This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by [log in to unmask] I'd like to know what your thoughts on this are. Things like taking money away from museums, compelling them to take down suggested donation signs, etc. /-------------------- advertisement -----------------------\ Let NYTimes.com Come to You Sign up for one of our weekly e-mails and the news will come directly to you. YOUR MONEY brings you a wealth of analysis and information about personal investing. CIRCUITS plugs you into the latest on personal technology. TRAVEL DISPATCH offers you a jump on special travel deals and news. http://email.nytimes.com/email/email.jsp?eta5 \----------------------------------------------------------/ Giuliani's Panel on Decency Focuses on Finances Instead By JENNIFER STEINHAUER Four months after Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani appointed a panel to set decency standards for city cultural institutions, the effort is beginning to show some movement. But a draft set of recommendations has little to do with elephant dung or naked female Christ figures or the art exhibitions that angered the mayor and led him to create the 22-member panel. Instead, the preliminary recommendations drafted by one of the panel's members urges that 10 percent of the budget for the city's major art institutions be given to other groups instead. It also accuses the city's Department of Cultural Affairs of failing to audit how museums spend their city money. The recommendations, a copy of which was provided to The New York Times, also include removing the suggested donation signs from the entryway of museums, and requiring that institutions adopt a "code of ethics," similar to those written by the American Association of Museums last summer. The decency panel, officially known as the Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission, was appointed by Mr. Giuliani, who, outraged over a 1999 exhibition including a painting depicting the Virgin Mary with a dollop of elephant dung on one breast and other graphic imagery, attempted to shut down the Brooklyn Museum, where the exhibition was held. The mayor lost a court battle over the issue. This year, incensed by a depiction of the Last Supper with a nude, black female Christ figure, the mayor vowed to establish criteria for museum art. As such, he reconstituted the dormant commission, which became more popularly known as the decency commission, to develop standards for museums that receive city money, which is nearly all of them. The full panel has not had a meeting yet. The preliminary recommendations were written by Martin Bergman, a freelance journalist, who said yesterday that he had been assigned to write them by Leonard Garment, a Washington lawyer who is chairman of the subcommittee charged with coming up with the recommendations. They have yet to be approved by the full subcommittee; indeed, few of its members have seen or heard about the draft, since some of them have not been contacted since the commission was appointed in April. It is unclear whether these recommendations will be accepted, formalized, or ever come close to being adopted. The commission has no independent authority and is totally reliant on the mayor's acquiescence. Mr. Garment is out of town and did not return calls to his office. But the subcommittee of about a dozen members was formed to write the standards meant to address, as the mayor said last spring, "whether or not there should be a different assessment made when public dollars are being used than when private dollars are being used" in city museums. That group is expected to review the three-page letter containing the recommendations, which was sent to Lawrence Herbert, chairman of the entire commission, yesterday, Mr. Bergman said. Mr. Herbert would not comment yesterday. "I think the idea is to open the debate," said Mr. Bergman, who added that he did not think that the exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, "Sensation," would have been displayed under the national association's suggested code of ethics. He is suggesting that city museums accept some version of those guidelines, which include promotion of programs that "respect pluralistic values, traditions and concerns," and that "promote the public good rather than individual financial gain," which Mr. Bergman said would keep art that is potentially for sale off museum walls. He said that others on the commission might opt for stronger language about the content of art. He interprets those guidelines, particularly the section on respect of pluralistic values, to mean that "Sensation" would have been rejected because, in his words, it was "offensive to Christians." A Brooklyn Museum spokeswoman would not comment yesterday. Mr. Bergman said that his objection to signs in museums that suggest donations is that they are often unclear that the fees are not mandatory and are therefore "prohibitive to the poor." The advisory commission has never held a meeting since the mayor pulled a group of friends, artists and legal experts into a room 20 minutes before a press conference last spring to tell them of their new duties, said several of the members contacted. "We all sat around as he explained it to us, nodding our heads," said Bud Konheim, chief executive of the Nicole Miller fashion company. "And the second he left the room, we all said, `How are we going to do this?' I think we are all happy it went away." Some members of the subcommittee, however, have talked among themselves, in one meeting and subsequent telephone conversations, said Mr. Bergman and others. Mr. Konheim said he was never too thrilled to be brought in to begin with. "There are some things you do for your friends," he said. For the 2002 fiscal year, which began last month, the entire city budget for cultural affairs is $138 million, $110.5 million of which is earmarked for 34 of the city's major art institutions. Mr. Bergman has suggested that 10 percent of the money for those museums be reallocated to "other projects and to enhance the Department of Cultural Affairs audit compliance functions," according to the letter. Of particular interest to him, he said, would be apprentice programs for young New Yorkers in the arts. Better auditing is needed, Mr. Bergman said, adding that he had learned in a meeting with the Department of Cultural Affairs that it had not audited the museums that received funds in "almost 30 years." The draft letter said that the department "has not conducted on-site inspections of any of these institutions to see how funds are being used." Schuyler G. Chapin, the commissioner of the department, vehemently denied that he had told anyone from the commission that his agency did not monitor the museums that receive city financing. "I have never said any such thing in my life," said Mr. Chapin, who has an ex officio part on the commission. "We always look through every penny." The budget for cultural institutions is presented each year by the mayor, who in the past few years has attempted to cut it, and then is approved by the City Council, which has ultimately restored the funds. But how much each institution receives is decided by the mayor's office, with recommendations from the Department of Cultural Affairs, which in turn is responsible for allocating the money. The chances of any major shifts in the way the money is spent before Mayor Giuliani leaves office, should these recommendations reach his desk and be approved, are fairly slim. He could attempt to move the money around during the budget modification process in November, but taking money away from major art museums and funneling it to other groups has no precedent that Staci Emanuel, the assistant director in the finance division of the City Council, could recall. As for content and adopting new guidelines, Mr. Chapin said he did not know how the national association's standards could be codified. But, he said: "I would presume there is nothing in there that would violate the process we have. Generally speaking, it is a good organization." http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/03/nyregion/03DECE.html?ex=997875373&ei=1&en=835aa33d32810460 /-----------------------------------------------------------------\ Visit NYTimes.com for complete access to the most authoritative news coverage on the Web, updated throughout the day. Become a member today! 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