This week, a handful of UW students will find out whether they'll get the entire FY 1999 budget for the National Endowment for the Arts--some $98 million.

The group, calling itself the NEA Army, was named a finalist last week for the NEA's annual arts grant process. Such grants continue to be under a decade-long attack by Congressional conservatives and Christian fundamentalists. In response, in an unprecedented bid that's gotten national attention--though little in Seattle itself--the NEA Army has applied for the NEA's entire budget.

With the money, the arts troupe proposes to purchase or construct approximately 1/20th of a B-2 (Stealth) bomber (retail price: $2.2 billion), "perhaps the landing gear or part of a wingtip." The partial plane would then be passed, hand-to-hand, in a human chain from Seattle to Washington DC, with final installation on the Capitol Mall next to a one- word plaque: "PRIORITIES."

Should the group not get the full funding it needs (and deserves), the project should go forward anyway--perhaps with less expensive materials. To do that, of course, they'll need more enlistees. To find out more about the project, check out the NEA Army web site: http://weber.u.washington.edu/~hodin/NEAArmy/.