In the Arts: Romney Would Cut Culture Spending in Half

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney promises to cut spending on the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts by 50 percent if he wins the White House, writes the Los Angeles Times.

Mr. Romney’s campaign, responding to a request from the newspaper’s Culture Monster blog for specifics on his recent assertions in a candidates’ debate and a USA Today opinion column that he would seek “deep reductions” in arts funds, said he would halve spending on the two grant-making agencies and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

As governor of Massachusetts Mr. Romney did not seek to cut arts funding but proposed no increases. He was consistently overruled by the state legislature, which boosted the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s budget from $7.3 million to $12.1 million during his tenure.

In other arts news:

• The Eiteljorg Museum, in Indianapolis, announced an anonymous $17 million contribution, the largest in its history, says The Indianapolis Star.

The museum will put the money toward its continuing $11-million capital campaign; its endowment, now at $32-million; and efforts to make the facility more interactive, including construction of an orientation center with a video wall and tablet computers to introduce visitors to the exhibits.

• A group of Wal-Mart workers is joining with the Occupy Wall Street movement for protests timed to coincide with Friday’s opening of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, founded by Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton, Artinfo says.

The events, in eight cities, aim to draw attention to the hundreds of millions of dollars the Walton family contributed to launch the museum in Bentonville, Ark., while the firm has capped salaries and raised health-care premiums for employees.

Crystal Bridges officials said the museum is operated separately from Wal-Mart and that Ms. Walton used her own money, not the company’s, to finance the institution.

• The city and county of Denver raised $114-million toward a new museum devoted to abstract painter Clyfford Still in a rare auction of the late artist’s works, according to the BBC.

One of the four paintings fetched $61.7-million in the sale at Sotheby’s in New York, a record for the artist, whose work seldom comes to market. Denver won a court decision in March authorizing the estate of Mr. Still’s widow to release the works to the city to raise money for the museum, which is set to open next week.