2% solution.

A $2.9 million congressional cut to the FY 1995 budget of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has the agency "running scared," says Helen Brunner, Executive Director of the National Association of Artists' Organizations (NAAO). This October the NEA announced that as a result of a congressionally mandated 2% reduction in its budget from $170.228 million in 1994 to $167.358 million in 1995, it would suspend seven categories of funding within the Media Arts, Music, and Presenting Programs.

These suspensions amount to a $1.2 million loss in funds to programs that regranted money to individual artists or artists' groups. These suspensions also amount to 43% of the overall congressional budget cut to the NEA, and that percentage has upset affected media arts organizations, who believe that they have been asked to bear a disproportionate share of the burden. The National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC), The American Film Institute (AFI), and NAAO, along with other organizations, encourage individuals and groups to write letters of protest to the Endowment and congressional representatives. "At the Endowment, they're saying that this is the most reaction they've received on any decision they've made," says NAMAC's National Director, Julian Low.

"At this point, a lot of protests are over," says Brunner. "We did a lot of work to make clear the value of the programs in terms of regional and ethnic reach. With the new Congress, there's no hope the programs will be reinstated. People are really thinking about whether there will be an NEA at all," adds Brunner. A re-examination of arts and cultural funding is part of the mandate of the new Republican Congress. Incoming house leader Newt Gingrich (R-GA) has already stated publicly that he favors privatizing the Endowment. Since 1990, the NEA has suspended or eliminated 27 grant categories. "The attitude of Congress toward the arts is a national embarrassment," says Charlie Humphrey, executive director of Pittsburgh Filmmakers, "... by crippling the National Endowment for the Arts, Congress is frittering away the future cultural heritage of America to gain votes."

Media arts organizations have been developing strategies for alternative funding since the cuts were announced. Brunner says NAAO is hoping to get increased support from its private backers, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation, to establish interim-year funding to maintain its regrant programs until support can be reestablished through other sources. "We have a strong commitment to making it work, one way or another," says Brunner. Such strategies suggest that private funders who used to match NEA funds received by media arts organizations will be approached for more money, but state arts agencies will also feel the increased demand. One of NAMAC's strategies is to try to partner up with state arts organizations to create a fund for emerging artists who are among the groups that will suffer most from the loss of regrant programs. According to Low, in the case of such partnerships, decisions about the distribution of grants would rest with the arts agencies and juried expertise would be maintained through the media centers.

National Campaign for Freedom of Expression (NCFE), NAAO, NAMAC, and over a dozen other organizations concerned with cultural equity and the rights of individual artists have formed a coalition called the "No Name Artists' Group" to develop congressional phone and mailing lists for future lobbying. The coalition believes that battles over arts funding will shift away from the federal to the state level in the coming years. However, media arts organizations are not planning to abandon the NEA. "We're working to defend the NEA on a congressional revel even given our latest spat with them," says Brunner. As a result of the recent funding cutbacks, "artists get caught between the Congress and the NEA," she says. "Up until the Reagan/Bush era, the agency went out on a limb to support new artists and served as a midwife to new organizations."

According to Low, NEA Chair Jane Alexander has promised to reinstate money back into media arts programs. Since the announcement of budget cuts, the Agency has re-stated its commitment to funding individual artists in a press release, yet on average only 5% of its grants are awarded to individual artists. NAMAC, NAAO, and AFI all plan to meet with the Endowment Chair early in the new year to discuss this commitment and Alexander's promise of continued funding for media arts programs. They will also await the itinerary of the new Republican Congress concerning funding for arts and culture in America. For further information contact the "No Name Artists' Group" through NCFE at [phone] or NAAU at [phone].

Media Arts Program Defunded

American Film Institute/National Endowment for the Arts Film Preservation Program lost $355,000. AFI allocated subgrants to organizations to preserve and restore films of artistic and cultural value. American Film institute/independent Film and Videomaker Program lost $350,000. AFI gave subgrants to outstanding media artists working in any form of film or video. Regional Fellowships lost $315,000. These fellowships provided subgrants to regional arts media centers to support independent film and video artists. National Alliance of Media Arts and Culture/Media Arts Fund lost $170,000. NAMAC allocated subgrants to organizations to promote the growth and stabilization of the media arts field.