Were institutions like Lincoln Center to yield to calls for cancellation coming from the BDS movement or elsewhere, any ensuing conversation would be much impoverished and further polarized.
documenta 14, an art festival occurring every 5 years, puts the issue of book censorship front and center this year.
The discussion has brought to light the enduring lack of representation of Native artists in the art historical canon, in art museum exhibitions and in collections. However, it has also shown us a way forward.
The organizations express grave concern that the Executive Order will have a broad and far-reaching impact on artists’ freedom of movement and, as a result, will seriously inhibit creative freedom, collaboration, and the free flow of ideas.
The Walker Art Center has responded to our criticism arguing "NCAC has placed undue emphasis on the work’s material structure over its concept." Read our new response.
"The fact is that, for hundreds of years, this particular play has been understood to be a critique of political violence, not an endorsement of it."
NCAC has issued a statement signed by several national and international organizations, opposing the Walker's decision to dismantle and destroy the controversial sculpture.
Mintcheva's essay examines and argues for the value of free expression in light of recent controversies over art and racially sensitive content, as well as over cultural appropriation, which have left people to question the usefulness of an absolutist defense of free speech.
While critiquing or protesting artworks is a vital part of a healthy democratic society, cultural institutions who bow to demands to remove or destroy works that engage with contentious political or social issues endanger our ability to maintain a public sphere where ideas and societal problems can be freely identified and discussed.
NCAC argues that keeping children from viewing artistic representations of nudes does not ‘protect’ them; rather, it imposes the religion-based view that the nude human body is shameful.
The letter demands a public apology from the City of Burnsville and urges the City to develop a formal policy governing artistic programming at the Ames Center to ensure it is in compliance with First Amendment requirements.
The message government is communicating appears to be that young people's opinions concerning such issues are not respected and don't matter.
A profile of muralist Mike Alewitz describes how his radical politics infuses his work and left him open to many incidents of censorship.
The play offers a perspective on the experience of growing up biracial -- or "mulatto," a dated term used to describe a person with one black and one white parent.
In the aftermath of the Whitney Biennial controversy, NCAC has aggregated the best commentary and opinions on the fraught but necessary incident.
The decision to cancel the play was understandable, given the controversy around the photo, but was it the best decision that could have been made?
Throughout March, to celebrate Women's History Month, NCAC will be spotlighting censorship cases involving women and women's issues on its crowdsourced wiki, Censorpedia.
NCAC is urging a Maryland school district to allow its teachers to display a series of posters promoting diversity and inclusion in America after administrators ordered their removal over concerns of political bias.
The posters were deemed to break the school's policy that forbids classroom materials that attempt to sway the political opinions of students.
An exhibition of artworks celebrating Black History Month was removed from display in a San Jose School district building after complaints calling the works offensive.
The number of cases registered in 2016 more than doubled the amount registered in 2015, an increase of 119%, which translates to an extra 469 attacks.
American University Museum in Washington D.C. flubbed its approach to a controversial sculpture after it claimed it did not want the message of the sculpture to be deemed the institution's own.
Rep. Clay, in a statement issued by his office in St. Louis, said the painting's removal has “sent a chilling message to young Americans that their voices are not respected, their views are not valued, and their freedom of expression is no longer protected in the U.S. Capitol.”
The Allentown Art Museum in Pennsylvania chose to move works with a clear anti-Trump message to a separate gallery nearby.
The disciplinary charges constitute a neglect of Winthrop's role as a ‘marketplace of ideas’ and its responsibilities under the First Amendment.
Censorpedia currently contains over 1200 individual incidents collected over the years and contributed by students, NCAC staff and volunteers, artists and, potentially, YOU!
While private corporations have the legal right to set conditions on their rentals, artists and small alternative art venues such as 50/50 need to push back against their total control of public space.
An artwork depicting the Ku Klux Klan, intended to make a statement about post-election U.S.A, was labeled "hate speech" by students at Salem State U.
A post-election letter from NCAC’s Executive Director.
The kickstarter-funded doc. reminds us all free speech protections are shallow when the subjective view of the few is brought to bear on the many.
Facebook, nude art and conservative lawmakers are just a few elements of NCAC's top offenders/defenders of free speech list. But who made the no 1 spots?
The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis keeps the conversation going as it responds to anger over racially-charged works in the Kelley Walker exhibition.
NCAC has sent a joint letter to California State University Long Beach (CSULB) in response to the university's recent cancellation of the comedy N*GGER WETB*CK CH*NK (N*W*C) at the University's Performing Arts Center.
Edward Albee died over the weekend aged 88. A tireless free speech defender, here are a few of the times Albee's work crossed over with NCAC's
A California university nixed a performance of a comedy intended to diminish the potency of racial slurs on the grounds “the performance wasn't achieving the goal of constructing a dialogue about racial relations.”
A California law that bans the state from selling or buying the Confederate flag may have unintended consequences on freedom of expression.
Artist's Rights is a comprehensive new website designed to help artist's understand their legal rights when faced with censorship. NCAC's Arts Advocacy Program speaks to Creative Capital about the project.
Antonio Cosme and William Lucka face a $75,000 fine and four years in prison for protesting the water cut offs in Detroit by graffitiing a Highland Park water tower.
The University's Diversity Leadership Team expressed concern the painting's colonial subject matter would reinforce racial stereotypes.
Gary Wynans, a.k.a. Mr. AbiLLity, sits down with NCAC to discuss the behind the scenes of his controversial Monopoly mural that was censored by Jersey City.
