Review by Choice Review
Although Marquis's account of the intrigues and economics of the NEA, NELI, and other federal arts agencies should be read by all who contemplate such issues, this book falls well short of a comprehensive history of public arts policy, especially in the area of comparative analysis. Marquis offers no comparison of the US and any other developed country, thus undercutting one of her key (but undocumented) points: i.e., that the US's unique tax situation mitigates its poor ranking in relationship to other countries. Arts-agency management is portrayed as problematic. Marquis argues that historically the mission of the federal arts agencies has been unclear, but then she grudgingly admits agencies' success in fostering geographic growth and cultural diversity and offers this as a reason to close the agencies (since the mission has been accomplished). Growing support for the arts by all classes is denigrated as social climbing and community "boosterism"; the possibility that the arts may have earned widespread allegiance for intrinsic reasons seems not to have been considered. The Midwest (including Chicago) is barely discussed; New Orleans is almost absent. The book's agenda is clear from the first chapter, which covers much territory in a cursory fashion. It is an agenda rife with contradictions; e.g., the arts are elitist and a plaything of the rich, but federal funding has led to the sacrifice of high cultural standards for breadth and inclusiveness. Seductively readable; recommended for acquisition by all comprehensive libraries. J. Becker; Northwestern Michigan College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
The National Endowment for the Arts has been controversial since its inception, perhaps because, ultimately, government and art mix about as well as oil and water. Art historian Marquis, a forceful and articulate critic of public arts funding, has written a timely and provocative assessment of the triumphs and failures of the NEA. If art is so noble and wonderful, why, she muses, are art bureaucracies so acrimonious, political, pompous, and inept? Marquis proceeds to answer this distressing query with some scandalous anecdotes about the rise and entrenchment of the art Mafia and its fiefdoms. Other touchy topics include the very messy economics of the performing and visual arts and the infuriating proliferation of bureaucratic red tape. Marquis' fluid narrative encompasses profiles of the NEA's beleaguered leaders and her perspectives on such debacles as disastrous public sculpture projects and NEA-supported art deemed obscene. Although Marquis advocates public arts funding, she believes there is something inherently absurd about asking the government to judge creative endeavors. --Donna Seaman
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Marquis characterizes the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) as a cultural bureaucracy dominated by powerful interestscorporate arts patrons, state and local arts councils, unions, advocates for various disciplines. In a lively, slashing history of public arts funding in the U.S. from the end of WWII to the present, she finds that ``Americans venerate the arts... even though they seldom attend or participate.'' Highbrow arts institutions, knowing they can depend on NEA grants and wealthy donors, cling timidly to tradition, in her analysis. Meanwhile, the relatively small amounts spent on the ``cutting edge'' support a vested ``avant-garde mainstream'' of generally baffling, boring or repellent works, according to Marquis (The Art Biz). She spells out a revolutionary blueprint for democratizing public support for the arts, whereby professional arts managers in every locality or neighborhood would fill public spacesschools, auditoriums, community centers, parks, plazaswith cultural presentations. In her plan, Congress would get out of the culture business, and a 5% tax on movie tickets, video rentals and sports would create a new, nonelitist endowment for the arts. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
While so much journalism concerning public funding of the arts amounts to little more than polemics and personal vendetta, this is instead an absorbing account of the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA). Like any good history book, it is well researched, clearly written, loaded with factual informationand somehow a pleasure to read. Goldfarb-Marquis (history, Univ. of California; Hope and Ashes, LJ 12/86) is honest about who are friends, enemies, and in between. But, more importantly, she offers detailed backgrounds of the board members and political power brokers who actually helped shape the NEA from its inception. She places equal focus on social factors such as the Cold War, television, and corporate philanthropy that have affected the agency. At times, the degree of bureaucratic error is devastatingly humorous. Though Goldfarb-Marquis makes her thoughts clear on the the direction the agency should take, her book is most useful as a source for a much-needed social history of arts funding in the United States since World War II. It will help to balance all collections.Susan M. Olcott, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., Ohio (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Lighthearted, glib treatment of a momentously crucial subject. Marquis (Alfred H. Barr, Jr., 1989, etc.) sets out to chart the course of public arts funding in the United States from the end of WW II to the present day, but her well-intentioned study is stunted by its lack of a discernable central thesis. To set the stage, she touches upon postwar flourishing of official art patronage. One factor was a need to overcome the sense of cultural inferiority that Americans had long suffered. Equally crucial was the government's recognition that the arts could be a vital instrument in the waging of a cultural Cold War with the Soviet Union. Marquis then turns helter-skelter to specific projects such as the building of New York's City Center and other performing arts centers. While jumping around, Marquis highlights the role of the Ford Foundation as arts-funding pioneer and role model for the National Endowment for the Arts. The NEA's turbulent 30-year history (and apparently imminent demise) reflects, of course, the changing economic and political tide of the United States. After flourishing in the '60s and '70s, the NEA's influence (and budget) peaked in 1980. Fraught with controversy from the outset, the organization's existence has continually forced the age-old philosophical battle concerning government intervention in the arts; more recently, with the help of Jesse Helms, it has generated debates concerning artistic freedom. Marquis, in this behind-the- scenes account, reveals the NEA as a victim of serious mismanagement and generally poor leadership (she also makes an embarrassing exposure of former NEA chair Nancy Hanks's personal life). To her credit, the author is unabashedly subjective in her role has as arts advocate--acknowledging the probable fall of the NEA, Marquis offers her own intriguing plan for a more democratic distribution of arts funds. Disorienting cultural history, further wounded by bizarre digressions. .
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
