ABSTRACT
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) funding crisis has its roots in three different arenas. It is the result of ten years of Reaganism and the right-wing coalition that has kept Reagan and Bush in power. Marketing, nepotism, and racial exclusion have always been taboo topics for discussion in the arts. We know we are opposed to Helms but what ideals guide our actions? Do we want to "Save the NEA," i.e., return to the status quo of exclusion that existed quietly a year and a half ago? Arts administrators and critics receive salaries, have their own agendas, and their own professional debts and alliances. Administrators and critics are also overwhelmingly white, far out of proportion to artists. Another challenge to building a movement is to take the NEA issue out of the province of arts-only advocacy groups and instead build with other communities along the shared experience of repressive legislation.
