Sam, Our museum was embroiled in 1993 in a fairly contentious and controversial project: "Art Rebate," part of a larger NEA-funded exhibition called "La Frontera/The Border: Art About the Mexico/U.S. Border Experience." We got ourselves onto the front page of the New York Times twice, into their editorial pages once (skewered there, by the way), and George Will wrote a scathing piece on us that ended up syndicated around the country -- the simplified version of "Art Rebate/Arte Reembolso" was artists handing $10 bills to undocumented Mexican workers; the signed bills then circulated through the San Diego economy, a tangible demonstration that these workers contribute greatly to the community in economic terms -- something of great dispute in our region of the country as elsewhere. In fact it was an interesting conceptual artwork by David Avalos, Louis Hock and Liz Sisco, three artists in the San Diego area, that was one of nearly 40 artworks that were part of "La Frontera." The total amount of federal dollars involved in the project was minuscule. But it came at an especially heated moment, when "immigrant-bashing" was just getting started in the U.S.. Many politicians grabbed onto the sound bite and ran with it. It caused considerable uproar locally as well as further afield; but in the end, we feel that there was a positive outcome in the Museum's taking a stand behind the artists. We had a number of donations come in (we also lost some, I hasten to add); but in the end, our reputation as a contemporary art institution of integrity was intact. Anne Farrell, Development Director, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego