The political cause celebre involving the National Endowment for the Arts and its support for exhibits of photography by Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano has called into question the fundamental assumptions underlying public support for two reasons:

First, given the magnitude of the public expenditure (approximately one-hundredth of one percent of the federal budget) and the rarity of controversial grants from among the total awarded, there was little reason for a great public scandal.

Second, what should have been a political side show that the NEA could have routinely survived developed into a kulturkampf - used here to mean a struggle over the legitimacy of public support for the arts and the NEA as a public arts agency.

After previous congressional reauthorizations and a relatively noncontroversial political record, the NEA should have already passed its threshhold of survival and been assured of a secure federal government commitment. That this proved not to be the case speaks very clearly about a consequence of the NEA's ambiguity in articulating a public interest in government support of the arts. It also suggests that allegations of supporting pornography are not the sum total of the problems facing the NEA. (p. 205-228)

CONTENTS
The Kulturkampf in political perspective.
Public culture and private culture.
Reorganizing the NEA by goal.
Institutional support.
Arts development.
Arts education.
Individual artist support.
Panels, representativeness and public support for the arts.
Arts policy and public accountability.
Towards a latitudinarian arts policy.
Notes [includes bibliography].