The NEA died way back in 1989 - when they couldn't, wouldn't stand up for mapplethorpe... when the let witkins books be torn apart by mr. helms, without attacking back... without trying to explain to the general public why mappelthorpe is a-ok and why it's just wrong to rip apart books and attack art... period.

art is to be understood or ignored, not burned - art will never fit into the peg holes.

what the nea did back in 1989 was made art a job, where you had to go to school and LEARN art so you could be employed and taken seriously - that isn't art, it's work.

the nea has been dead for years... the 'artists' who use their talents only to gain fame and fortune are the real traitors... and should be treated as such.

"Previously shackled with the controversy over the Serrano and Mapplethorpe images of 1989 that escalated to a debate over its very existence, the NEA needs to stay far away from any questions of impropriety."