By Joseph Abrams
FOXNews.com
More than 50 congressmen sent a letter blasting what they
called "indecent" and "abhorrent" art projects funded by
grants from the National Endowment for the Arts as part of the $787 billion
economic stimulus bill.
The NEA may be spending some of the money it received
from the Recovery and Reinvestment Act to fund nude simulated-sex dances,
Saturday night "pervert" revues and the airing of pornographic horror
films at art houses in
"These are funds intended to create permanent jobs,
not to feed prurient interests," wrote Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., in a
letter signed by 50 colleagues in the House and fired off to Patrice Walker
Powell, the acting chairman of the NEA. "I find it unconscionable that
taxpayers are funding objectionable and obscene movies, plays and
exhibitions."
Click here to read the letter.
The NEA was given $80 million from the government's
stimulus package to spread around to needy artists nationwide, and most of the
money is being spent to help preserve jobs in museums, orchestras, theaters and
dance troupes that have been hit hard by the recession.
But a few of the NEA's grants are spicing up more than
the economy, including these offerings to some risque art houses in
Staffers at the institutions said the stimulus funds were
helping keep jobs alive in a city whose economy positively runs on art, but
members of Congress were irate over the funding. An analysis conducted by the
NEA itself last year found that the supply of non-profit theaters has vastly
outstripped demand.
"Our intent is not to censor artistic freedom,"
wrote Stearns. "The fundamental question is why is the federal government
supporting artists that taxpayers have refused to support in the open market
place?"