National endowment for administrators; the NEA's real problem isn't crucifixes in urine - it's bureaucrats in Dubuque.

• Author: Mundy, Liza
• Position: National Endowment for the Arts

The Arts Endowment has never called a great artist into being," declares National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) chairman John Frohnmayer in the NEA's glossy 1989 annual report. It seems an odd and ambiguous declaration for the chairman of the nation's leading arts agency to make-one that clearly resonated with the wrong faction during the NEA debate of 89 and '90. Thousands of cranky constituents wrote Congress protesting that their tax dollars had gone to support artists they had never heard of, but were pretty sure they disliked: names like Andres Serrano, Robert Mapplethorpe, David Wojnarowicz, Shawn Eichman, Annie Sprinkle. Not a Titian or a Faulkner in this crowd, the citizenry suspected-not even a Fragonard or a Ford Madox Ford.

But now that the dust has settled on the Mapplethorpes and the NEA has survived reauthorization for another three years, we have the time to parse Frohnmayer's words anew. The chairman's point was not that the NEA prefers to fund undistinguished painters, photographers, poets, and potters, but rather that only a minuscule amount (7.6 percent) of NEA funding goes directly to artists. To make this point abundantly clear, the Endowment is distributing a "fact sheet" emphasizing that-contrary to rumors fomented by the Right, none of the above-mentioned artists received direct NEA funding for his controversial exhibit.

Rest assured, America: During its first quarter century, the NEA has doled out the lion's share of its budget to arts organizations-symphonies, dance companies, presenters, theaters, cultural centers, and various "arts alliances." In other words, you may not have underwritten Serrano's rent or Sprinkle's sex toys, but you did contribute $4,700 to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles "to support a comprehensive survey of security needs at the museum's Temporary Contemporary facility."

Feel better about shelling out $17,500 to Dimensions Dance Theater in Oakland, California, "to support the salary of the executive director"? How about $5,000 to the Society of Folk Arts and Culture, Inc., in Eutaw, Alabama, "to support the salaries of an outreach coordinator and a clerical assistant, and other administrative expenses associated with the implementation of programs that preserve and document the cultural traditions of West Alabama"?

Or-last, but not least-a whopping $50,000 to New York's Theater Projects Consultants, Inc. "for a cooperative agreement to conduct a feasibility study for the...