DC Public Arts Funder Requires Grant Recipients To Not Make Offensive Art – Or Lose Money They’ve Already Been Awarded

In a rare step made after millions of dollars in public funding was approved last month, the local arts commision said it would terminate any grant supporting work that the commission deemed “lewd, lascivious, vulgar, overtly political, or excessively violent, constitutes sexual harassment, or is, in any other way, illegal.” Arts leaders who were asked to sign the contract amendment expressed shock at the request, which several described as an attack on their artistic freedom.