Panel

As we mark the 30th anniversary of the National Endowment for the Arts, cuts in its budget lead us back in the direction of being the only developed nation without government subsidy of art and artists.

How have the generous support of the arts by Western Europe, the rigid state-controlled artists’ unions of the former Soviet Union, and reliance on private philanthropy in the United States affected artistic life in each? Are the dominant attitudes in the U.S. Congress confined to the United States, or will these ideas influence a Europe undergoing economic and cultural transformations?

Moderator
Sarah Rothenberg pianist, a founding co-artistic director of the Bard Music Festival. Artistic director of Da Camera Houston.

Participants
Vitaly Komar, artist
Alex Melamid, artist
Norman Manea, Romanian novelist and essayist
Wendy Steiner, Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania and author of <i>The Scandal of Pleasure