In June 1989, the National Endowment for the Arts convened and voted to drastically reform their grant dispersal methods. The new law ascertained that:
"None of the funds authorized to be appropriated for the National Endowment for the Arts...may be used to promote, disseminate, or produce materials which in the judgment of the National Endowment for the Arts...may be considered obscene, including but not limited to, depictions of sadomasochism, homoeroticism, the sexual exploitation of children, or individuals engaged in sex acts and which, when taken as a whole, do not have serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value."
This law came about about mostly in reaction to the NEA's hitherto funding of Santiago Sierra's "Piss Christ" and Robert Mapplethorpe's censored exhibition "The Perfect Moment".
*** 21 years later ***
In 2011, Bailey Scieszka and Valerie Keane received a privately funded art travel grant. Their proposal: Rim Runner, a video set in the dystopia of Las Vegas. Ever wonder what would happen if you gave two NY art students an all expense paid trip to Sin City? Rim Runner is probably not what you would expect. Taradise meets Gummo in this abject vacation footage collage flick.