According to the NEA officials, every federal dollar spent on the arts stimulates $12 more in private giving. Corporations and foundations look to government arts grants as a guide for their own funding decisions. (This comes from The Facts on File News Services, "Update: Arts Funding")
The NEA's congress enforced policy of funding only art that panels find "decent" automatically disqualifies certain categories of art, such as works that deal with sexuality, gender or religion in novel ways. Because such art is passed over for more mainstream works, I believe that the expression of certain viewpoints in the arts community is being repressed. If art is truly meant to inspire, provoke, and challenge existing assumptions these so called "standards of decency" must be removed. Government funding is to ensure that a variety of creative viewpoints are seen and heard, in the true spirit of free expression.
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