WGBH Journal; Bakke Case; Bilingual

Good afternoon and welcome to GBH Journal. This is Marcia Hurd substituting for vacationing Bill Katniss. On Today Show. The last one of the week. We have two features dealing with the world of art. One which examines the issue of art in public places and the other of a port on some recently passed legislation guaranteeing artists rights. And then to close the show. We will have commentary on the news from Louis Lyons. In the middle of the Government Center complex in downtown Boston are two large pieces of sculpture which were funded by the federal government to some passers by the works provide a pleasant sight to some they may seem to disappear into the maze of

tall buildings. And to others the sculptures may seem to be unnecessary objects in the middle of a government office complex. What is significant about these sculptures in Boston is that they are examples of a growing trend of commissioning art for public places because the art is sometimes partially funded by tax money and because it is always there for public scrutiny. The situation has raised some controversy and issue which is the focus of this report from Vivian do you care. It gives artists a chance to create a market for their work and it gives the people a chance to see the various types of current. I was just walking through here and thinking how wonderful the light looked when it went ahead I wanted to be sure more the sculptures are going to buildings. I definitely think so I think if people are really really good sailing. In fact everyone I talk to about the large noosphere sculpture in front of New York's World Trade Center felt good about it. Their attitude is not peculiar to New York. The installation of contemporary works of art is now an integral part of the plans for new construction

all over the country for artists it is meant an opportunity to create works on a large scale pieces they could never have made without the patronage of large corporations or the federal government. Public sculpture also challenges the artist to create a piece compatible with a particular urban context. However since the piece will be public located on public domain generally paid for at least in part with public funds the artists are finding themselves accountable to the public. Sometimes a hostile public one such controversy is still raging in Hartford Connecticut. A conceptual piece called Stone field sculpture consisting entirely of large granite boulders has been installed in the downtown area. Some citizens disapprove to the point of outrage. Among them is the mayor George Athens in front of the gate. Eighty seven thousand thirty six rockets from one area to another yeah. It's ridiculous that it's American

taxpayers money up investment and there are some of the 357 virus that actually care about me. But all of the objections voiced by Mayor Athens into the use of taxpayers money for art or to the use of such funds for art that doesn't appeal to the politicians. Artists tend to believe the latter. George Sugarman for example found the installation of a piece of his temporarily halted by such differences in taste Sugarman was commissioned to create a work for the plaza outside the new federal courthouse in Baltimore. The judges whose offices were to occupy the building objected to Sugarman design. They went to court and lost Sugarman feels that such conflicts are inevitable that the interests of artists and politicians are inherently different. Well the problem is that the legislators the congressmen and maybe perhaps you know the state legislators are politicians and they're worried about their constituency. Therefore they'll want to.

Provide works of art which will be acceptable to as many people as possible in other words they're always concerned with getting votes and the artist is not concerned with getting votes we're concerned with getting doing the best work of art possible even when it's unpopular. I think that I don't think any other community should be you know running a kind of a copter perpetrated on the people of corporate by the maker of stone feel sculpture. Carl Andre admits that Mayor absence and has a point. You know weight is a kind of imposition on people I absolutely agree. When I first began installing St. Peter's Copenhagen a number of people came up to me and were absolutely enraged and they. Bradley vibrated with their anger and they shouted and I could not understand this reaction first

because I believe people don't. No one cares that much about art I don't think art should enrage us but I think I determine finally after this initial reaction of rage on the part of some people began to die away. It came to my mind that these people using my sculpture as a fetish to vent their rage they would really rage against my work but what really they rage against is the fact that a city like or for the Boston is constantly being altered buildings are being demolished roads are being parks are torn up new buildings are put up and none of this without any consultation of the citizens just citizens fair any better we're public art is concerned. I asked Donald director of the art and architecture program of the General Services Administration the government agency which ministers federal money for public art. We try to work with public spirit and we also try very hard to get works of art that are just of the very highest quality and speaking of the times that we're in right now. We do not do a

selection by consensus of the citizens or anything such as that it is not at all uncommon to have a work of art when it's installed. Meet with an element of hostility even at the local community level. However the citizens having an opportunity to look at the work on a daily basis as part of their daily lives really then gets the chance to know the work and get a feeling about work and more frequently and not that not in fact I would say almost always but not necessarily always the community does decide that in fact they like it very much they can take three or six rockets from a farm and your parents haven't done Part II for a look at Discover turned bad and I'm sick and tired of the ads on guard you know that there's been progress.

Captain you are right you have a good run for what is happening you see is all kinds of cries of elitism and snobbish that only a certain clique can understand. And that's a very dangerous thing because art first of all what is called fine art if you want to make that distinction has always appealed to. You know we don't actually we don't know if the minority but it is a minority who seems to have the vocal chords concerned. You know in connection with that and with the government giving the money and with politicians concerned about the votes of their constituency. There is a tendency perhaps where there will be a tendency on the representative part. To get mediocre work that will appeal to people or will be so bland

that no one will be offended by it that people won't even notice it and pass it by. And there is a danger a very very strong danger that this will be an influence that artist will be afraid to do a strong and assertive piece or perhaps on the other hand a very delicate piece that will take a long time to understand the issues in public art or complex at least four distinct interest groups are involved. The artists the politicians the patron often the federal government and the general public. Solutions that satisfy everyone have not been found but the experimentation continues with significant effect on America's urban landscapes. I'm Vivian Duke at. We turn from the art and the public to the artist's rights. Artists are

often thought of as existing on the fringes of society as being independent and isolated. If any of these stereotypes has any truth it has been at the expense of the artists themselves who have often found themselves an organized as a group with no clout before the law. But it seems as if the tide is turning. Artists are beginning to organize and legislation was recently passed in Massachusetts designed to guarantee artists rights with more information. As reporter Lisa Mullins. The profession of an artist which often looked on as a Bohemian and sometimes glamorous business has been running into some problems making the artist's life much less glamorous than people think. These business problems include entry fees which artist must pay to exhibit and the failure of art galleries to ensure the work shown the situation has existed for a long while. But it's only been recently that artists have become awakened to it a part of the spine supporting this battle for artists rights is

the BVA you Bostons of visual artists union the BVA you won its first major victory last month when on June 28 Governor Dukakis signed a bill protecting artists rights. I spoke with Lois Tarullo an artist and Co chairperson of the Fair Practice Committee of the union who had this to say about the bill before that bill and he work on consignment in a gallery that went bankrupt. Could be auctioned off to pay the dealer's debts. Even though the dealer didn't own the work. And this doesn't. That's part of the Uniform Commercial Code which didn't apply only to artwork applies to anything on consignment but because of the vulnerability of Iris and their great difficulty in. Making it in the economic scene there has been special conditions made for artists. This bill was identical to one that was passed in California in 1976 and it says

that creditors cannot touch the work of the artist that the dealer is responsible for loss theft and damage. And any money that comes in the sale of work must be held in trust for the artist. In other words the artist has to be paid first. Another thing that it says is that the artist cannot waive these rights because being very vulnerable. Artists in their great desire to get into a gallery of which there are so few and of which there are so many artists would sometimes feel that they have to go overboard and would waive something like. I think it's very good that it gives the artist the spine that he might or she might not be able to muster. And in the face of the opposition that he or she feels and trying to make it. You said a bill similar to this one was passed recently in California. Yes.

I find it surprising that such a problem would exist in Boston which is considered to have such a high level of culture and to be obliging to those in the fine arts. Is it really that much of a problem in this area. It was unknown actually that this problem existed until a couple of years ago. No one was aware of what could happen to our work. A union member formally from Detroit told us about it because of trouble there. And then there was a gallery that was having trouble and we were afraid for the artists. And we really felt that we should be assured that the gallery couldn't bring a lot of trouble on its artists who have enough trouble as it is. So we decided to just protect artists by seeing what we could do about it. The governmental route isn't the only way artists have taken steps to ensure their rights.

The BVA you conduct surveys of art galleries to give artists information concerning galleries business practices. The union took its most firm stand against an exhibitors policies when it held a demonstration outside with her art museum last year. The brunt of the protest dealt with entry fees which exhibitors are required to pay. Artists also resented the 20 percent commission the museum received on sales although the demonstration did change policies in other institutions. Mr Harlow believes the problems and is hardly within reach. What's needed to bring that end near are an education a big big education. The public starting in elementary school such a re-education of young students is already in effect in Holland where there is also a national subsidy of art exhibits in this country lowest Tarla looks for the day when artists work directly with architects in the planning stage of building construction.

Not only would this help artists financially she says but it would give them the prestige they've been without for so long. As for the BVA Hughes future more enlightening of the public. The new secretary general Steven Taylor was very much interested in and reaching out to the public to go on what with making the public aware of what what goes on with artists and the benefits of a strong visual arts community for the for the state and going on with these with the ideas of enlightening the public to what they're missing. This seems to be sort of a national trend then a wave of of national awareness I guess of artists just to stand up for for their rights. I think that just came as a result of other minorities who have done that. The problem with artists is very similar to that of other minorities

especially. I think the women's movement artists have just sort of you know accepted their lot and the myths that went along with it you know that artists are childlike and mustn't bother their heads about business and stuff like that. And and that's get sounding a little quaint these Today these lowest Harlowe calls on similar unions throughout the nation to take part in awakening and re educating the public in the struggle to protect artist rights for GBH Journal. I'm Lisa Mullins. And now with a look at is commentator.

The mid-summer drouth of nose has been blanketed by the birth of a baby conceived outside the body of the mother whose Brock fallopian tubes had prevented a normal pregnancy. The success of the laboratory procedure by two British gynecologist is hailed as a miracle of science but deplored by those they allowed Who would have miracles can save only by the church. The baby born to Mrs Leslie Brown was developed from a cell extracted from over a fertilized by her husband's sperm and nurtured in a note to an embryo it was then implanted in her. The procedure for the so-called test tube baby is called a potential remedy for a certain kind of infertility and thousands of women support for such research by our national science Parise was stopped in this country. It would take my just lation and some years to catch up with it if that were to be done against the considerable religious objection and ethical concern. As a

news story. This produced a journalistic orgy that exceeded the previous limits of even the sensational British tabloids the Daily Mail paid some $600000 for exclusive rights. It felt like buying a mirage. They posted guards at the door of the mother's hospital room to keep our arrival reporters. The hospital referred inquiries to the newspaper syndicate vehement newspaper outcries caused the hospital to dismantle the gods and conduct its own answering service. As with any great event the news was too big to keep in selling its story to client papers in the mail often a 40 percent rebate if the test tube baby failed to live a week a considerable public protest has arisen over this checkbook journalism which has become common in Britain on a less spectacular scale. To Roy Reed the London correspondent of The New York Times the race of the headlines was all but as sensational as the birth he gives it only less space.

The Times itself is the target of the most sensational news about newspapering this week in New York. A New Jersey judge fined the times $100000 and 5000 a day until its reporter complies with the judge's demand that he surrender is no it's not an investigation that led to reopening a murder case. The reporter was jailed for contempt fined $2000 and given a six month sentence to follow his compliance with a court order. The New Jersey appellate court refused to stay the sentences which were both civil and criminal contempt pending its own hearing of the case. It did grant a three day stay ending today to give the Times a chance to appeal the United States Supreme Court. The appeal goes initially to Justice Brennan as within his territorial jurisdiction. New Jersey like New York and 30 other states has a so-called shield law that allows a reporter to protect the confidentiality of its sources. But the New Jersey judge refused to recognize

the shield law as two California courts have recently done calling it unconstitutional is undermining the Sixth Amendment that holds a defendant entitled to confront witnesses against him and to compel witnesses in his defense. Nor in the Times but the press generally has vehemently protested this is a violation of First Amendment guarantee of press freedom. Whether the Times can find redress in the Supreme Court may be in question considering the repeated assertions of Chief Justice Berger that the press is not entitled to any more privilege than anyone else. He's been in the minority but by the narrowest margin and other recent cases testing the First Amendment. In the country the news is the lack of rain in the wilting heat. A yellow streak of parched grass marks the roadside a long road route to right across the country state. But upland pastures are alive with their midsummer colors the bright orange of Devil's paintbrush the yellow Hawk

weed spreading its mats among blue berries purple loosestrife and white headed sheep nose sticking up over the dry grass is the first color our spikes of butter and eggs perched in rocky places smoked flower that looks like a patch of our urban smog. The pink flowers of past year rose in the fence rows and clumps of low spreading Juniper that harbor the nests of groundling birds. The Carter administration has held off two defeats of its foreign policy in the Senate this week but each time at the price of compromise the Senate lifted the ban on arms sales to Turkey and defeated a move to lift economic sanctions from Rhodesia each vote supported the president's position but each was conditional. Congress and applied the arms ban to Turkey after Turkish forces using American islands grow Greek Cypriots from a large part of Cyprus. The administration has pushed hard to get the ban lifted calling Turkey the cornerstone of the southern front of NATO's.

The Senate finally voted to lift the ban on condition the president report every 60 days on progress in getting the Turkish forces out of Greek areas on Cyprus. On Rhodesia the Senate action was against lifting the ban on sanctions. Senator Jesse Holmes of North Carolina a conservative Republican who had succeeded in blocking sanctions on Chrome under the Nixon administration move this week to lift the sanctions. The Senate leadership like the administration was surprised at the support for his move the political climate is affected by the guerrilla massacres of whites on Rhodesian borders. One of the black leaders cooperating with Ian Smith has been in Washington lobbying for 10 days to lift the ban. The administration feared lifting it would appear as though the United States supported in Smith and his refusal to negotiate with guerrilla leaders. Many senators feel that to keep sanctions would appear is tolerating terrorist actions. A compromise provided the president should lift sanctions only when he

determined that the Smith regime had carried out its translation through free elections and was committed to negotiate with the guerrilla leaders Kamo and Mugabe. United Nations Security Council yesterday unanimously approved the agreement for independence of Namibia South-West Africa at the earliest possible date. But South Africa which had agreed to independence box now at inclusion while vist Bay the one deep sea port in the mid-tier is the center of the commercial activity and the largest concentration of whites in Namibia South Africa claims its control of water goes back of its trusteeship of South West Africa to the independent organization SWAPO. I may be a without Walvis but they would be like New York state without Manhattan. The issue was left out of the Independence agreement. Secretary Bennett says because otherwise an agreement would have been impossible. But the Security Council in its historic meeting yesterday with the foreign ministers acting for their countries

unanimously supported steps for early integration of one of its Internet Libya. Secretary Bennett says while France is critical to the future of Namibia after the council action and South African foreign minister promised his country would negotiate their way out of this very issue with the new Namibia government as a voluntary act. United Nations plan that's been accepted by both South Africa and swap all calls for a United Nations peacekeeping force to replace the South African troops in the maybe and U.N. supervision of the campaign for elections. In Washington the capital gains tax has dominated discussion of tax reduction in the House Ways and Means Committee the tax cuts passed by a 25 to 12 committee vote include removal of capital gains up to $100000 on sale of homes. It's in its application the sale of homes that capital gains has been such a contentious issue. It applies half of the rate of one's income tax to any increase in

sale price over the original purchase price. Inflated sales prices may have no more real value than the earlier purchase price but the gains tax areas depletes what may be the largest resource of a family that needs to sell and move into a small apartment. The House takes up the tax cut the week after next the administration opposes the tax proposals which altogether come to 16 billion including increases in income tax exemptions and some reduction in the income tax rates to offset inflation. The Master's legislature meets Monday in special session to deal with the question of removal of Superior Court Chief Judge Robert Vaughn in the Judiciary Committee began yesterday to draft its recommendation to the legislature. Expecting to complete them for a vote today. Speaker Tip O'Neill has involved himself in a struggle for control of the general services organization. Its administrator Jay Solomon has demanded resignation of his deputy Robert Griffin who is from some of

them. O'Neill had recommended Griffin for the top place but President Carter chose Solomon at Tennessee real estate operator Solomon reportedly has found refuge in what was a GSL employee before he became deputy blocking moves the administrators tried to make to cope with charges of corruption in the organization. He reportedly has the president's consent to get rid of Griffin but our New York protests that Griffin is brilliant in his words and that his dismissal would be a tremendous hurt to me personally. And that's to be a journal for this Friday the 20th of July shows produced by my shirts. Today's engineer Steve called me. Have a good evening and a good weekend.

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