Arts, Humanities, and Museums Amendments of 1990

Arts, Humanities, and Museums Amendments of 1990 - Title I: National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities - Amends the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 (NFAHA) to include all those traditional arts practiced by the diverse peoples of this country under the definition of "the arts." Includes among supportable projects those that: (1) develop and enhance the widest public knowledge and understanding of the arts; (2) encourage public education in the arts; (3) enhance managerial and organizational skills and capacities; or (4) are international projects or productions.

Authorizes contracts or grants to stimulate artistic activity and awareness which are in keeping with the varied cultural traditions of this Nation.

Defines "local arts agency" and makes local arts agency leaders eligible for possible selection to the National Council on the Arts.

Directs the Chairpersons of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to continue to develop and employ practical national information systems on the arts and on the humanities to prepare quadrennial (currently, biennial) state of the arts reports for the President and the Congress, and to disseminate such information to the public.

Authorizes NEH financial assistance to foster programs and projects that provide access to and preserve materials important to research, education, and public understanding of the humanities.

Revises an allocation formula for certain excess NEH funds.

Authorizes the following NEH annual awards: (1) the Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities, for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities; and (2) the Charles Frankel Prize, to up to five persons each year for outstanding contributions to the public's understanding of the humanities.

Allows groups receiving NEH grants to make subgrants to carry out the purposes for which the grants were received.

Revises membership on the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Directs such Council to study public support for the arts at the Federal, State, and local levels.

Provides for arts education. Authorizes the NEA Chairperson to pay the Federal share (up to 50 percent of project costs) of awarding arts education grants to and entering into contracts or cooperative agreements with schools, groups, arts institutions, State or other public agencies, and, where appropriate, individuals of exceptional talent engaged in or concerned with arts in education. Establishes, within the NEA, a National Arts Education Advisory Board.

Directs the NEA Chairperson, with respect to the panels of experts which make recommendations for NEA assistance, to develop procedures to: (1) create an agency-wide panelist bank to ensure each panel-wide geographic, aesthetic, ethnic, and minority representation, with knowledgeable lay persons serving on such panels at all times, where feasible; (2) establish standardized panel procedures, where feasible; (3) require increased use of site visitations to view and report on an applicant's work, where necessary and feasible; (4) require a verbatim record of all panel deliberations and recommendations; and (5) require panel membership to change substantially from year to year, with no appointment to exceed three consecutive years. Requires that all meetings of the National Council on the Arts be open to the public.

Directs the NEA Inspector General to conduct reviews to ensure grantee compliance with all regulations which relate to the administration of all NEA programs and operations.

Directs the NEA Chairperson to establish sanctions for groups and individuals who use NEA funds to create, produce, or support a project or production which is found to be in violation of State criminal obscenity or child pornography laws, as determined by a court decision after final appeals, in a State in which it was produced or which was described in the grant award as a site of production. Includes among such sanctions repayment of such NEA funds and debarment from receiving additional NEA funds for at least three years or until the funds are repaid, whichever is longer. Provides for waiver of certain repayment deadlines. Requires notice of such sanctions to be included on the general information and guidance form provided to recipients of NEA funds.

Authorizes appropriations for FY 1991 through 1995 for the NEA and the NEH.

Authorizes appropriations for FY 1991 and thereafter for the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities to study public support for the arts at Federal, State, and local levels.

Authorizes appropriations for FY 1991 through 1995 for arts education activities, if the total amount appropriated to the NEA exceeds a certain level.

Title II: Museum Services - Amends the Museum Services Act (MSA) to revise membership and meeting requirements of the National Museum Service Board and certain provisions concerning the Director of the Institute of Museum Services.

Revises provisions relating to the activities of the Institute of Museum Services. Provides that grants to museums may assist them in conservation of museum collections generally (currently "artifacts and art objects"). Expands eligibility for museum (and also conservation) services funding to include private, nonprofit professional museum or conservation-related organizations, research institutions, universities, or museums (currently only "professional museum organizations"). Removes a one-year limitation on funding of each such project.

Authorizes appropriations FY 1991 through 1995 for: (1) grants to museums to increase and improve museum services; and (2) the Institute of Museum Services.

Title III: Miscellaneous - Amends the Arts and Artifacts Indemnity Act to increase the maximum limits, for indemnity agreements under such Act, on: (1) aggregate loss or damage covered by all such agreements at any one time; (2) loss or damage covered for a single exhibition; and (3) the deductible for a single exhibition, according to the amount covered.

Amends the Arts, Humanities and Museums Amendments of 1985 to repeal the mandate for a study by the Comptroller General, which was due one year after the enactment of such Act, on alternative Federal funding of the arts and humanities.

Amends Federal law relating to Federal officials to add the Director of the Institute of Museum Services on the list of positions at level IV of the Executive Schedule.

Directs the NEA, in FY 1991 and each fiscal year thereafter, to sponsor for the American public a series of multicultural regional celebrations of traditional and contemporary American art. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1991 and thereafter for such celebrations.

Great American Landscapes Act of 1990 - Amends the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities Act of 1965 to establish within the NEA's Design Arts Program a program for Landscape Assessments and Plans. Directs the NEA Chairperson to make competitive matching grants to: (1) States for statewide landscape assessments; and (2) States, local governments, and certain private groups for individual comprehensive landscape plans. Sets forth requirements for such landscape assessments and plans, including public involvement. Directs the NEA Chairperson to report to the Congress biennially on the program's progress in encouraging the wise and appropriate future uses of the areas and their historic, cultural, aesthetic, natural, and tourism resource values. Authorizes appropriations for such program.