National Endowment for the Arts National Endowment for the Arts Washington, D.C. 20506 Dear Mr. President: I have the honor to submit to you the Annual Report of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Council on the Arts for the Fiscal Year ended September 30, 1980. Respectfully, Livingston L. Biddle, Jr. Chairman The President The White House Washington, D.C. February 1981 Contents Chairman’s Statement 2 The Agency and Its Functions 4 National Council on the Arts 5 Programs 6 Deputy Chairman’s Statement 8 Dance 10 Design Arts 32 Expansion Arts 52 Folk Arts 88 Inter-Arts 104 Literature 118 Media Arts: Film/Radio/Television 140 Museum 168 Music 200 Opera-Musical Theater 238 Program Coordination 252 Theater 256 Visual Arts 276 Policy and Planning 316 Deputy Chairman’s Statement 318 Challenge Grants 320 Endowment Fellows 331 Research 334 Special Constituencies 338 Office for Partnership 344 Artists in Education 346 Partnership Coordination 352 State Programs 358 Financial Summary 365 History of Authorizations and Appropriations 366 Chairman’s Statement The Dream... The Reality "The arts have a central, fundamental impor­ In the 15 years since 1965, the arts have begun tance to our daily lives." When those phrases to flourish all across our country, as the were presented to the Congress in 1963--the illustrations on the accompanying pages make year I came to Washington to work for Senator clear. In all of this the National Endowment Claiborne Pell and began preparing legislation serves as a vital catalyst, with states and to establish a federal arts program--they were communities, with great numbers of philanthro­ far more rhetorical than expressive of a national pic sources. The agency’s role, increasing in feeling of reality. meaning year by year, is wholly in keeping with They were expressive of a vision of an the original legislation’s design, and the ideals of unprecedented but uniquely American experi­ my two predecessors as Endowment chairman, ment in developing cultural growth and progress. Roger Stevens and Nancy Hanks. As in visions, dreams, ideas which are possible of Special safeguards to ensure that government fulfillment, there was a core of truth. But it was would not dominate or threaten the free develop­ distantly perceived. Words like "far-fetched," ment of the arts were carefully written into our "impractical," "eccentric" were applied--and basic law. Unlike most federal agencies, our even, at critical moments, ridicule. staff members do not make the crucial decisions But the vision persisted. The dreams, the ideas about which projects and which artists receive became part of a fledgling program enacted into support. My job really is to bring together the law 15 years ago. And today the vision is experts in each field, to discuss the merits of our perceived closer at hand. The arts in the United 25,000 applicants and determine those best States are gaining a national significance, a new qualified. Competition is enormous. Only one sense of priority. They are recognized for the gift applicant in four on average, with the funding of enrichment which, in such a special manner, now available, is successful. they provide. The panel system of peer review is at the core So on this 15th anniversary, I express my own of the Arts Endowment. Extending the concept particular admiration for those early Congres­ are the 26 private citizens, appointed by the sional leaders, of both parties, who in choosing a President with the advice and consent of the road, "took the one less traveled by," who Senate, who serve as members of the National pioneered and blazed a trail which is becoming Council on the Arts. The Council guides the more and more a broad avenue toward the agency’s overall policies and reviews panel future. recommendations for final action. As a nation we are mobilizing funding The law also includes a firm injunction against resources--at federal, state, and local govern­ interfering in the policies of our grantees, a mental levels, among corporations, foundations, provision basic to freedom of expression. and private philanthropists--on behalf of the The Endowment has had some controversial arts and the abiding talents they represent. We moments; and yet controversy is the yeast that are moving toward goals which once seemed makes the creative loaf rise. If we tried to be impossibly beyond reach. forever safe in our grant-making, we would not The enriching qualities of the arts can be fostering the free expression of ideas on which profoundly affect the uplifting of the human the arts thrive. In fact, if you compare the spirit. That has been true in leading civilizations Endowment’s grants over the years to arts throughout history. It is becoming true in our support in the private sector, you will find that own country--at all economic levels of society. I the Endowment is more likely to fund the new, see growing numbers of examples. It is not a the sometimes experimental, the less immediately renaissance of the arts. It is birth; it is a new visible work--the lone composer or poet, the beginning. We have never witnessed its like small press which gives opportunity to talent in before. literature, the off-off Broadway theater at the Chairman’s Statement cutting edge of the theater arts. arts, a park, and artists’ studios. The combined In the ageny’s budget for the current year, we efforts, including historic restoration and pride emphasize access--that is, making the best in the in the past, have stimulated $3 million in grants professional arts available to the widest number-­ from other federal agencies and over $100 with emphasis on television and touring. Our million in private investment. support for such series as Dance in America and More important in my view is that in another Live from Lincoln Center demonstrates how ten years, Winston-Salem could emulate an television reaches beyond the large cities and Athens of old, a city where the arts are indeed presents major arts events to all parts of our exemplified as of central, fundamental impor­ country. It also has the special potential for tance to daily life. And the same emphasis could educating Americans in the immense diversity develop across the country. of the arts. As in the story of Winston-Salem, I believe it’s During the last two years, for example, 34 legitimate to discuss the economic impact of the million people have seen Metropolitan Opera arts, their often proved value in attracting performances on Live from the Met. In terms of tourism and in rebuilding cities. We can discuss our assistance, that works out to a cost of less their social benefits, their values to the handi­ than t~vo cents a viewer. We are planning now to capped, the aging, or those in prisons. Art, in a emphasize other art forms which have not yet special way, does furnish such benefits; and appeared frequently on television--jazz, the businesses, large and small, have a relevance to visual arts, and the design arts such as the arts--all the way from a photographic architecture--and to support important new flashbulb to the bricks and mortar of a cultural efforts in theater and opera. center. We have discovered that television, far from But let us stress the intangible values of the undermining live performances, whets the arts above all--their gifts to the eye and ear and viewer’s appetite for more. After appearing on mind, to the imagination, to the questing spirit, Dance in America, the Joffrey Ballet learned to the revelation of new horizons, An Appalachian that 59 percent of those attending for the first folk singer of indigenous American music, a time during the company’s next New York Metropolitan Opera star, a painter, poet, chore­ season were there because they had seen the ographer.., all the myriad art formsl those from Joffrey on television. Arts audiences are not ethnic backgrounds, those from the deepest tra­ satisfied to be mere passive observers. Inevitably, ditions of our Native Americans... each adds to new dance companies spring up in communities the multifaceted riches of the arts. which have seen a great performance, whether it For the large arts organization, and the small be on television or through touring by an ones, survival remains the single most descriptive excellent company. word .... But survey the road traveled in 15 A second important model for the long-term years .... Then look toward mountains yet to future of the arts is a city like Savannah, scale .... Remember the individual artist as the Georgia, or San Antonio, Texas, or Winston- surest guide. Salem, North Carolina, where the arts are And remember, too, that when a society serving as the focal point, the driving force in emphasizes the arts, it emphasizes the value of revitalizing the city. Winston-Salem, for example, individuality. Where the arts flourish, so does had been losing population to its suburbs. that consummate political system centered on Several years ago the Arts Endowment gave a the individual--democracy. small planning grant to the local arts council to move into a deteriorating section of the center city. From that beginning has come a coalition of cultural, political, and business leaders who are now rebuilding the downtown around a special Livingston Biddle, Chairman arts enclave, including a theater, a center for the National Endowment for the Arts The Agency and Its Functions The National Foundation on the Arts own Chairman, National Council, staff, pro­ and the Humanities grams, and budget. In 1965, Congress created the National Founda­ Both legislatively and by Council policy, the tion on the Arts and the Humanities as an Arts Endowment was conceived as a catalyst to independent agency of the Executive Branch of increase opportunities for artists and to spur the Federal Government.