Until recent uproars over NEA funding, no one questioned very loudly the existence of the NEA. Artist Stan Edwards is hoping that the time is right for a more reasoned discussion of the issue.
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His vehicle is a free symposium, entitled NEA Yea or Nay, to take place Saturday, April 20, from 7 to 9 PM in the Edward Crown Center auditorium of Loyola University, 6525 N. Sheridan, and dedicated to the memory of artist-teacher-critic Harry Bouras, beloved of thousands for his radio program on WFMT. “Harry was the one who got me thinking about this whole issue,” says Edwards. ” I was very struck by one of his radio shows in which he decried the “commodification of the arts.’ And the hoopla last year about the NEA–on both sides–disgusted me. I wanted to do something that went beyond all that.”
It will be a good, clean fight, promises Edwards, “this is not a forum for local squabbles. There’s enough of that catcalling going on in the arts as it is.” Edwards is financing most of the symposium himself (it’s produced in cooperation with the Heartland Institute, the free-market think tank), and will also serve as moderator.
