The rock band Aerosmith has donated $10,000 to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology museum to replace a grant denied by the National Endowment for the Arts.
"We're angered to see artistic and personal freedoms erode," said the band, which got its start in Boston 20 years ago. "We want the exhibit to be there for whomever wants to see it."Aerosmith, which has used sexual material in its recordings over the years, also voiced its support Tuesday for "free-thinking artists everywhere."
The donation will help pay for "Corporal Politics," an exhibition scheduled to open in December at MIT's List Visual Arts Center.
"This was absolutely out of the blue," said curator Helaine Posner. "Their management called and expressed the band's interest in supporting `Corporal Politics.' We were just floored."
The exhibition includes works of four artists. Some of the works include nudity and use images of body parts to explore alienation in contemporary society.
A panel of museum professionals and the National Council on the Arts recommended that the NEA award $10,000 grants to the List Center and the Anderson Gallery at Virginia Commonwealth University, which also planned an exhibition using nudity.
But recently, acting NEA chairwoman Anne-Imelda Radice rejected both grants, saying the exhibitions lacked artistic excellence and merit.
Right-wing Republicans have criticized the NEA for supporting what they see as obscene art. President Bush fired John Frohnmayer as the NEA's chairman earlier this year because of Frohnmayer's support for some controversial grants.