Episode 1: NEA Funding, Cultural Diplomacy and Soft Power
Thank you for tuning in to the first episode of #ChristenCommentary
Researched, written and delivered by Dr. Christen Mandracchia, PhD.
Lighting, studio design and audio editing also by Christen.
Video editing by Stevie Reynolds.
For news on grants cancellation please see:
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2025/may/09/arts-funding-trump
https://www.aam-us.org/programs/advocacy/policy-issues/issue-national-endowment-for-the-arts/
For more on the decline of the NEA in the 90s and beyond and actions and inactions of both political parties in contributing to its downfall please see:
National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley, 524 U.S. 569 (1998).
United States Code, 20 U.S.C. § 954(d)(1) (1990).
Alexander, Jane. Command Performance: An Actress in the Theater of Politics. PublicAffairs, 2000.
Americans for the Arts. “NEA Funding History and Advocacy. americansforthearts.org, accessed June 17, 2025.
Bauerlein, Mark, and Ellen Grantham, eds. National Endowment for the Arts: A History, 1965–2008. National Endowment for the Arts, 2009.
Binkiewicz, Donna M. Federalizing the Muse: United States Arts Policy and the National Endowment for the Arts, 1965–1980. University of North Carolina Press, 2004.
Bolton, Richard, ed. Culture Wars: Documents from the Recent Controversies in the Arts*. New Press, 1992.
Buchanan, Patrick J. “Losing the War for America’s Culture.” The Washington Post, May 15, 1989.
Frohnmayer, John. Leaving Town Alive: Confessions of an Arts Warrior. Houghton Mifflin, 1993.
Jensen, Richard. “The Culture Wars, 1965–1995: A Historian’s Map.” Journal of Social History, vol. 29, no. Supplement, 1995, pp. 17–37.
Koch, Cynthia M. “The Contest for American Culture: A Leadership Case Study on the NEA and NEH Funding Crisis.” Public Talk: Online Journal of Discourse Leadership, 1998.
Lipton, Eric. “Arts Agency’s Role in Obama Agenda Raises Concerns.” The New York Times, September 8, 2009.
National Coalition Against Censorship. “Free Expression in Arts Funding.” ncac.org, accessed June 17, 2025.
National Endowment for the Arts. “Annual Reports, 1993–2023.” arts.gov
Panoply Lab. “20 Years of the Decency Clause: A Reminder for Gen Y.” panoplylab.wordpress.com, September 15, 2010.
Pogrebin, Robin. “Biden’s NEA: Equity Focus but Limited Ambition.” The New York Times, March 15, 2022.
Teach Democracy. “The Battle Over the National Endowment for the Arts.” teachdemocracy.org, accessed June 17, 2025.
Trescott, Jacqueline. “NEA Under Fire: The Politics of Art.” The Washington Post, July 20, 1989.
Trescott, Jacqueline. “NEA’s Budget Battle: Democrats’ Delicate Dance.” The Washington Post, February 10, 1995.
Zeigler, Joseph Wesley. Arts in Crisis: The National Endowment for the Arts Versus America. Chicago Review Press, 1994.
For more information on cultural diplomacy and soft power as a general topic please see:
Schneider, C. P. (2005). "Culture Communicates: U.S. Diplomacy that Works." In J. Melissen (Ed.), The New Public Diplomacy: Soft Power in International Relations. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. http://www.culturaldiplomacy.org/academy/content/articles/e-learning/read/a1/Cultural_Diplomacy-_Hard_to_Define-_Schneider%2C_Cynthia.pdf.
Cull, N. J. (2008). "The Past and Future of Cultural Diplomacy." Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society, 38(1), 7-22. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10286632.2023.2183949.
Scott-Smith, G. (2009). "A Greater Role for Cultural Diplomacy." Clingendael Diplomacy Papers, No. 16. https://www.clingendael.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/20090616_cdsp_discussion_paper_114_mark.pdf.
Nye, J. S. (2004). Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics. New York: PublicAffairs.
For general and accessible information on the impact of NEA grants please see:
https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/business-and-management/national-endowment-arts-established
https://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2281/National-Endowment-Arts.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Endowment_for_the_Arts
https://hyperallergic.com/983436/nea-awards-36-8m-in-grants-to-1400-artists-and-orgs/
For more on the NEA’s role in Cold War soft power and cultural diplomacy:
Barnhisel, G. (2015). Cold War Modernists: Art, Literature, and American Cultural Diplomacy. New York: Columbia University Press. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:648dbe27-79fa-4a83-abef-64a4f656619d/files/mc0056ebe5ae2abeefc6199973d843cd4
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/23b3/fdc670b7fa7049bc3278309bcf338c571868.pdf
Croft, C. (2015). Dancers as Diplomats: American Choreography in Cultural Exchange. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://ums.org/wp-content/uploads/Dancers-as-Diplomats_Clare-Croft-Introduction.pdf.
Prevots, N. (1998). Dance for Export: Cultural Diplomacy and the Cold War. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
Fosler-Lussier, D. (2015). Music in America’s Cold War Diplomacy. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Wyszomirski, M. J. (2004). “From Public Support for the Arts to Cultural Policy.” Review of Policy Research, 21(3), 469–484. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1541-1338.2004.00089.x.
https://www.upenn.edu/static/pnc/ptkoch.html
For more on America’s decline in the 21st Century please see:
Bremmer, Ian. The Decline of American Power: The U.S. in a Chaotic World. New York: Penguin Books, 2015. https://www.amazon.com/Decline-American-Power-Chaotic-World/dp/1565847997
Dalio, Ray. Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2021. https://www.legalevolution.org/2022/08/three-empirically-based-theories-of-national-decline-book-review321/
Kennedy, Paul. The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000. New York: Random House, 1987.
McCoy, Alfred W. In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of US Global Power. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2017. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48645471
Morris, Ian. Why the West Rules—For Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010. https://repositorio.comillas.edu/rest/bitstreams/438651/retrieve
Nye, Joseph S. Is the American Century Over? Cambridge: Polity Press, 2015.
Pew Research Center. “America’s International Image Continues to Suffer.” October 1, 2018. https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2018/10/01/americas-international-image-continues-to-suffer/.
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). SIPRI Yearbook 2024: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024. https://x.com/WandererRaidho/status/1934797305820954956
Wallerstein, Immanuel. The Decline of American Power: The U.S. in a Chaotic World. New York: The New Press, 2003.
Zakaria, Fareed. The Post-American World: Release 2.0. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2011.
For more on what will happen if the US loses its place in the world please see:
Ferguson, Niall. Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power. Basic Books, 2004.
Kupchan, Charles A. No One’s World: The West, the Rising Rest, and the Coming Global Turn. Oxford University Press, 2012.
Mandelbaum, Michael. The Frugal Superpower: America’s Global Leadership in a Cash-Strapped Era. PublicAffairs, 2010.
Zakaria, Fareed. The Post-American World: Release 2.0. W.W. Norton & Company, 2011.
International Monetary Fund. "The Role of the U.S. Dollar as the World’s Reserve Currency." IMF Working Papers, 2023.
For more on how China is surpassing the US in soft power please see:
https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/us-aid-cuts-are-soft-power-surrender-china
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-big-bet-soft-power
https://fpif.org/soft-power-divide-china-advances-while-u-s-retreats/
https://www.newyorker.com/news/fault-lines/the-rise-of-chinas-soft-power
https://www.wired.com/story/china-tariffs-response-trump-retaliation/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/05/14/china-united-states-soft-power/
https://www.stdaily.com/web/English/2024-04/24/content_1958215.html
https://www.e-ir.info/2020/07/03/the-state-of-chinas-soft-power-in-2020/
https://softpower30.com/country/china/
For more on the United States’ cultural inferiority complex post American Revolution please see:
Schildkraut, D. J. (2022) “Defining American National Identity: An Exploration into Measurement and Its Outcomes” Nationalities Papers, Volume 52, Issue 1. Cambridge Core. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/nationalities-papers/article/defining-american-national-identity-an-exploration-into-measurement-and-its-outcomes/57560A728F2C887881C6C5762A7C6F4B
“What Does American Identity Mean? A Cultural Legacy of Pluralism and Exclusion” (2022) PRRI (Public Religion Research Institute). https://www.prri.org/spotlight/what-does-american-identity-mean-a-cultural-legacy-of-pluralism-and-exclusion/
For more on the history of Federal funding for the arts before the NEA please see:
Bailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Harvard University Press, 1967.
Miller, Lillian B. Patrons and Patriotism: The Encouragement of the Fine Arts in the United States, 1790-1860. University of Chicago Press, 1966.
Pessen, Edward. Riches, Class, and Power Before the Civil War. D.C. Heath, 1973.
Taylor, Joshua C. America as Art. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1976.
For more on the Founders views on cultural diplomacy please see:
Jefferson, Thomas. *Notes on the State of Virginia* (1785). Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/03004986/
Madison, J. *The Federalist Papers* (1787–1788) and Letter, 1822. Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/
Franklin, Benjamin. Letter to Robert R. Livingston, 1783; Letter to Benjamin West, 1770; Letter to Samuel Cooper, 1777. Franklin Papers, Yale University: https://franklinpapers.yale.edu/
Washington, George. Letter to Charles Willson Peale, 1788; Farewell Address, 1796. Washington Papers, Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/collections/george-washington-papers/
Adams, John. Letter to Abigail Adams, 1780; Letter to John Singleton Copley, 1785; Massachusetts Constitution, 1780. Adams Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society: https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/
For more on other US politicians in the 1800s who believed in supporting the arts for cultural diplomacy (a subject not included in this episode for time but worth including) please see:
Clay, Henry. Speech to Congress, 1816; Letter to Joel Poinsett, 1825. Papers of Henry Clay, University of Kentucky: https://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/xt7wst7dtj2q
Webster, D. Senate Speech, 1845; Letter to Washington Irving, 1839. Webster Papers, Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/collections/daniel-webster-papers/
Sumner, C. Senate Speech, 1866; Letter to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1867. Sumner Papers, Harvard University: https://hollis.harvard.edu/
Seward, Williams. Diplomatic Dispatch, 1861; Letter, 1863. Seward Papers, University of Rochester: https://rbsc.library.rochester.edu/seward
For more on private arts donors pre-WWI please see:
Morris, Robert. Letter to Charles Willson Peale, 1783. Peale Papers, American Philosophical Society: https://www.amphilsoc.org/collections/peale-papers
Astor, J. J. Letter to Washington Irving, 1835; Letter to Joseph Cogswell. Astor Papers, New York Historical Society: https://www.nyhistory.org/library/collections
Carnegie, A. The Gospel of Wealth, 1889; Speech, 1896; Letter, 1901. Carnegie Papers, Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/collections/andrew-carnegie-papers/
Morgan, J. P. Address to Metropolitan Museum Trustees, 1904; Letter to John Singer Sargent, 1907. Morgan Papers, Morgan Library & Museum: https://www.themorgan.org/collection
For more on how WWI changed the status and perspective of the US please see:
Kennedy, David M. Over Here: The First World War and American Society (2004)
Keene, Jennifer D. The United States and the First World War (2000)
Tooze, Adam. The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916–1931 (2014)
For more on private arts donors post-WWI please see:
Whitney, G. V. Letter to Robert Henri, 1922; The New York Times Interview, 1925. Whitney Papers, Archives of American Art: https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections
Barnes, A. C. The Art in Painting, 1925; Letter to Paul Guillaume, 1924. Barnes Foundation Archives: https://www.barnesfoundation.org/archives
Rockefeller, A. A. Letter to Lillie Bliss, 1928; MoMA Planning Document, 1929. Rockefeller Archive Center: https://www.rockarch.org/collections
Kahn, O. H. Speech to Arts Club of Chicago, 1924; Letter to Metropolitan Opera Director, 1927. Kahn Papers, Princeton University: https://findingaids.princeton.edu/collections
Philadelphia Inquirer Review, 1926; Art News Review, 1923; New York Times Article, 1927; Variety Article, 1926. Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov
For more on the Comintern and their influence in the US please see:
http://exhibit.library.pitt.edu/americanleft/access.html
https://cosmonautmag.com/2020/06/the-many-worlds-of-american-communism/
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/the-lost-stories-of-the-communist-international/
https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3354&context=td
For more on the Comintern’s impact on Vietnam and role in the Vietnam war please see:
Duiker, William J. Ho Chi Minh: A Life. New York: Hyperion, 2000.
Quinn-Judge, Sophie. Ho Chi Minh: The Missing Years, 1919–1941. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
McHale, Shawn F. The First Vietnam War: Violence, Social Change, and the Global Cold War, 1919–1954. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021.
Brocheux, Pierre, and Daniel Hémery. Indochina: An Ambiguous Colonization, 1858–1954. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009.
For more on Soviet persecution of artists please remember those killed by state violence so that we never forget the horrors of violent censorship on the basis of ideology:
Osip Mandelstam (1891–1938) – Poet.
Isaac Babel (1894–1940) – Writer.
Vsevolod Meyerhold (1874–1940) – Theater director and actor.
Gustav Klutsis (1895–1938) – Photographer and graphic artist.
Pavel Florensky (1882–1937) – Philosopher, mathematician, and art theorist.
Nikolai Klyuev (1884–1937) – Poet.
Boris Pilnyak (1894–1938) – Writer.
Vladimir Kirillov (1889–1937) – Poet.
And many more. Estimates suggest 1,000–1,500 writers, intellectuals, and artists were imprisoned or killed in the 1920s and 1930s, The NKVD’s operations, like the mass executions at sites like Sandarmokh or Butovo, often targeted the intelligentsia alongside party members, military officers, and ethnic minorities.
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/10-facts-stalins-great-purge.html