Politicizing Art

Who can forget the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)? These are the taxpayer-funded people that give out grants for things like a crucifix of Jesus upside-down in urine (1), a show of dancing vaginas (2) and much more high-class junk.

It seems that sponsoring offensive "art" isn't the only thing they do over there. Now they are looking to encourage artists "or just plain cool people" to transform America into Obama's image.

They held a conference call on August 10, 2009, and invited the participants to "to inspire service in four key categories" (3). Less than 2 days later, 21 arts organizations endorsed Obama's health care plan (PDF). Rock the Vote started an all-out campaign called "Yes We Demand Health Care" (4).

Disturbingly, also on the call was Nell Abernathy, Director of Outreach for Serve.Gov. Serve.Gov portal funnels citizens to volunteer or service projects connected with ACORN and other leftist groups.

The Washington Times called Yosi Sergant, then-Director of Communications at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), to ask him about it. He denied they issues the invitation but it was a lie (5). You can see an article with a copy of the original email here. The Washington Times covered it here in their piece "Official Dishonesty from the NEA".

The Washington Times dug further and looked at the money trail. I ask you to consider this (6):

• Is it ethical, or even legal, for a federal official from a grant-making agency to ask grant recipients to endorse the administration's political agenda?


• Is the White House crossing a line when a West Wing political appointee is on the call?


• Did political considerations infect the grant-making process at NEA?

Consider these facts found out:

• $50,000 from the stimulus package is for a group named Americans for the Arts. They have dedicated $250,000 to lobbying expenses this year alone.


• The president of Americans for the Arts is an Obama donor and the affiliated political action committee gave $48,000 to congressional Democrats in the last election cycle.


• According to NEA records analyzed by The Washington Times, donors to the PAC received more than an additional $500,000 in stimulus funds.

Since The Washington Times began writing about the NEA's shady conference call, NEA Director of Communications Yosi Sergant has been removed from his position and reassigned according to an agency spokeswoman. Kalpen Modi, an official with the White House Office of Public Engagement, remains in his position (7).

The original excellent article can be found here.

The Washington Times piece can be found here.

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1. Devere, Robert (2007). "Can Art Be Defined?". Trilogy Estates.
Retrieved September 21, 2009, from Trilogy Estates

2. Jacoby, Jeff (1994, July 4). "Insufferable Art". Big Eye.
Retrieved September 21, 2009, from Big Eye

3. Flynn, Mike and John Nolte (2009, September 20). "Pregame Report: The NEA Conference Call". Big Hollywood.
Retrieved September 21, 2009, from Big Hollywood

4. Rock the Vote.
Retrieved September 21, 2009, from Rock the Vote

5. Pickett, Kerry (2009, August 27). "Art for Obama's sake - The NEA pushes the White House agenda". The Washington Times.
Retrieved September 21, 2009, from The Washington Times

6. Pickett, Kerry (2009, September 10). "$2 million behind National Endowment for the Arts politics push". The Washington Times.
Retrieved September 21, 2009, from The Washington Times

7. Pickett, Kerry (2009, September 10). "UPDATE: Yosi Sergant re-assigned at NEA not resigned". The Washington Times.
Retrieved September 21, 2009, from The Washington Times