
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 13, 1991                   TAG: 9102130088
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

U.S. ART-GRANT PROGRAM ALTERS OBSCENITY RULE

The National Endowment for the Arts has altered controversial policies in its 1990 grants program, saying that art projects will be considered obscene only if local courts classify them as such on appeal.

In the change, the NEA has technically grafted provisions of grant-making laws effective this year onto a controversial statute that applied for the 1990 fiscal year only. But it stops short of rescinding an endowment requirement that artists pledge in advance not to show or create obscene work.

Endowment sources confirmed the change Tuesday. It was disclosed in a memorandum Chairman John Frohnmayer signed.

The new policy applies retroactively to all 1990 NEA grants, whether recipients have already received their money or are still waiting to get it. Frohnmayer has said that many grantees appeared to have been waiting to see the outcome of the oath controversy before drawing their money.

Several dozen artists and arts groups rejected or threatened to reject NEA funds, but the arts endowment said Tuesday that it could provide no estimate of the number of uncollected grants or the amount of money they represent.

by CNB