Artist: Roxie Thomas and Trina Nicklas
Confronting Bodies: Frank Holt, public art coordinator for city hall, and the City of Orlando
Date of Action: Late 1997/Early 1998
Specific Location: Orlando City Hall, Florida/ Manatee Community College president Sarah H. Pappas and other faculty and administration, Bradenton, Florida
Description of Artwork: It is an installation of works by censored artists, accompanied by some artist's commentary
Description of Incident: The first incident occurred at Orlando City Hall when Frank Holt agreed to host the show in April 1998. Later he expressed concern over the content of the exhibit so he and the show's organizers, Roxie Thomas and Trina Nicklas, compromised by deciding to find an alternative space for the pieces that were deemed likely to offend municipal employees. Thomas and Nicklas sent Holt six samples of the work to be included in the exhibit. He objected to the art for its nudity and disturbing images. Ultimately the show was cancelled.
The exhibit faced censorship again when it was scheduled to open in January 1998 at Manatee Community College. Joe Locciscno, the gallery director and John James, the art department chair, removed a panel from a multi-panel work by Barbara Jo Revelle, once it had been viewed by the administration. This panel featured images of erect penises. Roxie Thomas and Trina Nicklas were careful to obtain approval for each piece in the exhibit prior to installation. They had a separate exhibition contract for each piece. As late as New Years Day they were assured that the college administration had approved all of the pieces. Thomas and Nicklas requested that President Sarah H. Pappas see and approve the entire work, but after having seen the piece, Pappas removed the piece from the show. There was no objection to images of female breasts and genitalia and flaccid penises at this time. Later it was decided that the show be cancelled altogether, apparently under the pressure of President Pappas.
Results of Incident: Not only were individual pieces of art censored, the entire show was cancelled on two different occasions. Thomas, Nicklas, and Revelle are considering legal action.
Source: National Campaign for Freedom of Expression Quarterly, winter 1997. Arts Wire CURRENT, (http://www.artswire.org)
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Name: David Horowitz, Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Blacks is a Bad Idea for Blacks-and Racist, Too.
[ Edit ]
Date: 1995 - 2005
Location: North America
Subject: Racial/Ethnic
,Political/Economic/Social Opinion
Medium: Commercial Advertising
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Artist: David Horowitz, Conservative Activist
Confronting Bodies: College students throughout the United States
Date of Action: March 2001
Specific Location: University newspapers, college campuses
Description of Artwork: David Horowitz states reasons why he opposes reparations for slavery in the U.S. Among his reasons are that not all African-Americans have suffered because of the legacy of slavery, that African-Americans owe a debt to whites who ended slavery, and welfare benefits and racial preferences constitute a form of reparations.
Description of Incident: David Horowitz paid for his ad to be circulated in college newspapers throughout the United States.
Results of Incident: Many campus newspapers refused to run the ad. Those who included it in their papers experienced a range of reactions by students who regarded the ad as racist or "hate speech." The objections resulted in the destruction of thousands of newspapers by students at Brown University, formal apologies for running the ad at University of California-Berkeley, University of California-Davis and Arizona State, and protests at Duke University, University of Wisconsin and several others.
Source: NCAC
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Name: Brooklyn Museum
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Date: 1995 - 2005
Location: North America
Subject: Religious
Medium: Painting
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Artist: Chris Ofili
Confronting Bodies: Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and the City of New York
Date of Action: 1999
Specific Location: Brooklyn Museum, part of the exhibit Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection.
Description of Artwork: The Virgin Mary portrayed as a black woman, integrating elephant dung and cutouts from porn magazines as part of the composition. The piece is a multimedia fusion of styles referencing Byzantine mosaics, imagery from popular culture and African sacred symbols.
Description of Incident: The Sensation exhibit, which included Ofili's piece, was scheduled to open October 2, 1999. Prior to the opening, Mayor Giuliani, offended by the "anti-Catholic" content of Ofili's work, ordered the museum to remove the controversial artwork or to cancel the show. He also threatened to cut off funding to the museum and eject it from its current building. In response, the museum filed suit in a federal court seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent the City from withdrawing funds and evicting it.
Results of Incident: Judge Nina Gershon from the Eastern District ruled that Giuliani's attempt to cut funding from the museum was unconstitutional for its violation of the First Amendment. Judge Gershon ordered that funding be restored to the museum and declared that no future funds be withheld. Giuliani later appealed the decision. The case was settled during appeal in March 2000. As a part of the settlement, the city agreed to pay $5.8 million over the following two years to help repair the museum's entry hall (New York Times, March 2000).
Despite the court's ruling in favor of the museum, Giuliani continued to seek ways to control the content of art shown in city funded institutions. In early 2001, the mayor denounced another piece exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum. The controversial artwork was a staged photograph by Renee Cox entitled "Yo Mama's Last Supper," which used the structure of DaVinci's painting of Christ and the Apostles in his "Last Supper"; instead of Christ, Cox had placed a nude image of herself in the central position. This is part of the exhibit Committed to the Image, which shows the work of 94 contemporary Black photographers. In response to the museum's inclusion of Cox's work, Giuliani assembled a "decency panel" to explore the possibilities of controlling the content of art shown in city-funded institutions. The committee met with degrees of protest and ridicule on the part of New Yorkers and is expected to fade out when Giuliani leaves office.
Source: NCAC
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Name: Bio textbook censored
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Date: 1995 - 2005
Location: North America
Subject: Explicit Sexuality
Medium: Textbook
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Artist: High school biology textbook
Confronting Bodies: The Lynchburg City School Board
Date of Action: September 2000
Specific Location: Lynchburg, Virginia
Description of Artwork: A biology textbook with an illustration of a vagina
Description of Incident: The Lynchburg City School Board voted to censor a science textbook because it included a picture of a vagina, despite the fact that a committee of parents, teachers, and students approved the book prior to the beginning of the semester.
Results of Incident: Board members agreed to purchase the textbooks only if the illustration was removed. School officials blacked out, tore out, or placed some sort of unremovable label over the illustration before it was given to students. The 200 books, minus the vagina illustration, were used for the following months in Lynchburg City biology courses.
Source: HamptonRoads.com, NCAC
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Name: Artisan Entertainment, The Center of the World
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Date: 1995 - 2005
Location: North America
Subject: Explicit Sexuality
Medium: Film Video
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Artist: Artisan Entertainment
Confronting Bodies: Gary Goldman, owner of the Esquire Theater in Cincinnati.
Date of Action: June 2001
Specific Location: Esquire Theater, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Description of Artwork: The Center of the World chronicles a weekend in Las Vegas where a young millionaire and a stripper whose noncommittal sex takes several dark turns. The film is not rated. The five-second scene that was censored featured a background stripper performing an obscene act.
Description of Incident: Owner Gary Goldman, who runs the Theater Manager Corp., edited the film in fear of a backlash from the community. He said, "I found this act to be both degrading to women and most likely violative of community standards."
Results of Incident: Artisan Entertainment learned about the edited screening from a film reviewer who reported the missing scene to an Artisan employee. After confirming the report, Artisan withdrew the film from the theater. The film played eleven days of its scheduled two-week run. Goldman admitted that he was wrong to edit the film, saying, "Obviously, I exercised bad judgement and should have chosen instead not to play the film." The film reviewer was banned from the Esquire Theater as a result of the incident.
Source: NCAC, Salon.com Arts & Entertainment, 6.11.01.
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Name: Cissy Lacks, high school teacher
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Date: 1985 - 1995
Location: North America
Subject: Language
Medium: Literature
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Artist: Cissy Lacks, teacher
Confronting Bodies: Ferguson Florissant School District
Date of Action: 1995
Specific Location: St. Louis' Ferguson Florissant School District, Missouri
Description of Artwork: Lacks allowed her students to write drama exercises that included dialogue natural to the characters the students created in her creative writing classes. Some of these writings therefore included vulgar language.
Description of Incident: Lacks was fired in March of 1995 allegedly for violating the student cod prohibiting profanity.
Results of Incident: Lacks appealed the firing and sued the Ferguson Florissant School District.
In September 1996, Judge Catherine Perry in the Federal District Court of St. Louis reversed the decision of the Ferguson Florissant School Board and ordered Lacks reinstated with restitution of back pay and legal fees. In November, 1996, a jury ruled in Lacks' favor on all counts and awarded her $250,000 in her race discrimination claim and $500,000 in her first amendment and fair warning claim. In June 1998, Richard Arnold, David Hansen and Roger Wollman of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Judge Perry's reinstatement and all counts of the jury decision. (From Lacks' perspective, which can also be documented from court records, they appeared to change the facts of the case as decided by the jury.) Lacks filed for Certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, and despite the fact that 15 national groups signed a petition (amici brief) for the case to be heard, the Supreme Court denied Cert in March of 1999. The legal case is now over. See also Cissy Lacks web site: www.home.earthlink.net/~cissylacks
Source: The Cissy Lacks website, www.cissylacks.com; NCAC
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Date Edited: Thursday, August 1, 2002
Name: Book, Music, and Videotape Burning at the Harvest Assembly of God Church
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Date: 1995 - 2005
Location: North America
Subject: Religious
,Political/Economic/Social Opinion
Medium: Film Video
,Music
,Literature
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Artist: Multiple popular artists and writers, Religious materials
Confronting Bodies: Harvest Assembly of God Church
Date of Action: March 2001
Specific Location: Harvest Assembly of God Church parking lot, Penn Township, Butler County, PA.
Description of Artwork: Books, Music CDs and tapes, Videotapes, Religious materials
Description of Incident: The Harvest Assembly of God Church held a book, music, and videotape burning ceremony in the parking lot of their church. Approximately 30 participants gathered to burn their own possessions that they felt were disloyal to God. The event was the idea of some church youths who were studying the book of Revelations. Acts 19:19 was also sited as inspiration, given its description of how former practitioners of magic burned their books in public. Participants congregated for the ceremony where in they deposited their popular music, literature, and movies in the fire, while singing Christian songs. Among the "objectionable material" was music from artists such as REM, Bruce Springsteen, and Foreigner. Disney movies and Harry Potter novels were destroyed for promoting sorcery. Additionally, Mormon and Jehovah's Witness materials were burned for not being truly Christian since they promoted several gods. The event was catered toward people who had already "received Christ" and wanted to demonstrate their commitment to him. That may explain the absence of pornographic materials or any discernable idols.
Results of Incident: No protesters attended the event. Reverend George Bender from the Harvest Assembly of God Church was disappointed that there were not more visitors at the burning, but felt the ceremony had worked out well.
Source: Post-Gazette.com
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Name: Barbie Art
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Date: 1995 - 2005
Location: North America
Subject: Political/Economic/Social Opinion
Medium: Photography
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Artist: Tom Forsythe
Confronting Bodies: Mattel
Date of Action: 2000-2001
Specific Location: Los Angeles, CA, USA
Description of Artwork: Forsythe photographs Barbies in various poses in order to critique the materialistic and gender-oppressive values he believes the doll embodies. His images, including Barbies doing household chores, Barbies wrapped in tortillas, Barbie heads impaled on fondue skewers, Barbies being dismembered in a blender, and Barbies having sex, have appeared in galleries throughout the country.
Description of Incident: Mattel sued Forsythe alleging a variety of claims including trademark and copyright infringement. Mattel sought a preliminary injunction against Forsythe. A Federal District Court denied the motion. Mattel appealed.
Results of Incident: Mattel's appeal was rejected and Forsythe is allowed to exhibit his work. Mattel continues to seek to censor Forsythe's artistic expression under the intellectual property laws.
Source: ACLU News Website. Additional Sources: ArtScope News Website; Nashville Public Radio - Public Arts Website; Sydney Morning Herald Website. (These sources also mention other Barbie-related censorship cases.)
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Date Edited: Monday, April 8, 2002
Name: Gay Pride Library Exhibit
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Date: 1995 - 2005
Location: North America
Subject: Sexual/Gender Orientation
Medium: Installation
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Artist: Lamb of God Metropolitan Community Church (a predominantly gay and lesbian congregation) and PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays)
Confronting Bodies: Mayor (George Wuerch)
Date of Action: June 2001
Specific Location: Z.J. Loussac Public Library, Anchorage, Alaska, USA
Description of Artwork: The Gay Pride Month exhibit, meant to "encourage discussion and dispel myths about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons," included posters, texts, and diagrams. In addition, T-Shirts were tacked to walls above the elevators to give library patrons the feeling they were walking in and out of closets; an accompanying sign read "closets are for clothes not people." The designer of this "Celebrate Diversity" display claimed that the word "sex" does not appear in the piece.
Description of Incident: The materials for the installation were shown to the library on a Friday; the municipality's head librarian agreed. Over the weekend, however, the librarian decided that T-shirts above the elevators were dangerous and needed to be moved. Further, he alerted his supervisor that a potentially controversial exhibit was going up. Library staff attempted to contact the installers on Monday to tell them to hold off installation, but they did not get the message. The exhibit was installed onto a display wall on Monday evening. The contents of the exhibition were brought to the attention of the mayor on Tuesday morning when the mayor decided that it must come down.
Results of Incident: The exhibit was taken down before the library's opening at 10am on Tuesday. The installers/organizations were not informed prior to the removal. A table that featured gay-theme books and videos remained. Some other remaining materials, which were under glass, could not be seen unless a patron walked up to the table. A few days later, Wuerch announced a ban on all similar displays in Municipal buildings.
Source: Anchorage Daily News
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Name: Andy Cox, Citibank Parody
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Date: 1995 - 2005
Location: North America
Subject: Political/Economic/Social Opinion
Medium: Public Speech
,Mixed Media
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Artist: Andy Cox
Confronting Bodies: San Francisco State University
Date of Action: April 1997
Specific Location: A display case at San Francisco State University's Muni stop, San Francisco, CA.
Description of Artwork: A series of posters lampooning Citibank's "In Your Dreams" billboard campaign. The posters featured such figures as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Che Guevara with the artist's slogans replacing the bank's ad copy. The Guevara piece, for example, states, "In your dreams, everyone is treated equally.... And your bank sponsors socialist revolutions." The name Citibank has been changed to Citybank, and the artist created a different logo on the advice of a copyright lawyer.
Description of Incident: While Cox's posters were on display at the Muni stop, SFSU president Robert Corrigan ordered their removal after receiving a call from Citibank threatening a lawsuit.
Results of Incident: The posters were put on display at the university's Art Department Gallery. Cox responded to the incident by stating, "It speaks to the ever increasing corporate control of culture and also the links between universities and corporations."
Source: sfbg.com, twcdc.org, NCAC
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Date Edited: Wednesday, August 28, 2002
Name: Indigo Girls' canceled high school concerts
[ Edit ]
Date: 1995 - 2005
Location: North America
Subject: Language
,Sexual/Gender Orientation
Medium: Music
,Performance Art
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Artist: Indigo Girls
Confronting Bodies: Principals and school officials in three high schools in South Carolina and Tennessee
Date of Action: Spring 1998
Specific Location: Irmo High School in Columbia, South Carolina, Germantown High in Germantown and Farragut High in Knoxville, Tennessee
Description of Artwork: The Indigo Girls sing popular fold-rock music. Common themes in their music include love and promoting social consciousness.
Description of Incident: A concert at Irmo High School in Columbia, South Carolina was canceled because of complaints about the duo's sexuality. Band members Emily Saliers and Amy Ray are lesbians. Principals who canceled scheduled appearances at two Tennessee schools, Germantown High in Germantown and Farragut High in Knoxville, deny that the performers' sexuality was a factor. Instead they cite the lyric "I keep fucking up," from the song Shame on You, which the duo performed at a high school in Georgia last month
Results of Incident: Students at these schools as well as numerous freedom-of-expression advocates strongly protested this decision. Several student demonstrators at each school were suspended for missing classes and disrupting school. The Indigo Girls apologized for performing the song at the Georgia high school and promised to omit Shame on You from future high school concerts. Apparently, however, the Tennessee principals never considered asking the duo to remove the bothersome lyric. Their quick moves to cancel the concerts only after the sexuality issue was raised at Irmo have cast doubt on their justifications. The Indigo Girls subsequently rented halls and invited disappointed students to attend as their guests.
Source: NCAC
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Name: Jef Bourgeau, Art Until Now
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Date: 1995 - 2005
Location: North America
Subject: Political/Economic/Social Opinion
,Religious
,Explicit Sexuality
Medium: Installation
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Artist: Jef Bourgeau
Confronting Bodies: The Detroit Institute of Arts and specifically director Graham Beal
Date of Action: November 1999
Specific Location: Detroit Institute of Arts
Description of Artwork: The exhibit was the first in a series of 12 one-week shows that intended to commemorate the end of the twentieth century by exploring current issues in art. The exhibit, Van Gogh's Ear, contained references to some of the art-world controversies of the 1990s, including Andres Serrano's Piss Christ, a video of British artist Tracey Emin in a menstruation ritual, and some of the young British artists who were included in the controversial Sensation exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum.
Description of Incident: On the morning of the show's opening, director Graham Beal decided to postpone the show in order to discuss editing out some of the works with Bourgeau. The artist would not adhere to the museum's request that he make changes in his art; the show was terminated.
Results of Incident: Director Beal stands by his decision to close the show. Officials said they had a responsibility to the public and claimed that the artist was uncooperative. The artist believes he was the victim of censorship and was disappointed that the museum decided to effectively censor itself-something he would otherwise expect from conservative politicians and the religious right. Bourgeau did not seek any legal recourse.
In March 2000, a condensed version of Art Until Now exhibited in the Oakland Arts Center in Pontiac, MI. The show coincided with a public forum on art and censorship, Fear No Art: the Politics of Correctness. The media frenzy resulted from the complaint of a maintenance worker in the building. The police came to take Polaroids of the most "obscene" art and subsequently charged and cite Bourgeau with presenting "obscene materials." The penalty for such a crime is three months in jail or a $500 fine.
At the pretrial hearing on June 28, 2000 in the 50th District Court in Pontiac, Michigan, officials dropped the misdemeanor charge against Bourgeau for displaying "obscene materials."
Source: The Detroit News, 11.20.99
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Name: American Society of Media Photographers exhibit/Andrea London, Strike Three
[ Edit ]
Date: 1995 - 2005
Location: North America
Subject: Political/Economic/Social Opinion
Medium: Photography
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Artist: Andrea London
Confronting Bodies: The PNC Human Resources Department
Date of Action: June 2001
Specific Location: PNC Bank Firstside Center Gallery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Description of Artwork: Commercial and media photographers were asked to create a piece that in some manner incorporated a baseball. In Strike Three London placed the stitches of a baseball under the blackened eye of a pregnant woman who's carrying a suitcase and walking out a door. Three other images in question were: a photograph of a blonde model striking a Marilyn Monroe pose and holding a baseball; a close-up of a woman's legs with a baseball in front of them; and two baseball gloves, each holding balls and exchanging double entendres by way of captions.
Description of Incident: Prior to the opening of the American Society of Media Photographers' annual show, the PNC human resources department asked that four works be removed from "Object Show 2001," because several employees had objected to their content. One of which was Andrea London's Strike Three.
Results of Incident: Rather than remove the four works, the Pittsburgh chapter of the American Society of Media Photographers took down whole exhibition. The bank claimed that it was not censorship because it was a private space and it was their right to reject unwanted art. The show did go up at a different venue. Upon hearing of the show's cancellation, One Gateway Center offered to house the exhibit in a public conference facility. The show was anticipated to travel to other sites in Pittsburgh.
Source: NCAC, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 6.22.01
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Name: Alma Lopez, Our Lady
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Date: 1995 - 2005
Location: North America
Subject: Religious
Medium: Photography
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Artist: Alma Lopez
Confronting Bodies: Catholic groups in Santa Fe
Date of Action: April 2001
Specific Location: International Museum of Folk Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. The work was part of the exhibit Cyber Arte: Where Tradition Meets Technology.
Description of Artwork: Our Lady is a digital photograph representing the Virgin of Guadalupe. While familiar Guadalupe imagery is present-the rays of light, the cloak, the roses, the crescent moon, the angel-the virgin herself is represented by a photograph of a friend of the artist, hands on her hips and head defiantly raised, her robe open and revealing rose-laden undergarments. A topless woman represents the angel below; her arms outstretched and butterfly wings extending from her shoulders and back. According to the artist, the idea was to portray the virgin as a strong and nurturing woman very much like the women in the community that Alma López grew up in.
Description of Incident: Our Lady provoked much protest from the Catholic community in Santa Fe. The Roman Catholic Archbishop, Michael Sheehan, claimed that the Virgin was depicted as a "tart," is sacrilegious to New Mexicans who have a deep religious devotion to Guadalupe, and should not be shown in a tax-supported museum. Reaction to the work was widespread and heated. A public meeting was held, drawing a crowd of just under 800 to hear an array of speakers and opinions.
Results of Incident: The Museum of New Mexico Committee on Sensitive Materials recommended that the work remain on display. As a compromise, however, the duration of the whole exhibit was shortened by several months.
Source: NCAC
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Name: An Alexander Kanevsky painting at the Frame Shop and Eierweiss Gallery
[ Edit ]
Date: 1995 - 2005
Location: North America
Subject: Nudity
,Explicit Sexuality
Medium: Painting
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Artist: Alexander Kanevsky/ Frame Shop and Eierweiss Gallery
Confronting Bodies: Complainant Jeffery Weisman, and the bureaucratic offices of Mayor John DeStefano and the New Haven Police.
Date of Action: August 2000
Specific Location: Frame Shop and Eierweiss Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
Description of Artwork: A four-foot square painting of stylized elderly nudes.
Description of Incident: New Haven citizen, Jeffery Weisman, called in a complaint to Mayor John DeStefano's office. He saw an "obscene" painting displayed in the window of a New Haven gallery that he felt should be removed. This complaint was passed from the mayor's office to the office of Police Chief Melvin H. Wearing. This was eventually passed through other hands, ending with two sergeants. The transfer of this complaint between so many hands apparently escalated the importance of the complaint. The sergeants then went to the gallery and asked if they would remove the painting from the window.
Results of Incident: The gallery owner, Judy Eierweiss, had already been thinking of changing the display and agreed to remove it from the window. Artist Alexander Kanevsky was alarmed by the police response and wanted to make the incident known to the media. Mayor DeStefano said he was neither aware of the complaint nor did he request police involvement. Apparently the incident resulted from misguided bureaucrats, and improper police decisions, rather from the Mayor himself. He explained that the city in no way intended to censor Kanevsky's work. He said he would offer to exhibit the painting in City Hall to demonstrate that the City is not in the business of censorship. Nevertheless, the incident disturbed art professionals in the region.
Source: New York Times, 8.22.00
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