Visionaries and Outcasts

The book chronicles the rise and fall of the National Endowment for the Arts, highlighting its groundbreaking approach to funding visual artists without traditional patronage constraints. It explores the NEA's impact from its hopeful inception in 1965 through its controversial demise in the 1990s, marked by political and cultural turmoil. Through interviews with artists and scholars, the author provides an in-depth analysis of the NEA's individual fellowship program, capturing the complexities and consequences of this pivotal era in American art funding.