figures such as photographer Mapplethorpe, he was
forced to resign.
In 1993, Jane Alexander, an American actor and
author, was appointed to head the NEA by President
Bill Clinton. During her four years in this position,
she faced unsuccessful attempts by Congress to shut
down the program. In May, 1998, Bill Ivey became the
seventh chair of the NEA. Appointed by President
Clinton, he was given the task of leading the organiza-
tion into the new century. In 1999, Ivey launched a
five-year strategic plan that became the basis for Chal-
lenge America, a new national program to expand
the reach and impact of NEA activities.
Grants and Awards The NEA awards grants in
three areas: art projects, leadership initiatives, and
partnership agreements. In 1996, it established the
Open Studio project in partnership with the Benton
Foundation, to bring free public Internet access to
arts organizations around the United States. In
1997, thanks to a $225,000 leadership initiative, the
NEA helped the Young Men’s Christian Association
(YMCA) to establish literary arts centers in neighbor-
hoods across the country. The NEA also published
The Accessible Museum(1993), a guide to creating ac-
cessibility programs for museums in collaboration
with the American Association of Museums and the
Institute of Museum Services, and it continued to
fund ventures such as the Sundance Film Festival.
Additionally, the NEA awards individual fellow-
ships in literature. A number of recipients of NEA
Creating Writing Fellowships during the 1990’s, in-
cluding Jeffrey Eugenides and Annie Proulx, have
won National Book Awards, National Book Critics
Circle Awards, or Pulitzer Prizes in fiction and poetry.
In January 23, 1995, the seriesAmerican Cinema
premiered on public television as part of the NEA’s
millennium celebration of American art in the twen-
tieth century.
Impact During the 1990’s, the National Endow-
ment for the Arts awarded about forty thousand
grants, totaling in excess of $1 billion, that brought
art to Americans by supporting regional theater,
opera, ballet, symphony orchestras, museums, and
other art organizations.Further Reading
Alexander, Jane.Command Performance: An Actress
in the Theater of Politics. New York: PublicAffairs,- Alexander recounts her experience as head
of the NEA from 1993 to 1997.
Binkiewicz, Donna M.Federalizing the Muse: United
States Arts Policy and the National Endowment for the
Arts, 1965-1980.Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press, 2004. A study on the U.S. national
arts policy that refutes the assumption that the
NEA has had a liberal agenda.
Campbell, Mary Schmidt, and Randy Martin, eds.
Artistic Citizenship: A Public Voice for the Arts.New
York: Routledge, 2006. Essays by artists and
scholars address the role of art and artists in
civic life.
National Endowment for the Arts.National Endow-
ment for the Arts, 1965-2000: A Brief Chronology
of Federal Support for the Arts.New York: Author, - An overview of the first thirty-five years of
the NEA.
Reiss, Alvin H. “For Long-Term NEA Survival, Arts
Must Reach Unreached Constituencies.”Fund
Raising Management28, no. 4 (June 1, 1997): 1-36.
Focuses on the aftermath of the 1996-1997 con-
troversies.
Zeigler, Joseph Wesley.Arts in Crisis: The National En-
dowment for the Arts Versus America.Pennington,
N.J.: A Cappella Books, 1994. Extremely helpful
for understanding the underlying problems of a
government-funded arts system.
Concepcion Saenz-Cambra
604 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) The Nineties in America
National Endowment for the Arts FundingFunding and Grants 1990 1995 1999 2000 2001
Funds available (in millions) 170.8 152.1 85.0 85.2 94.0
Grants awarded (number) 4,475 3,685 1,675 1,882 2,093Source:U.S. National Endowment for the Arts,Annual Report.