The Nea’s Evolvement Essay, Research Paper

The National Endowment for the Arts was created by Congress and established in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Since then it has been awarded more than 111,000 grants to arts organizations and artists in all 50 states and the six U.S. jurisdictions. The National Endowment for the Arts is the largest single funder of the nonprofit arts sector in the United States. Among its many accomplishments, the Endowment has funded the PBS series Great Performances, winner of Evolvement51 Emmys and 121 Emmy nominations, for most of its 26 years on television. It made possible the design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the most visited tourist attraction in the nation’s capital. It fostered the careers of 35 of the 46 recipients of the National Book Awards, National Book Critics Circle Awards, and Pulitzer Prizes in fiction and poetry since 1990, as well as providing for the original production of the musical A Chorus Line, first developed in regional theater. It also supported such jazz legends as Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Dr. Billy Taylor, Miles Davis and Sarah Vaughan.

The NEA’s mission is to serve the public good by nurturing human creativity, supporting community spirit, and fostering appreciation of the excellence and diversity of our nation’s artistic accomplishments. It carries out leadership initiatives, partnerships with state arts agencies, regional arEvolvementts organizations, other federal agencies and the private sector, research, and public information. The NEA s goals are to provide access to the arts for all Americans, create and present artistic work, provide lifelong education in the arts for all, preserve our cultural heritage, and enhanced partnerships with the public and private sectors.

Widely recognized as an icon of Republican conservatism, U.S. Seetor Jesse Helms of North Carolina exerted considerable influence over foreign policy in 1997 as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Portrayed by his critics as a an extremist, Helms nevertheless displayed formidable skills as a politician, utilizing the power of his chairmanship to influence debate on foreign-policy issues and to stall the confirmation of White House nominees. Helms was born in Monroe, N.C., on Oct. 18, 1921. After attending Wingate Junior College and Wake Forest College, Winston-Salem, N.C., he served in the U.S. Navy. He worked asEvolvement a journalist, congressional aide, and banking executive before embarking on a career as a political commentator for WRAL-TV in Raleigh, N.C. Originally a Democrat, Helms left the Democratic Party in 1970 and two years later won a Senate seat as a Republican. Having won every subsequent election, including a notoriously expensive race in 1984 against Governor James B. Hunt, Jr., Helms was serving his fifth consecutive term in 1997.

As senator, Helms maintained a conservative stance on social issues, leading crusades against abortion and homosexuality, supporting prayer in public schools, and opposing the busing of students for racial integration. When the tobacco industry came under attack in 1997, he remained loyal to tobacco interests, as North Carolina was the country’s leading tobacco producer.

Helms’s installation as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1994 assured him of a powerful voice in foreign affairs. With Republican Dan Burton of Indiana, hEvolvemente cosponsored the Helms-Burton Act, which punished certain foreign companies that did business with Cuba. A longtime critic of the United Nations, Helms was the driving force behind budget cuts that forestalled payment of debts to the UN.

Helms felt that the values of the NEA were immoral and needed reform. A swell of opposition was initiated on the floor of Congress by Jesse Helms and Dana Rohrabacher. They fought valiantly to keep the issue in front of the public while the government fought hard to make it go away. A partial victory was achieved in 1991 after Republican presidential challenger Pat Buchanan achieved almost 40% of the vote in the New Hampshire preliminary using the NEA as a battering ram issue. President Bush was forced to fire NEA chairman John Frohnmayer. Ultimately the issue fizzled because nobody could accept the only correct goal the complete elimination of the NEA on the principle that the government has no business using everyone s money to fund art that appeals to only a few.