Author, performance artist Holly Hughes has received laudatory reviews by the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. Performance artist Tim Miller presents his work all over North America and Europe. If artistic merit were the standard, they deserved the fellowships. Angry young men and angry young women need not apply. Victims of society and social or political critics need not.
Innovative artists stay home.
It would tip the scales in favor of those who create motel art, elevator music, and pablum novels. The NEA Four amended their suit to challenge that standard. And their lawsuit was joined by the National Association of Artists' Organizations. In 1992, the artists won at the district court level. The NEA then agreed to award the artists the fellowships they had been denied.