A Strange Stimulus

An amazing transformation seems to be occurring around the country. The fluffy-clouded euphoria of “Obamination” seems to be clearing. Cutting through the obfuscation of campaign promises and mandates seemingly delivered by a Democratic landslide is the reality that America has taken on vast oceans of debt in the short tenure of the Obama administration with little or nothing to show for it. Folks rooting for both sides of the aisle are starting to realize that affordable energy and quality healthcare are in jeopardy if Obama and congressional leaders get their way. And, the hundreds of thousands of jobs to be “created or saved” have not appeared. A little digging has revealed some odd truths about the truckloads of stimulus money being heaped on the problem.

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that $80 million of the $787 billion Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds went to the National Endowment for the Arts. That was news to me and probably would be news to most Americans, if they ever heard about it. Orchestras, ballet companies, theaters, and film houses around the country—okay, truthfully a large number of them were in New York and San Francisco—got checks for $25k or $50k.

But the aspect of the story that will create the most rancor, assuming the information makes the mainstream news, is that the bucks went to fund projects that would certainly embarrass the congressmen who approved them. For example, San Francisco’s Frameline film house, which received 50,000 taxpayer dollars, recently released Thundercrack, billed as “the world’s only underground, kinky art porno horror film, complete with four men, three women, and a gorilla.” You just can’t make this stuff up. And then there is “The Symmetry Project”, a “study of the body's central axis” which apparently amounts to two nude people writhing on the floor.

It’s difficult to read about the recent exploits of the NEA and not remember photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. While Mapplethorpe received free publicity for his work, the NEA got hammered, and rightfully so, for funding his Cincinnati photography exhibit which included images of bullwhips installed in places where nothing was designed to be inserted and some misdirected urine. Speaking of urine, Andres Serrano’s photo of a crucifix submerged in the artist’s “own” brought national anger when Americans found out that NEA funds partially paid for a $15,000 award for Seranno’s “art”.

Perhaps a relevant side note to this story seems to be the long-standing battle of what is “art”. This goes beyond what constitutes a masterpiece. Americans seem to forever live in the shadow of our puritanical founding. The same images that capture some primordial imaginations also threaten the mores etched in us.

The arts are important. Funding the arts to provide opportunities for artists is important. Now maybe I’d see it differently if the NEA had sent me a big check to photograph the cast of Thundercrack. Whether it’s art or porn or something somewhere in between, forcing me to pay for it with my tax dollars is something I certainly can’t appreciate.