NEA Chief to Keep Obscenity Pledge

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts expressed hope today that “the crisis will soon pass” over federal support for controversial art with a Senate proposal to let the courts decide whether works are obscene.

But chairman John E. Frohnmayer held fast, at least for a while longer, to his much-criticized requirement that NEA grant recipients sign a pledge not to use federal funds to produce art that might be considered obscene.