Posted on 06/10/2008 8:36:57 AM PDT by Sopater
(WARNING: This story contains graphic descriptions of artwork that is offensive.)
(CNSNews.com) - Federal taxpayers are subsidizing a college in New York whose art school is currently displaying works that include a drawing of a man with a crucifix coming out of his rectum, a drawing of a man with a rosary coming out of his rectum, and rosaries decorated with penises.
Over the last eight years, at least $4.6 million in federal tax dollars have been provided to the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, which is displaying the controversial artworks. Some of the money has come in the form of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Most of the $4.6 million in federal tax dollars that has gone to Cooper Union over the last eight years has been given to the school's engineering and science programs. But Cybercast News Service has learned that the National Endowment for the Arts has given the school's art program more than $122,000 during that same period.
The NEA awarded the grants because, in its words, they "(enrich) our Nation and diverse cultural heritage by supporting works of artistic excellence, advancing learning in the arts, and strengthening the arts in communities throughout the country."
According to the NEA's Web site, the art school received:
-- $17,000 in 2001, $20,000 in 2002, and $10,000 in 2003 to support and expand a community arts partnership (CAP). This money went to provide pre-college studio art classes to the community "outside of the academic setting."
-- $400 in 2002 for design arts.
-- $45,000 in 2006 to support the school's Saturday Outreach Program, and its Outreach Track. These projects provide high school students with free visual arts education.
-- $10,000 in 2004.
The NEA grants did not go directly to fund Cooper Union's "best of" student art exhibition, which includes the controversial drawings of student Felipe Baeza that depict a man with an erection and a halo over his head; a man with a rosary hanging from his rectum; a man with a crucifix extending from his rectum, and a man with his pants down over an angel holding two rosaries with penises attached to them.
Cooper Union is a private institution that provides full-tuition scholarships to all enrolled students. Like most private universities, it uses federal grants for research projects and for funding education programs.
Federal grants to Cooper Union over the last eight years went mainly to the school's engineering program. According to the federal government's Web site, the grants included:
-- $22,537 from the U.S. Department of Education -- $62,445 from the U.S Air Force -- $1.1 million from the National Science Foundation -- $7,175 from the National Institute of Standards and Technology
The college also received $2.8 million for student financial assistance programs, mainly in the form of Pell Grants.
Matt Barber, policy director for cultural issues at Concerned Women for America, said that since money is "fungible" it did not matter what program the federal tax dollars were directed toward. Money that is obtained for one purpose, he said, typically frees up other money that can then be used for other purposes.
The Cooper Union Web site boasts that since 2000, the engineering school received funding from NASA, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, the National Security Agency, the City of New York Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Energy and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
Calls to Cooper Union were directed to press officer Jolene Resnick, who directed Cybercast News Service to a news release that said: "The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art End of Year Show is curated by faculty of the schools of architecture, engineering, and art, as it has been for more than 40 years. Hundreds of student works are shown annually without censorship -- a tradition at the school since its founding by Peter Cooper 150 years ago."
The student art exhibit runs until June 10.
I want my $4.6 Million back. NOW!
Homosexuals are such lovely and normal people it just makes one proud of such an alternative lifestyle. Billions is shoveled to this group to pay for their venereal diseases, why not more for their art.
Thank The Good Lord that I live in the United States, where stuff like this doesn’t happen.
Make the wash it fist . Laundered perhaps .
If I say that a painting consists of a bridge over a small pond with lily pads, I have described a Monet. But you need to SEE the Monet to understand why the work is significant and how it speaks to the human heart.
The artwork described in this piece is different. There is no need to see it. A brief description tells you everything. Ooooh! They're bashing the church! So creative! The concept is equal to, probably "superior to" any possible implementation of the art.
This is an indication, I think, that what we have here is not Art at all. This is such crass polemics.
The same US government that is prohibited from endorsing Christianity is also prohibited from channeling tax dollars to condemn it.
Why does the National Endowment for the Arts still exist????
There was talking of killing off this abomination in the Reagan years, but nothing has happened since.
Conservatives need to again take up this small issue as a sign of a bigger cause.
This is the counter example to a momument to the 10 commandments being placed on public property.
If the 10 commandments are not permissible, neither is this.
Yep, my thought exactly. Would they show anything coming out of Mohammed’s private areas? No, because they want to be respectful of other religions. Plus, they don’t want to get killed.
Yep, we preach tolerance and respect of other cultures and religions, just don’t show that respect to our own mainstream religions and our own culture.
There was talking of killing off this abomination in the Reagan years, but nothing has happened since.
It was talked about again in 1994 just before the elections. It was just talk (pandering). There was absolutely no intention of following through.
Picture Abe Lincoln giving his famous Cooper Union speech against this backdrop.
Only a moron would believe these kids are doing this for any other reason then they can do it and with impunity.
Bashing Catholicism is in vogue and kids being kids and rarely having any original thoughts, will follow along mindlessly.
The point made by another here that they would lack the courage to portray the religion of the pedophile Allah in such a way is well taken.
Obama Speaks On Economy At New York’s Cooper Union School
http://www.jamd.com/search?assettype=g&assetid=80397604&text=Cooper+Union+for+the+Advancement+of+Science+and+Art
This is in the USA.
Unless you forgot the </s> tag.
...isn’t this “hate speech” that violates some student speech code?
Why does the National Endowment for the Arts still exist????
and NPR?????
This is preverted.
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