Vera List Center for Art and Politics presents How Obscene Is This! The Decency Clause Turns 20

Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School in collaboration with the National Coalition Against Censorship.

On the 20th anniversary of the U.S. Congressional mandate that the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) consider “general standards of decency and respect” in awarding grants, the Vera List Center for Art and Politics and the National Coalition Against Censorship present two panel discussions and a video interview project evaluating censorship and arts funding today.

Prominent artists, non-profit arts organization directors, art dealers, and founders of alternative spaces examine issues related to how the introduction of the decency clause in particular, and the Culture Wars in general, have affected funding, free speech and self-censorship, and how attitudes towards notions of decency and respect for the values and beliefs of the American public have changed over the past twenty years.

Laura Flanders of GritTV moderates both panels.

Survival vs. Autonomy: Public Funding of the Arts, Free Speech and Self-Censorship
Wednesday, September 15, 2010 – 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
The New School, Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12 Street, New York
Free admission

Beka Economopoulos, Founder of Not an Alternative and No-Space Gallery
Bill Ivey, Former Chair of the NEA (1998-2001)
Magdalena Sawon, Owner and Director of Postmasters Gallery
Nato Thompson, Chief Curator at Creative Time
Martha Wilson, Founding Director of Franklin Furnace

What Offends Us Now? Decency, Respect and Community Standards
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 – 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
The New School, Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12 Street, New York
Free admission

Wafaa Bilal, artist, censored in Iraq and the U.S.
Holly Hughes, one of the NEA4
Trevor Paglen, provocateur and experimental geographer
Carolee Schneemann, pioneering feminist artist

Power, Taboo and the Artist
Online launch

This ongoing video interview series addresses questions of arts funding and censorship around the world and features statements by Sofia Hernández Chong Cuy, Ricardo Dominquez, David Glasser, Samia Halaby, Steve Lambert, Oleg Mavromatti, Denis Mustafin, Boryana Rossa, Dread Scott, Martha Wilson and others.

Indecent Exposure
Film program

The panel discussions are complemented by the film screening Indecent Exposure on September 27, at the School of Visual Arts, SVA Theatre, 333 West 23rd Street, at 6:30 p.m. Shorts by Matthew Barney, Cecily Brown, Marilyn Minter, Richard Prince, Sam Taylor-Wood, and others, produced by Neville Wakefield. Visit http://www.ncac.org/how-obscene-is-this for details.