[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 134 (Thursday, August 10, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12309-S12310]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


               TRIBUTE TO JERRY GARCIA AND REX FOUNDATION

 Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, I rise to discuss private arts 
funding in this country as envisioned under my proposal to privatize 
the Endowments, and at the same time to pay tribute to one of the 
Nation's most beloved and most philanthropic artists, Jerry Garcia. 
Jerry Garcia, acoustic guitarist, artist, and the spirit and soul of 
the Greatful Dead, died early yesterday morning.
  As is well known, especially in light of the outpouring of grief 
across the country yesterday, Garcia and his band have attracted 
perhaps the most loyal and dedicated fans of any rock group. What is 
less well known, and is to the band's credit, is that Garcia's band 
also donated millions of private dollars to charitable causes--
particularly to offbeat and undiscovered artists, through the Grateful 
Dead's philanthropic arm, the Rex Foundation.
  The leader of that band died yesterday and I would like to pay 
tribute to Jerry Garcia and his spirit of genuine philanthropy by 
discussing one of his many charitable ventures, the Rex Foundation.
  The Rex Foundation is precisely the sort of private philanthropy that 
opponents of my bill believe cannot exist, or will not exist in 
sufficient numbers to make up the 2 percent of private funding of the 
arts that the NEA now provides. Well, this one rock-and-roll band 
provided a million dollars a year to struggling artists, composers, and 
other charitable causes. And unlike NEA grants, Rex Foundation grants 
came with no strings attached.
  Rex was established as an independent charity in the early eighties, 
what some call the decade of greed. The profits from the band's charity 
concerts--about $1 million a year--are funnelled into the Rex 
Foundation, named for road manager Donald Rex Jackson, who died in a 
car crash in 1976.
  The Greatful Dead have played as many as five benefits a year for the 
Rex Foundation. Half of the royalties from the Ben & Jerry's ice-cream 
flavor ``Cherry Garcia'' go to the Rex Foundation. The rest of the 
foundation's money mainly comes from private donations. The band 
absorbs almost all of the administrative and personnel costs.
  Rex money has had perhaps its greatest impact on modern symphonic 
music. Since its inception, the foundation has spent over $100,000 
commissioning and recording works by avant-garde composers.
  Composer Robert Simpson was much acclaimed but poorly remunerated for 
his work during a long career. At 73 years old, many of his works 
remained unrecorded. One day, he received a $10,000 money order from 
the Rex Foundation, out of the blue. The composer used the grant to 
help record his ninth symphony.
  In addition to supporting obscure composers, the Rex Foundation has 
assisted saxophonist Pharaoh Sanders, bought uniforms for the 
finacially-strapped Lithuanian Olympic basketball team, set up 
scholarships that have enabled Salvadoran refugees to go to camp and 
Sioux women to study medicine, and financed programs to eradicate 
blindness in Nepal, clean up rivers in Alabama, protect striped bass in 
California and feed the homeless in Boston.
  Rex Foundation money was used to record the prison gospel choir of 
San Quentin. In 1991, Grateful Dead drummer, Mickey Hart, helped bring 
the Gyoto Tantric Choir Tibetan monks to America. As the monks passed 
San quentin in a van, they said they felt the presence of trapped souls 
within.
  They wanted to go right in, but Hart informed them that that might be 
a little difficult. When the monks later performed at San Quentin 
through the Rex Foundation they were able to see the prison's gospel 
choir perform. According to Hart, one prison guard began playing the 
drums and another played the organ. Guards and inmates were mixing and 
singing sacred songs.
  The album, titled ``He's All I Need,'' peaked at No. 28 on the 
Billboard gospel
 charts. All proceeds went to a fund earmarked for victims of the 
inmates.

  And it's not just musical events the Rex Foundation has funded. 
Another recipient of Rex Foundation Funds was the Blue Moon, the 
historic University District tavern in Seattle which received a grant 
from the Rex Foundation to support three projects: Words 

[[Page S 12310]]
on Wednesdays, the Pym Cup cash prize and ``Point-No-Point,'' a 
literary journal.
  Just a month ago, on July 30, 1995, the band performed a show at Deer 
Creek Music Center in Indiana and donated all the net proceeds--about 
$300,000--to the Rex Foundation. Some of the beneficiaries of that show 
were local charities: Hoosier Hills Food Bank; Broadway United 
Methodist Church, for a day camp program; Pleasant Run Children's Home; 
Health Net Community Health Centers; Horizon House; Prevention of Child 
Abuse, Indiana; Gleaners Food Bank; Habitat for Humanity.
  The Rex Foundation has few hard and fast rules--the Grateful Dead 
have never been strict rule-followers for themselves or for anyone 
else. The Rex Foundation has no endowment, no fund-raising campaigns, 
and no paid staff. It solicits no grant proposals, rarely advertises 
its good works and raised almost all its money at rock concerts at 
which the Grateful Dead perform. Most of the 60 to 100 grants awarded 
each year go to recipients nominated by a body called the Circle of 
Deciders. It is composed of band members and their families, its 50 
employees, and friends.
  Of course, I cannot list every grant the Rex Foundation has ever 
made--and if I could there might well be some I would not like. But 
that is one of the greatest virtues of a private philanthropy such as 
the Rex Foundation: No Senator, Congressman or Government bureaucrat's 
approval is required.
  So while we debate the appropriations to be afforded the Government 
agencies charged with funding arts and humanities, and debate as well 
as restrictions that must be attached to any Government distribution of 
taxpayer money, I think it is worth reflecting on the contributions to 
the arts and humanities made by Jerry Garcia's band, the Grateful Dead 
over the past 12 years--contributions made without taxpayer money, 
without offense to the people whose money is used, and--most 
strikingly--without self-congratulatory fanfare.
  And also I would like to give my condolences to Jerry Garcia's 
family, friends, and fans, who mourn the passing of the artist, 
musician and generous spirit, Jerry Garcia.


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