Annie Sprinkle
Date: 1954- Present
Region: North America
Subject: Religion, Nudity, Explicit Sexuality
Medium: Performance Art
Artist: Annie Sprinkle, born Ellen F. Steinberg
Confronting Bodies: Rev. Donald Wildmon's American Family Association
Dates of Action: 1991
Location: Baltimore, MD and New York City
Description of Artwork: Annie Sprinkle's performance art and video screenings.
The Incident: The American Family Association's Rev. Donald Wildmon sought to link the controversial performances to the NEA even though the performances were entirely paid for privately. Wildmon's challenges employed a complicated and distorted tracing of NEA funding for facilities in which Sprinkle appeared. The AFA cited Sprinkle performances as examples of NEA funding to help support anti-Christian bigotry and pornography in Baltimore's Maryland Art Place (MAP) and New York's The Kitchen art space. MAP had received $10,000 from the NEA, but all funding for the show came from ticket sales, while neither The Kitchen nor Sprinkle have ever received NEA funding.
Results of Incident: The American Family Association continues reaching for new tactics of censorship.
Source: Artistic Freedom Under Attack 1992