political agenda.
Thanks again… take care and be safe,
Painesright
Article: http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/08/from_russi...
Interview pt 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_xdBnFPqOI
I've never seen a picture of Perez Hilton without a cock in his mouth.
You will all be paying for the salami smuggler's (PREVEZ THE PERVERT) aids test while he throws caution to the wind and tramp himself out to the blind, which is what it would take I'm sure.
What's the big surprise? This is just the next logical step. The NEA has always had a liberal agenda and supported the artists that share their philosophies. Artist = liberal about 98% of the time. The good news is that 98% of the public has no idea and no interest in art.
That is one uglee dude.
Is he real? or is he "Art"?
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I love how artists who are funded by the NEA rant against corporate America. Do they really not know where the government got the funds for the grants the NEA hands out? Through taxes on corporations and high income earners. So, go ahead, you feeders at the government teat….put all those mean, evil corporations out of business. Then watch how fast your little subsidized, no-talent lives go down the drain.
True talent supports itself. You'd think it absurd if a restaurant owner, who couldn't sell any food because it was sub-par and nobody liked it, started demanding that the government buy his food so he could keep his restaurant open. In a sane society, he'd have to shut his doors, suck up his over-inflated unearned pride, and go find a way to make a living elsewhere. Now, replace "restaurant owner" with "artist", and you'll understand why I hate the NEA.
And I'm a designer/illustrator who's been able to support himself for 22 years without a speck of federal cash.
I remember visiting East Berlin for the first time, 2 year before The Wall came down. I remember the only things of beauty in the city being murals, statues and other art. Strange thing though, all of this art was state sponsored and depicted comunist leaders such as Lennon, and various scenes of workers and soldiers paying omage to the State. The peopIe I saw in East Berlin were void of the human spirit. Thier eyes were dead and looking down. I talk about that trip often, as it was my first experience with Communism. As a young man in my early twenties, it was a wake-up call for me that forever changed my view of our own country. It's time to wake-up America!
Seriously?!?! Like SS and Medicare is gonna be around to be a benefit. I've already written it off and will give it up if it means I don't have to pay for it anymore. BTW, where is that form to give it up and not have to pay for it… OH right, IT DOESNT EXIST!!! Another useless government program to STEAL from taxpayers with no benefit unless you are an ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT!!!
If artists are being courted through the NEA to illustrate the answers to the White House's public policy questions because the W.H. doesn't have the answer or won't give the honest answer (i.e. How does socialized healthcare end up getting paid for? – still waiting on that answer although the answer is higher tax) then there is serious issues on that policy. The W.H. pulling the art community into their arguments should prove to the artists that they are not appreciated for being independent minds free to express but instead tools of the very machine they claim to rage against. What our government needs to do is present solutions with fully transparent answers that can be clearly articulated, when the message has to be delivered through what traditionally has been looked at as the propaganda machine (healthcare version of Uncle Sam needs you! posters?), we should all be screaming foul together. The Feds dangling carrots of cash to artists to sell policy should be reported as the vile idea that it is. President Obama should be able to sell good policy on it's merits alone, just like an artist should be able to sell their work on the value it adds, not because you should just "get it". Please start seeing this for what it is, I remember people used to have a pretty clear picture of government overstepping for the first 8 years of this decade but seems all those cannons have now gone silent.
We all know many in the mainstream public would vote for a man because pop culture said it was cool to do so that is why it is obvious pulling the art community into the fight by the highest levels is so disgusting. Maybe instead the W.H. should just have a Springsteen concert on their backyard and Bruce could tell us what to do because he is a rocker. Thanks for your report.
Having government tax money spent to help any political party is propaganda, cognutcase. Only you could be stupid enough not to see the obvious problem.
No, it isn't Stalin statues. It more subtle. It is wrapping an image or message up as American, in the sense of principles and values of American, but the content is pro-big government. Or by necessity, anti-limited government.
As far as the artist above… at least we know his opinion is genuine and not state supported. Or tax-payer supported monetarily, even if the tax-payer doesn't support it on principle. Now whose art has real value.
How many MINUTES have you spent watching FOX news? You obviously feel they do not deliver factual info on the topics of the day,but what is that view based on? Any personal observation? Really?
As a professional artist I will not allow the government to dictate my art which means I will not take government money. However, I will use my creative ability to expose their sorry agendas of socialism.
prop·a·gan·da (prŏp'ə-gān'də) n.
1. The systematic propagation of a doctrine or cause or of information reflecting the views and interests of those advocating such a doctrine or cause.
Now that we got the proper definition out of the way. What the OB Admin. is engaging in is propaganda. Government funded to help one singular party and purpose (to help Obama). This I a total violation of ethics, and I don't consider the march to totalitarian stateist control of America "doing something".
The wrong "Something" is just as bad if not worse than nothing.
Hey I would gladly do that – if they, the "government" would give me back all of the monies I have paid into those systems. I think I can do a better and more informed job of investing those monies. I would be immediately debt free on all of my loans and own my house and car outright and have a tidy sum to setup college funds for my kids.
So, the White House is using the Taxpayer funded National Endowment for the Arts as a Propaganda tool to further their Marxist agenda! Is there ANYTHING this President won't do or any laws he won't break or any Constitution he won't thumb his nose at? Glenn Beck was SPOT ON when he covered this little tidbit over a couple weeks ago. It is time for the Taxpayers of this country to rise up and say NO MORE money to these self-indulgent narcissistic Parasites! That goes double for ACORN and all their agencies. If these so-called "Artists" need a handout, they can starve as far as I am concerned. I don't happen to consider a Crucifix in a bottle of Urine "ART!"
Social security is expected to go bust before i retire. I too have also written it off. I expect to live out my retirement by paying off my house early and saving up. If I could add that 12.5 percent they take to the extra 7 percent I put in my 401K I could retire early……
Free-ish…
Nice try RH. Please review your history. Social Security was established and is sold as a retirement plan.
You pay in while working and when you cannot work, you'll get your money back to supplement your income. It was never intended to be an entitlement. Unfortunately, one cannot opt out.
What disgrace is there in receiving back the money you have paid in?
Thats the type of art I make only I use J B Weld and it serves a mechanical function afterwards.
Glenn Beck on Fox News was the first to disclose this NEA/Whitehouse connection. He is ON TOP of ALL the crap this White House is trying to get away with. Good luck, is all I can say. GB is like a pit bull! Go Glen!!
Ahh, so if its Bush, its "real"? Do you actually listen to the words coming out of your mouth?
The question is: whose content?
Will an artist express theirs or that of he Federal government?
The role of the government in the arts is to foster creativity and self expression, right? The problem of the far left in the arts is that art ceases to exist in that realm. Art is reduced to Graphic Art. Bureaucracy is a natural enemy of the arts. We might tame the lion enough to make it jump through the flaming ring, but we should never forget that it would always prefer to eat us instead.
Same thing happening in the banking sector with the bailout. Can't imagine there's much to fear from bailing out newspapers too.
If you haven't read "The Forgotten Man" do so now as Amity Schlaes' brilliant tome shows how closely Obama mirrors the activities of the Roosevelt administration. He too, was a socialist and put the country through years of uncertainty and stagnation. Particularly galling was all the federal money directed towards what could only be called propaganda. The WPA was directed to show how bad it was for people and how well the government was helping. "Our comrade brothers were gloriously captured building a bridge for the people and the fatherland" – you could just imagine this description applying were this the Soviet Union.
From an incredulous website about a Depression-era history lesson: "Like other New Deal remedies, however, the arts programs endured controversy. Critics charged that these programs were wasteful, amateurish, or that they flagrantly promoted the New Deal agenda and radical politics." Hmm…any resemblance?
Pull funding for NEA and NPR and PBS. They are CLEARLY politically slanted, and frankly a violation of my rights. I don't pay taxes to advance a political agenda. I don't want MY money seized to support liberal nonsense.
The "DOING SOMETHING IS BETTER THAN NOTHING DEFENSE" is about as stupid as it comes.
Doing something positive towards the taxpayers would be to remove all government money from
optional and unnecessary plans that tend to feed one political party.
Doing something STUPID would be to increase the NEA budget.
Doing something SMART would be to cut the program altogether.
Why spend tax money on art? We have plenty of private buyers
that choose to buy good art on their own. Why give away tax money
on such irrational nonsense?
Funny, I didn't realize paying for SS was voluntary…..
"It may not be art, but I like it."
–The Joker
–Also, Barak Obama
Pat, ride that dead pony, no NEA, have Hollywood money People pay for the arts there doing a rotten job with there goofey movies but getting paid a handsome sum, also why dont they hold a telethon for California who nuture them and save there homeland: ahuh
by "artist" do you just mean you are unemployed and have no life skills to fall back on?
Whether or not any of this is in violation of any laws is irrelevant. I checked and Algore assures me "there is no controlling legal authority" that covers this so we just have to be quiet, sit in the dark, and wait for the magic of Obama-art to appear.
They will make you recycle it.
Does Obama have Soros? or does Soros have Obama????
Maybe we need to get Glenn Beck on this.
These guys don't seem to want to do things above board and in the open. Perhaps a little civil disobedience is in order, they don't seem to understand anything else. We can take our cues right from their playbook. Frankly I don’t think being a nice guy is working. Time to change tatics.
Communists and Fascists always conscript "artists" and school children into their propaganda apparatus.Its what they do when they take a break from running neighborhood snitch programs like flag@whitehouse.gov.Nothing new here
all you artists will be forced to do what the obama administration tells you to do after the take over is complete. so shut up and get in line. or we will make you get a REAL job and you cant finger paint anymore.
Yeah! The kids can appreciate art thanks to all these dollars being wasted. Too bad they can't read or write.
[...] :: UPDATE: The NEA and Mainstream Media Remain Silent [...]
You know what scares me? It's the deadly silence of the NEA and government organizations when the Marxist Messiah gave his orders. I mean, there wasn't even the sound of a minor scuffle near the water cooler. The Messiah just gave his orders and all we heard was the whishing sound of government heads nodding instantly in compliance. The NEA and the government entities didn't say a word. Not a word of protest.
My God, I never thought in my lifetime that I would see Pastor Niemoller's warning applied to MY country.
Welcome to the Fourth Reich!
I defy those who vilify Fox News to watch its news programs —not the commentaries or opinion shows — and NOT see NPR's Juan Williams or Mara Liasson appearing as guests, on almost any day of the week. I defy those who vilify Fox Nws to watch O'reilly or Hannity and not notice the numerous lefties who appear on them: Bob Bickel, Ellis Hennican, Charlie Rangel, David Corn, Katrina van den Heuvel, Kirsten Powers, the learned "Doctor" Lamont, etc… Those who vilify Fox News and do no know who those people are….I am not surprised at all!!!
Art should NOT be used as a mouthpiece of the government.
The artist's role in society is an important one. The artist should have the freedom to make commentary about all aspects of our society, including the government. It is the artist who dares ask, "Just because we can do something, should we do it?". The artist holds a mirror up to our collective lives and allows us the chance to reflect. The engineer and scientist asks "How?" or "What?". But the artist is the only one in our society who specifically and constantly asks "Why?".
Now this administration and a group of government paid artists wish to hijack this freedom of expression for their own political gains? They should be ashamed of themselves. They have sold their freedom for a bag of silver. The NEA should no longer be trusted. Neither should the Obama administration.
wait… basic necessities for human survival should only be extended to those artists who don't make "crap"?
i must be confused.
" I would think artists would want art to stand on its merits, not on government money."
maybe i'm missing something… who, in this country, hasn't received some amount of federal assistance (directly or indirectly) in their lives?
Truthfully, America could do handily without either the NEA, National Endowment for the Arts, or the NEA, National Education Association. Neither is worth anywhere near the millions of hard earned dollars thrown at them, and in fact, they are both dangerous. America, we must stop the runaway train that is the American Government. THis pertains to both sides of the aisle, too. Republicans, as well as democrats, need to clean up the cesspool that has become Washington D.C. It just stinks, back there.
The worst part is that the government uses our tax money without even asking us if it's ok to fund an artist who's medium is elephant feces or urine….
If some people like that stuff, then they should be on the hook for it. I think it's not only disgusting with absolutely no value on any level, but criminal to use my money to fund it without asking me if that's a good use for my taxes.
Fortunately I have never seen that…I would be scarred for life seeing that gorilla-headed moron in such a pose….
So the NEA is on a mission to mainstream and destroy art: Where is the counter-culture edge that artists clung so fervently to? Why are they so enamored with the corralling of thought and enthusiastic about becoming part of the Corporation? Why aren't they concerned that thier First Amendment rights will be whittled away by Government? Oh, I forgot… leveraging federal dollars is just too attractive to pass up.
Shame on any artist who goes along with this. Shame on any artist who would sell out in such a despicable way. Turning local art communities into government run agency cattle should make any true spirit tremble… do you think you won't be subjected to controls and regulation for your 30 pieces of silver? You won't be artists anymore, you'll be DC ad men — and for myself, I will make a concerted effort to enjoy the work of artists that is funded through philanthropy, community and pivate promotion.
NPR and PBS have been doing this for decades.
Hilarious!
But be careful, that could be construed as racist.
Basic necessities should be provided by the individual for themselves. If they can't make enough for the basic necessities with their art, then they need to get a job that will. And yes you are confused, this is America where one is responsible for their own "basic necessities.
And I think you're confused by the term "federal assistance". The fed doesn't assist anybody without taxpayer money. Don;t you want a say in where your tax money goes? Or are you ok with the way things are going?
Basic necessities should be provided by the individual for themselves. If they can't make enough for the basic necessities with their art, then they need to get a job that will. And yes you are confused, this is America where one is responsible for their own "basic necessities.
And I think you're confused by the term "federal assistance". The fed doesn't assist anybody without taxpayer money. Don't you want a say in where your tax money goes? Or are you ok with the way things are going?
[...] WHO SET UP GOVERNMENT ‘PROPAGANDA’ CONFERENCE CALL? Newly Revealed White House, NEA Audio Contradict By: Pam On: Sep/8/09 – Leave Your Comment WHO SET UP GOVERNMENT ‘PROPAGANDA’ CONFERENCE CALL? Newly Revealed White House, NEA Audio Contra… [...]
The issue is that most of us work for a living. If I spend $500 printing, matting and framing photographs, and none sell, I'm out 500 bucks and countless hours of my time, and I'll then need to go out and get a day job. But, if I say that my photography is "an exploration into non-traditional gender roles and their place in quotidien lifestyles of the American bourgeoisie" then the government will pay me thousands of dollars to turn in a photograph of a steaming pile of human excrement served up on a dinner plate.
In a free market, no one in their right mind would pay money for that photo. But because of the NEA, I can make a nice profit for crap that no one wants. Because of the NEA, your taxes, my taxes, go to pay artists who put out garbage. If they had to make art that people liked in order to get paid, the quality might go up, and the offensiveness would probably go down.
Another thanks to you, Mr. Corrielche.
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