New York, January 16, 2025 – In the wake of a newly-released report warning of censorship pressures faced by museum directors across the US conducted by the Association for Art Museum Directors, PEN America, and Artists at Risk Connection, the National Coalition Against Censorship encourages cultural leaders to incorporate its Museum Best Practices for Managing Controversy into museum policies.
The first edition of Museum Best Practices was jointly authored in 2012 by NCAC’s Arts & Culture Advocacy Program (ACAP) with the Association for Art Museum Curators, Americans for the Arts, the International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art, The Vera List Center for Art and Politics, the College Art Association, the American Alliance of Museums, and the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries. The document outlines key strategies that leaders of museums and other cultural institutions can use to resist censorship pressures and assure their curatorial and institutional autonomy in the face of public criticism.
The Museum Best Practices for Managing Controversy was researched and developed following twelve years of ACAP’s intervention in art censorship cases, and it has been freely distributed to museum leaders and curators across the country for over a decade.
In ACAP’s 25-year history, it has compiled an array of additional resources for artists, curators, playwrights, and other creatives in support of artistic freedom. It also hosts an annual Curatorial Workshop for curators to convene and discuss curatorial strategies for presenting artworks that may pique audience sensitivities.
NCAC’s Museum Best Practices for Managing Controversy can be found at: https://ncac.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Museum-Best-Practices.pdf
NCAC’s Curator’s Handbook for Managing Controversy can be found at: https://ncac.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/NCAC-Curators-Handbook-for-Managing-Controversy.pdf