National Endowment for the Twang:
I just reread all of tonights' postings on the NEA/Alejandro
thread with carl w. and junior. I have to say something as I
myself was on the ass end of a congressinally pressured NEA
rejection of a project I organized a couple years ago.
(Actually I think you can still find a C.Carr article about the
project Hallwalls were applying for in the 1996 archives of the
Village Voice. I'd continue about it, but I get bitter and nasty.
Suffice it to say we got boned.)
What I did want to express was to Junior that I have a problem with
his framing of NEA grants as "official institutional
validation" and nothing else. That is not at all what those grants
are about. What NEA grants should be, and it appears Alejandro's
project as described here fits this to a T, is an opportunity for an
artist to do something more than just what they do. in other words,
going beyond themselves in order to achieve something more than the
usual. Composers and musicians frequently apply for and are
awarded grants that help them move into different mediums,
to do projects they otherwise couldn't do through commercial channels.
Actually, I mean "used to" apply for individual NEA grants.
The NEA hasn't had an individual grant program in more than
seven years. Only institutions can receive them. Alejandro's
project would have to be presented in the context of a group's
seasonal programming, or within the aegis of a related group
of projects under the wings of an arts center or some such
other entity, like California's Border Arts Workshop.
Now, I don't think the NEA should give him money just to put out
a record of just his own stuff. He has a contract and seems to do
that fine on his own. His effort to "do something more" in this case is
to enter the theatrical realm with his work and that could be
very interesting. Especially if he collaborates with other artists
which of course he will. Thus, the money affects
not only him, but the people he works with as well, and if the project
in some way involves his community, enriches the cultural life of
the community and helps raise awareness of culture, then
by God, send him the money.
In the long run, that actual cash award will be small in relation to
what the project will cost. Also thanks to the congressional insanity
of the last few years, Alejandro will have to
guarentee at least a 2 to one match of those funds from other
sources. (at least the last I looked). He will have some
scrambling to do, believe me. And theatrical
productions have costs like you wouldn't believe.
Anyway, the bottom line is these grants are not tokens or some
sort of cash prize, but a venture capital investment in an artist's
efforts to bring their work to new audiences and new heights.
Or at least they used to be. Bring back the individual grants!
Shit, wish I was on that panel.
Dan Rigney
http://www.moths.com
