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by Robin Dunitz
Mike Alewitz, "Labor Solidarity Has No Borders," located in Los Angeles at 6120 S. Vermont Ave., will be featured on the June, 1997 tour "Community Murals of Social Conscience and Activism."
The Mural Bus Tours for the upcoming year have at last been finalized. Once again we will be publishing a schedule brochure jointly with the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC). This is now available. Each group will offer its tours in alternating months so that there will be a tour each month. To reserve your seat for a given tour, mail your reservation in using our Tour Order Form or call (310) 470-8864. Here is the schedule, including a description of each tour:
Saturday, February 22nd: A Day with East Los Streetscapers.
Veteran Chicano muralists Wayne Healy and David Botello will share some of the outstanding results of their 20-year partnership. The tour visits mural sites in Lincoln Heights, Boyle Heights, Monterey Park, Downtown L.A., and South-Central. We will also visit their studio in Rosemead.
Saturday, April 26: Murals by Women.
A selection of murals by some of California's premier public artists, including Eva Cockcroft, Johanna Poethig, Yreina Cervantez, Alma Lopez, Noni Olabisi, Jane Boyd, Judy Baca and others. Among the communities we will visit are Exposition Park, Downtown L.A., South-Central, Compton and South Gate. The tour will be led by MCLA board member and Street Gallery author, Robin Dunitz. A guest muralist will make a slide presentation of her work.
Saturday, June 28: Community Murals of Social Conscience and Activism
This new tour will focus on grassroots murals that speak to society's persisting class and racial divisions. The titles themselves say much about what we will be seeing: "American Justice," "Freedom Won't Wait," "What Happens to a Dream Deferred?," and "Labor Solidarity Has No Borders."
Saturday, August 23: Murals of the South Bay.
A broadened version of our much acclaimed Long Beach tour. Among the communities we will visit are El Segundo, site of a new Heritage Walk project; Torrance, San Pedro, Wilmington and Long Beach.
Saturday, October 25: A Day with Kent Twitchell.
L.A.'s most famous muralist will once again take us around to see his public works. This year will hopefully feature the finished comeback of "The Freeway Lady." If you haven't yet experienced the gentle, humble and funny personality of this master of gigantic portraits, you need to go on this tour! Don't delay--this tour always sells out!
Saturday, November 22: MetroRail, Part 2.
Because of the tremendous reception to our 1996 MetroRail tour, we decided to explore a different segment this year. Probably we will focus on the Green Line and parts of the Blue Line. Led by someone from the MTA Art Program.
For 1997 SPARC's tours will include:
Jewish Murals of L.A. (Sunday, January 26), African-American Mural Tour (Sunday, March 30), The Birth of Chicano Murals in East L.A.
by Robert A. Rootenberg, Esq.
On November 5, 1995 the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Los Angeles upheld the 1992 Federal District Court ruling in Finley v. NEA, et al., which struck down a federal statute requiring the National Endowment of the Arts to consider "general standards of decency" in awarding grants.
The decision was the first by a federal appeals court on the law, which was enacted in 1990 to curb government support for potentially offensive art. The Court, in a 2 to 1 ruling, said that the 'decency and respect' standard was unconstitutionally vague and violated the free-speech rights of artists who apply for grants.
"It grants government officials power to deny an application. . .(that) offends the officials' subjective beliefs and values," wrote Judge James Browning for the majority. "Where First Amendment liberties are at stake, such a grant of authority violates fundamental principles of due process. Since it is not susceptible to objective definition, the 'decency and respect' standard gives rise to the danger of arbitrary and discriminatory application."
In case your memory needs refreshing, the case involves four avant-garde performance artists who sued the Endowment in 1992 for overturning grants that an NEA peer panel had favorably recommended. Known as the 'NEA 4' the artists--Karen Finley and Holly Hughes from New York, and Tim Miller and John Fleck of Los Angeles, work with sexual and political themes. These artists were among the first to be affected by a 1989 backlash against the NEA-funded exhibitions of Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano, whose photograph of a crucifix immersed in urine drew the wrath of North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms.
At Senator Helms' urging, Congress banned the NEA from financing projects that were considered obscene, sadomasochistic or homoerotic. The ban was later dropped, and the NEA agreed to judge applicants by "general standards of decency and respect for the diverse beliefs and values of the American public."
In 1990 the National Campaign for Freedom of Expression sued on behalf of the four artists, who contended in their lawsuit that such standards were too vague and would be applied arbitrarily and discriminatorily. Further, the plaintiff artists said the standards would allow the NEA to suppress controversial speech in violation of the First Amendment. The denial of grants to the four artists for political reasons and the violation of their privacy by the NEA was also alleged.
In June, 1992, Los Angeles U.S. District Court Judge Wallace Tashima agreed with the plaintiffs, ruling that the "standards of decency" were unconstitutional, violating both the First and Fifth Amendments. Judge Tashima declared the "artistic expression is at the core of a democratic society." His ruling enjoined the NEA from enforcing the "decency" standard.
The Bush administration signaled its intention to appeal the "decency" ruling in October, 1992. But when Bill Clinton defeated Bush in the 1992 Presidential election, many considered it unlikely that the new administration would appeal the ruling. In his campaign, Clinton had won the favor of the arts community by stating his opposition to content restrictions in the NEA's funding guidelines. But in March, 1993, just two months after his inauguation, Clinton's administration went forward with the appeal.
Yet for two reasons, this seemingly important ruling may be a symbolic victory at best. First, there have been massive changes to the NEA's grant-making policies, since it's power to approve controversial grants was effectively eliminated by Congressional fund reductions last year. Although attorneys for the plaintiffs were greatly encouraged by the ruling, stating that from now on, the NEA must concern itself solely with art, not politics or decency, the plaintiffs themselves were less than enthused. When asked about the ruling, plaintiff Joh Fleck noted that the NEA no longer allows applications for individual artists' grants. Tim Miller added: "The NEA is basically fairly useless at this point for anything but the large organizations. It's not likely that any kind of grant that's pushing some kind of boundary will come up before the funding panel." Secondly, the Clinton administration may appeal the ruling. It has about another month before the ninty-day limitation to file expires. So stay tuned. . .
| Back Issues: 1996 |
Published quarterly, © 1997, Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles (MCLA).
Editor: Bill Lasarow
Contributing Editors:
Robin Dunitz, Orville O. Clarke, Jr., Richard Solomon, Nathan Zakheim
Masthead Logo Design: Charles Eley.
The Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles was formed to help protect and document murals, and enhance public awareness of mural art in the greater Los Angeles area. These programs are made possible by the tax-deducible dues and donations of our members, the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, the California Arts Council, the National/State/County Partnership Program, and the Brody Fund of the California Community Foundation.
