Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)'

The marimba is rapidly achieving greater importance as a solo percussion instrument. Solo compositions for the marimba have been commissioned and performed only in the last sixty years. The 1986 National Endowment for the Arts Solo Marimba Commission is considered one of the most important commissioning projects in the history of marimba literature. Two compositions created through this project, Velocities by Joseph Schwantner and Reflections on the Nature of Water by Jacob Druckman have become two of the most influential works in contemporary marimba music. This thesis will focus on a historical perspective of the project, as well as theoretical aspects and performance issues related to these two compositions. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) issued a consortium commissioning grant through the Percussive Arts Society (PAS) in 1986 to three internationally renowned marimbists, William Moersch, Leigh Howard Stevens and Gordon Stout. Three Pulitzer Prize winners were brought together to compose three new works for the marimba. The resulting pieces were: Reflections on the Nature of Water by Jacob Druckman, Velocities by Joseph Schwantner, and Islands from Archipelago: Autumn Island by Roger Reynolds. A brief history of the classical concert marimba and the development of solo marimba literature is provided in the second chapter. The fourth and fifth chapters provide individual information about the pieces, including concise biographical information about the composers and an analysis of the two compositions.

Pour analyser la complexité du système culturel américain, cette recherche part du rôle de l'Etat (1ère partie "Politique de la culture") qui suit la création des agences culturelles fédérales, leur déclin et décrypte les « politiques de la culture » des administrations américaines jusqu'à aujourd'hui. Parallèlement, le rôle des États et des villes est analysé à travers les mécanismes décentralisés du financement de la culture. A ce point, il est possible de saisir les raisons de la faiblesse du rôle public. Dans une deuxième partie ("La société de la culture"), la recherche se fonde sur une analyse de la philanthropie, des fondations et du rôle majeur des universités dans l'art. A partir de centaines de documents d'archives (dont 434 en annexes) et de plus de 700 interviews réalisés dans 35 Etats et 110 villes américaines, le « modèle » culturel américain apparaît dans son originalité et sa complexité, ni dépendant de l'Etat, ni véritablement influencé par le marché
In order to analyze the complexity of the « American cultural system », this PhD dissertation begins in Part I (“Government of the arts”) with the role of the government following the creation of the federal arts agencies, examines the decline of these agencies, and deciphers the “cultural politics” (“politiques de la culture”) of subsequent American administrations to the present day. At the same time, the role of state and local governments is analyzed within the context of the decentralized mechanisms of arts funding. By this point, the limited role of the public sector becomes more comprehensible, for reasons that include the democratic ideal itself. In Part II (“Society and the arts”), this dissertation looks at philanthropy, foundations and the important role of universities play in the arts. Through hundreds of archival documents (among 434 as appendices) and more than seven hundred interviews in 35 states and 110 American cities, the American cultural model” appears in all its singularity and complexity, largely “nonprofit”, neither dependent on the state, nor truly influenced by the market

Thesis (Ed.D.) -- Teachers College, Columbia University, 1989.
Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: Robert O. McClintock. Dissertation Committee: Ellen Condliffe Lagemann. Bibliography: leaves 197-210.

The proposed 42,000 square foot facility is envisioned to be a satellite office for both the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as a digital research institute. The institute seeks to provide integrated collaboration with the NEA and NEH, although it is also open to collaboration with other organizations related to arts and humanities scholarship. The proposed site is located at the intersection of 14th Street and Park Rd NW, in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C. At this time, the neighborhood is experiencing a revival in development that began approximately 10-15 years ago. Community residents describe the site as being the "core area" of the neighborhood and also consider it to be the number one priority area for redevelopment of the entire neighborhood. Strategically locating the building at the main intersection of the neighborhood facilitates community involvement and cognition as well as encourages the surrounding arts and humanities related organizations to become more closely involved with the NEA and NEH and their research. This development is meant to be a cultural marker. Functionally, this facility will utilize the most advanced information technology and the most extensive humanities and arts related databases as tools for scholarly research.
Master of Architecture

This thesis studies the determinants of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and identifies the key factors that can account for their variation across communities. The analysis examines the target audience for NEA grants, how the NEA chooses to distribute its funds, and whether the grants aimed at low-income communities are effective in targeting communities that do not otherwise have access to the arts. This study concludes that grants from the National Endowment for the Arts tend to be allocated to communities with higher college graduation rates, but not necessarily higher income levels.

La période 1960 – 1990 a été agitée et féconde aux États-Unis malgré l’échec du projet de Grande Société et de lutte contre la pauvreté du président L.B. Johnson. L’Amérique a profité des retombées de sa domination économique et militaire pour financer l’éducation, le logement (G.I. Bill) ainsi que les arts (N.E.A.). De 1960 à 1990 la photographie est entrée massivement à l’université, dans les musées et dans le marché de l’art. Le paysage a toujours été un genre artistique privilégié aux États-Unis, de la peinture du dix-neuvième siècle à la photographie depuis son invention qui coïncide avec la découvertes de nouveaux territoires qui crée le pays. Le médium a documenté le développement territorial du pays puis s’est affirmé sur la scène de la photographie créative occidentale. Les années considérées vont voir la photographie créative américaine passer d’une période « romantique » tournée vers l’abstraction et le monde intérieur de l’artiste, conséquence des persécutions politiques de l’immédiat après-guerre, vers une réflexion ontologique et expérimentale, pour finalement traiter de problèmes de société tout en restant connectée aux réflexions esthétiques et philosophiques communes aux autres arts. Au sortir des années 1980, la photographie américaine de paysage, celle des grands espaces mais également celle des espaces humanisés, urbanisés, domine la scène internationale inspirant un renouveau du genre en Europe, au Canada, au Japon,…. Lancé par une exposition alors jugée mineure en 1975, le phénomène New Topographics est devenu planétaire et perdure. Ces quinze dernières années, de nombreuses expositions des paysagistes américains de cette période ont circulé à travers le monde, phénomène révélateur de leur rôle dans notre culture occidentalo – planétaire ainsi que pour l’histoire du médium
During the 1960 – 1990 period, in spite of the psychological and economical fall-outs of the various wars (Cold War, Korea and Vietnam ) undermining L.B. Johnson’s hopes and plans for a Great Society and his War on Poverty, the American government used its world supremacy and the derived wealth acquired in the wake of W.W. II (the USA was the only western country whose industrial production was impacted positively) to finance popular housing, adult education (G.I. Bill), and the arts (N.E.A.). During those years photography crashed the doors of academia, museum and art institutions, and entered the art market. Landscape has always been a major genre in the American visual arts, from the paintings of the nineteenth century (the Hudson River School, the Luminists) to photography. An interesting synchronicity can be observed between the birth, growth and coming of age of both the medium and the country. Landscape photography participated in the creation of an American identity. A century later, during what we can now call the Golden Age of American landscape photography from New Topographics in the 1970s to the advent of color photography in the 1980s, photographers turned their lenses back toward the east at the damage done and the state of the landscape left behind. The production of wall-size prints followed, competing for attention with paintings on the walls of museums and galleries that welcome them. Since the Culture Wars of the late 1980s and the 1990s, and the defunding of the arts that ensued, the rest of the world has caught up, influenced by the traveling exhibitions and publications of that generation of American photographers

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2003.
Advisor: Dr. Charles M. Dorn, Florida State University, School of Visual Arts and Dance, Dept. of Art Education. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 08, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

abstract: This thesis is an art-historical inquiry into the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and its controversies in the 1990s. A socio-economic model of instrumentalization of the arts based on Pierre Bourdieu's and David Throsby's conceptualizations of cultural capital is first developed. The model is then used to explore the notion of "congressional aesthetics," or a particular brand of arts-instrumentalization adopted by the U.S. Congress for post-WWII federal projects involving art, and two cases of its implementation. The first case is the successful implementation of congressional aesthetics in the instrumentalization of the arts in Sino-American cultural diplomacy during the Cold War. The kind of American art in the 1950s enabled the successful implementation of congressional aesthetics. The opposite case is then investigated: the failed implementation of congressional aesthetics in the operation of the NEA in the 1980s. Specifically, the NEA controversies of the 1990s can be traced to the agency's failure to conform to congressional aesthetics. Failed congressional aesthetics also results largely from the type of American art being produced in the 1980s.
Dissertation/Thesis
Masters Thesis Art 2015

碩士
淡江大學
美國研究所碩士班
96
Although this research is not completely in favor of government funding on the arts, it absolutely agrees with one of the main purposes of the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities Act of 1965, which is “no government can call a great artist or scholar into existence, it is necessary and appropriate for the Federal Government to help and create and sustain not only a climate encouraging freedom of thought, imagination, and inquiry, but also the material conditions facilitating the release of this creative talent.” Not until the twentieth century did the American Government pass any arts policy. On the one hand, it was because of its European origins. Early immigrants believed that arts would make those pioneers in the colony indulge in it and force them to lose their virtues of industry. On the other hand, it was a lack of a strong leader who would be willing to die for arts postponed the timetable for a national arts institute. Although there were a few arts institutes established under government sponsorship, most of them failed due to incomplete policy or the reason mentioned above, lack of a strong leader. The American Federal Funding on the arts had been so rare to compare with European standard, yet the art world in the United States grew without limits. This research focuses on a few questions: first of all, arts policy is like other public policy, which comes out only under certain historical backgrounds or societal atmosphere. Hence, what is the historical development of American arts policy before the establishment of the National Endowment for the Arts? Secondly, how do art institutes in the United States find enough funding to run themselves under limited government funding? And what is the entire structure of American arts-funding system? In the third place, the National Endowment for the Arts, the biggest arts-funder in the United States, was established under the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities Act of 1965. NEA claimed itself to be independent from the Federal Government and has been providing arts funding to each state over forty years. What is the background of its establishment, structure of the organization, and also distribution of the funding? Besides, what is the reviewing system and how does it work is also the part this research focusing on. In the end, different people may have different arguments on what the NEA has been doing over the past forty years. Therefore, what is the contribution the NEA brings to the American society, and also what are those arguments about? This research basically gives its credit for what the NEA has activated the American arts environment and its contribution to the entire society as well, especially through its “match grant” system. Recently the NEA’s grants have been even more diverse, and covered almost all fields of the arts community. Furthermore, the NEA steadily promotes the arts domestically and internationally. Besides, it especially focuses on two important aspects, which are arts education and culture heritage. The former nourishes the arts from the roots, and the latter contributes a lot to the promotion and preservation of traditional American culture. However, “How to efficiently avoid political interferences” has been one of the most important and urgent issues the NEA confronts. This “political interference” includes two aspects, one is the relationship between the appointment of the president of the NEA and the government administration, and the other is the relationship between the NEA and its grants applicants. Overall, this research believes that if the NEA could overcome the so-called “political-interfered” issues, and has a better and clearer understanding toward the position it stands, doubtlessly, its contribution toward the entire American society would be even stronger. Chapter 1 introduces the motives, methods, and also the literature reviews of this research. Chapter 2 contains the historical development of the arts policy of American Federal Government before the establishment of the NEA. Chapter 3 describes and focuses mainly on the current system of American arts funding. Chapter 4 would be a study on the National Endowment for the Arts, including its purposes and background of establishment, structure of the organization, distribution of funding, review system, strategic plans, and also its contribution to not only the Arts environment in the United States, but also the society itself. Chapter 5 would discuss the position of the NEA from both sides of the arguments through the crises and controversial issues that the NEA had been through, especially during the end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s. Chapter 6 eventually would be the conclusion of this research.

This dissertation examines experimental dance in New York City in the 1990s. Earlier periods of American concert dance have received significant scholarly attention to the historical, political, and aesthetic aspects of dance practice. Moreover, certain periods of modern dance — especially the 1930s and the 1960s — have been analyzed as moments of significant change, and the artists that emerged from the Judson Dance Theater in particular have held a significant place in the theorizing and historicizing of dance in the United States. However, experimental dance practices of the early 21st century demonstrate dramatically different aesthetics, approaches, and circumstances of production than those of earlier periods, including their Judson forebears. This project argues for understanding the 1990s as a period of significant change for dance, one with continuing resonance for the decades that follow.This project uses the term "downtown dance" to situate experimental dance in New York City as a community of practitioners, rather than as a particular set of aesthetic or artistic practices. Each of the four chapters focuses on an aspect in this period that would define how dance looked, how dancers practiced, and what shaped the artistic values and priorities of this community. The first chapter presents a history of the dance-service organization Movement Research. Tracing the history of the organization from its founding in 1978 through the establishment of its most influential programs in the 1990s — including the Movement Research Performance Journal and the performance series Movement Research at the Judson Church — the chapter locates Movement Research as a central entity in building the community and shaping theaesthetics of downtown dance. The second chapter examines the effects of the AIDS crisis on dance in the 1990s. As AIDS entered its second decade, it collided with and magnified downtown dance's complex relationship with emotion. This chapter draws on scholarship of AIDS' relationship to visual art, theater, and activism, as well as close readings of several works — by artists including Donna Uchizono, Neil Greenberg, John Jasperse, RoseAnne Spradlin, Jennifer Monson, and DD Dorvillier — most not generally understood as "AIDS dances," to argue that AIDS' impact generated a fundamental shift in the role of emotion in downtown dance. The third chapter examines how shifts in arts funding in the 1990s connected to a major restructuring in production models for dance. This chapter connects the history of the modern dance company with both aesthetic and economic developments over the course of the 20th century, arguing that the company should be understood as a combined economic-aesthetic system. Furthermore, the chapter demonstrates the new model for dance production that began to take hold in the 1990s in the wake of widespread funding and economic shifts: the project model. Teasing out the complex web of funding for dance, this chapter makes extensive use of dance periodicals; several funding trend analyses from organizations including Dance/USA, National Endowment for the Arts, Dance/NYC, and private corporate and foundation reports; and the archives of the presenting institution Danspace Project. The final chapter looks at how the shifts in economic models for dance discussed in the previous chapter connected to changes in training and bodily technique of dancers and performers. Specifically investigating the history of "release technique," this chapter examines how attitudes toward technique and training in downtown dance in the 1990s shifted the connection between movement practices and creative output, reconceiving the role of the dancer in the dancer-choreographer relationship.