Holly Hughes on NEA Budget Cuts

Stamps Professor Holly Hughes was recently interviewed by College Art Association Executive Director Hunter O’Hanian about the Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts. 

Hughes is known for being one of the NEA Four — artists whose work was described by Republican lawmakers as controversial and even pornographic. The debacle over the NEA Four led to the closing of the federal agency’s program of giving grants to individual artists.

O’Hanian and Hughes discuss ten points that originated with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that advised Trump on his recent federal budget proposal. The two take on each suggestion point by point, offering a rebuttal to the Heritage Foundation’s logic.

Though we know the most recent budget does fund the NEA and NEH through the fall of 2017 with a small increase in funding — and we are thrilled about that — we do not believe we are in the clear. When funding is allocated again in the fall this conversation should serve as a reminder to why the arts and humanities are so important to our world.

An Interview with Holly Hughes of the NEA Four | CAA News Today