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.
And not only that, it's perverted.
You ain't from around here, are ya?
To be honest, I'm somewhat grateful. It's rare that enemies allow themselves to be seen for what they truly are. This is one of those rare times when we receive a valuable reminder of just who's fighting alongside whom.
It’s amazing how just by the invocation of the word “art” we can easily dispense with morality. Why is that?
I kinda thought you were being facetious... but one never knows.
Actually, I am NOT from around here. If 'around here' is the USA, the closest corner of my home to the continental United States is about 5000 miles away.
I live overseas.
:-)
I remember when there was the big blowout over pictures that were 'insulting' to Islam... CNN would not publish them. Yet at the same time, they had the "Piss Christ" and "Dung Madonna" proudly displayed on their webpage.
They may have taken it down since then, as I did write them a nasty letter and pointed out the links on several online forums... but the fact of the matter remains that they did not hesitate to publish images insulting to Christians, and would not dare to publish a cartoon which freaked out the Islamonazis.
I'm curious which of the major news media firms still has these images on their online version. Has anyone been able to dig it up elsewhere?
Place a quran there in place of the crucifix and see what happens, Cooper.
On FR, sarcastic/satirical is the default tone. That makes it very difficult for us when the libs break out and perform in reality what we only conjectured in jest.
I’d assert that it was beyond perverted,
in other words, not preverted, but postverted.
I wish Jesse Helms was still in the Senate, he would bring attention to this and call out the little cowardly trash peddlers.
Substitute ‘koran’ for ‘crucifix’ and ‘rosary’, and see what happens. The exhibition would never have opened, due to “cultural insensitivity.” As we all know, white, Christian caucasians are the new n*gg*rs, and it’s perfectly all right to discriminate against them. Being a bigot has never passed out of fashion, providing only that one is a bigot for the leftist, one-world, multi-culti, PC fascist world view.
Tome for Catholics and all decent people to speak out by witholding their donations.
Yes, the sarcastic switch was turned on.
What’s happened to our beautiful country?
Should have been:
Time for Catholics and all decent people to speak out by witholding their donations.
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."
I'm fully enriched, thanks to yet another example of what can be produced with a mere $100k or so in NEA funding. It may be time to admit success - that the art world is saturated with all the art of this kind that we could possibly need. Forever. The NEA has accomplished its mission, and there will never again be a need for government-funded religious art or for that matter for any government-funded art. This level of excellence cannot be matched, nor is there any possibility of further advancement in artistic learning in an NEA that has already reached this peak. Diversity has been fully satisfied with all possible combinations of Christian symbols with bodily functions. In the words of our Commander in Chief: "Mission Accomplished."
There can be nothing left to accomplish other than a nice going away party for the people who have so creatively managed the NEA through decades of difficult funding choices (another urine work or do we go rectal with this year's religious works?), a nice plaque recognizing that they have completed their mission, and two weeks notice before the NEA is completely dismantled. I'm eager to applaud their success at the NEA's closing ceremonies, with the same enthusiasm I would show at the Olympic closing ceremonies.
CONTACT US:
Department of Human Resources
30 Cooper Square, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10003
(212) 353-4140
Trustees of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
* Ronald W. Drucker CE’62, Chairman of the Board
* Mark Epstein A’76, Vice Chairman
* Robert Bernhard, Chairman Emeritus
* Marc Appleton
* Robert Aquilina CE’78
* Lawrence Benenson
* Michael Borkowsky ME’61
* François deMenil AR’87
* Thomas R. Driscoll ME’77
* Edward Feiner AR’69
* Jeffrey Gural
Saskia Bos, Dean of the School of Art
David William, Student Exhibitions Coordinator
As a taxpayer this angers me. As a Christian I almost want to laugh at these pathetic dolts and their attempts to besmirch Christianity and/or anger Christians.
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