Civil War over censorship roils arts world in the 1990s
A polarized clash over obscenity pits religious conservatives against artists and advocates of free expression. The debate triggers arrests and legal battles from the Miami 2 Live Crew case to Mapplethorpe works, NEA funding fights, and a broader struggle over America’s cultural norms.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
FBI
Evangelist Donald Wildman
Anne Murphy
American Arts Alliance
2 Live Crew
Luther Campbell
Cultural battles flare in American arts censorship
The article surveys early and current censorship clashes across visual arts theater music film and books in the United States. It notes 1842 indecency import laws and the Mapplethorpe Serrano controversies plus funding cuts and threats aimed at artists such as Wojnarowicz Sturges Fleming Barrie and others as rhetoric hardens against art at the cultural margins.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Andres Serrano
Robert Mapplethorpe
San Francisco
Jack Sturges
Sturges
Metropolitan Museum of Art
FBI
Military bands exceed NEA spending says Iowa arts leader
Debate over public arts funding centers on a tiny slice of the federal budget. Wally Chappell of Hancher Auditorium notes military bands cost more than the entire NEA budget, while per person arts spending varies widely by country and city. He warns that loss of NEA support could drive up prices and cut education programs at Hancher.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Dee Ann Rexroat
Austria
United States
Munich
U.S
Wally Chappell
Hancher Auditorium
University of Iowa
NEA
Chappell
Hancher
Iowa
Iowa Arts Council
Arts Midwest
Congress
Also Mentioned on This Page
Sen
Jesse Helms
R-N.c
Campbell
San Antonio
David Risher
Supreme Court
Capitol Hill
U.S. House of Representatives
National Endowment For the Arts
Wildman
American Family Association
AFA
Tupelo, Miss
New York Art
Ralph Reed
Pat Robertson
Christian Coalition
Bob DeMoss
Focus On the Family
America
Serrano
Mapplethorpe
Art Kropp
People For the American Way
New York Times Service
By Bo Emerson
Visual Arts
Donald Wildman
The
David Wojnarowicz
Wojnarowicz
Christ
New York
Artists Space Gallery
William
E. Dannemeyer
R-Calif
R-S.c
Susan Wyatt
Artists Space
Manhattan
Healey Building
Nexus Gallery
Atlanta
Sherman Fleming
Dennis Barrie
Cincinnati Museum
John Frohnmayer
National Arts Council
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