1990/06/12 City Council Resolution (9)RESOLUTION NO. 90 -124
A RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS REAUTHORIZATION
WHEREAS, the arts enhance our quality of life by helping to define a
nation's and a community's identity, values and heritage, contributing to cross -
cultural communication and developing creative problem- solving skills; and
WHEREAS, public investment in the arts stimulates economic growth, attracts
business and corporate investment to communities _
neighborhood revitalization, spurs tourism, enhances the imagetof ourwcommunities
and nation, and encourages innovation and inspiration in society; and
WHEREAS, the National Endowment for the Arts' twenty -five year stellar
history of promoting creativity and cultural vitality has enabled a flourishing
of the arts to reach every state and community and made the arts available to
every citizen of our nation; and
WHEREAS, in its twenty -five year history the National Endowment for the Arts
has made over 85,000 grants and funded the presentation or creation of over
1,000,000 images of which only 25 projects have become controversial; and
WHEREAS, the restrictive language approved by Congress in 1990 would have
the effect of promoting censorship and inhibiting creativity at the expense of
quality within the arts community, and gives Congress the power to micro- manage
the Endowment and define obscenity rather than the courts; and
WHEREAS, the Endowment's citizen - involved panel system, local matching
requirements for grants and reviews by the Presidentially- appointed National
Council on the Arts and its Chairman provide appropriate checks and balances in
regard to federal funding for the arts; and
WHEREAS, President Bush supports reauthorization of the NEA without
restrictive language and has submitted legislation to
and that effect in Congress;
WHEREAS, President Lyndon B. Johnson, in sponsoring legislation to
establish the NEA, proclaimed, "We fully recognize that no government can call
artistic excellence into existence. It must flow from the quality of the society
and the good fortune of the nation. Nor should any government seek to restrict
the freedom of the artist to pursue his goals in his own way. Freedom is an
essential condition for the artist, and in proportion, if freedom is diminished
so is the prospect of artistic achievement,"
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Council of the City of Rohnert Park
resolves to support reauthorization of the National Foundation on the Arts and
Humanities Act of 1965 and continued funding for the National Endowment for the
Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum Services
for fiscal year 1991 without restrictive language.
DULY AND REGULARLY ADOPTED this 12th day of June, 1990.
CITY OF ROHNERT PARK
Mayor
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