NEA Four

The "NEA Four", Karen Finley, Tim Miller, John Fleck, and Holly Hughes, were performance artists whose proposed grants from the United States government's National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) were vetoed by John Frohnmayer in June 1990. Grants were overtly vetoed on the basis of subject matter after the artists had successfully passed through a peer review process. John Fleck was vetoed for a performance comedy with a toilet prop. The artists won their case in court in 1993 and were awarded amounts equal to the grant money in question, though the case would make its way to the United States Supreme Court in National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley. In response, the NEA, under pressure from Congress, stopped funding individual artists.

Lead up to the controversy

History of the Peer Review Process within the NEA

The NEA has used peer review panels since 1966 (one year after its inception). The NEA's Founding Chairperson Roger L. Stevens did not want to use panels, preferring that staff members review applications. Due to the increase of funds and applications Stevens turned to peer review panels. Nancy Hanks (the next chairperson appointed by President Richard M. Nixon in 1969) expanded panels and created a list of three criteria: appointments must be merit based; appointees must serve the panel as individuals, and may not make decisions based on any particular interest group, institution or viewpoint; the panels must be insulated from external pressures. The last criteria became more difficult to enforce as the budget of the NEA grew, and public interest in how the money was spent mounted.

NEA

NEA or nea may refer to:

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Nea River

The Nea River (Southern Sami: Ganka, Swedish: Nean) is an 80-kilometre (50 mi) long river which has runs through the municipalities of Tydal and Selbu in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway and Åre Municipality in Sweden. The river Nea is a part of the Nea-Nidelvvassdraget watershed. Some of the main villages along the river include: Østby, Ås, Aunet, and Gressli in Tydal and Flora, Hyttbakken, Selbu, and Mebonden in Selbu.

The river is first named Nean at the eastern end of the artificial lake Sylsjön, which lies in Åre Municipality and Berg Municipality, Sweden. Below the dam, the river flows for 6 kilometres (3.7 mi), crossing the Swedish-Norwegian border where the name becomes Nea, before entering the lake Nesjøen. On the downstream side of the lake, the river continues through the smaller lake Vessingsjøen before continuing on its westward course. At the municipal center of Ås the river Tya joins it. After that, it follows the Tydalen valley and meets the river Rotla about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) east of Mebonden where it ends when it flows into the lake Selbusjøen.