The National Coalition Against Censorship is dismayed by the news of the premature removal of an art billboard that is part of a temporary project with the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, shortly after Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed called for its deinstallation. The billboard shows a 1965 Spider Martin photograph of state troopers staring down Black civil rights protesters [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) strongly condemns the recent Executive Order signed by President Trump that aims to censor the teaching of race, gender, and identity in American schools, entitled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling.” Make no mistake, this Executive Order is not about ending supposed indoctrination in our schools— it is itself designed to indoctrinate and [...]
The Kids’ Right to Read Project (KRRP), a signature initiative of the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), has been at the forefront of defending the freedom to read for over 20 years. We condemn the recent actions by the U.S. Department of Education in dismissing complaints about book bans and referring to these challenges to access as a "hoax." [...]
January 23, 2025 — Today, the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) expressed alarm at Chicago city councilmembers’ attempts to censor political artwork on view in an exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center. Government officials’ efforts to silence speech because of distaste for its political position raise acute First Amendment concerns. The artwork in question is a massive, two-sided papier-mache puppet [...]
Yesterday, President Trump signed an Executive Order entitled “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship.” The Executive Order aims to inhibit the government's ability to censor–or pressure private companies to censor–constitutionally protected speech. The National Coalition Against Censorship has long argued that the government should never use its power to pressure companies to censor voices that the government [...]
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 National Coalition Against Censorship has written to Volusia County Schools in Florida to recommend changes to their board policy. NCAC encouraged the School Board to revise their challenge policy to ensure that all challenged books remain on shelves during the reconsideration process. Read NCAC's Full Letter to Volusia County Schools. Click here for a full-screen view: [...]
Photo Credit: Composite image of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and Sally Mann’s A Perfect Tomato(1990), edited by NCAC staff Today the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), condemned the police seizure of artworks from the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth as apparent evidence in a criminal investigation of child abuse. The works in question, made [...]
On any given day, Cameron Samuels and Da’Taeveyon Daniels are hard at work. Alongside their academic and extracurricular pursuits, Samuels and Daniels serve as Executive Director and Deputy Executive Director of Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT). As one of the NCAC’s 23 Right to Read Network (RRN) affiliates, SEAT stands out as a truly grassroots, young-people-centered organization advocating [...]
2024 FL3TCH3R Exhibit Catalog cover design Today, the National Coalition Against Censorship and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression expressed alarm at new exhibition protocols at East Tennessee State University’s Reece Museum, which undermine the artistic integrity of the current exhibition on view. The exhibition, titled The FL3TCH3R Exhibit, provides a platform for artworks exploring social and political themes. Read [...]
Written by Tasmia Ishma The spirit of my homeland - its aspirations and its turmoil - remains etched in my identity. As a Bengali immigrant who left at the age of six, I have always felt deeply connected to my roots, witnessing the power of youth in advocating for change and the harsh realities of censorship that often stifle those [...]
(Left) Samia Halaby, Six Golden Heroes, 2021 & (Right) Alia Farid, Piquete en el Capitolo, 2023 UPDATE 2/02/2024: Success! NCAC has received reports that the artwork by Alia Farid, Piquete en el capitolio, has been returned to the original location selected by the exhibition’s curators–an implicit admission that MSU was wrong to relocate the work in the [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) is proud to join forces with 58 civil rights organizations, LGBTQ+ advocates, and free speech organizations in opposing harmful legislation like the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). For 50 years, NCAC has fought for the right to access uncensored information, and KOSA threatens to undermine that core freedom. KOSA risks silencing crucial online [...]
Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD-08) and Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) have reintroduced a vital resolution condemning the surge in book bans across schools, libraries, and universities nationwide. As we celebrate Banned Books Week, this resolution upholds the First Amendment rights of students and affirms that the freedom to read is essential for a healthy democracy. Over 10,000 books have been banned [...]
Danielle SeeWalker, Buffalo Run, 2023. Mural commissioned for the Brown International Academy in Denver, CO. Arts & Culture Advocacy Program: A couple of months ago, news outlets reported on the cancellation of your artist residency with Art in Public Places in Vail, Colorado. How did the residency first come about? Danielle SeeWalker: In January of this year I [...]
Since its founding in 2003, Woodhull Freedom Foundation has been an unwavering champion of free speech, recognizing it as the cornerstone of our fundamental human right to sexual freedom. As a human rights organization, we have consistently stood at the forefront of the battle against censorship, particularly in defense of sexual expression, which has long been a primary target [...]
Award-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay has been named honorary chair for Banned Books Week 2024, which takes place September 22 – 28. DuVerney will be joined by youth honorary chair Julia Garnett, a student activist who fought book bans in her home state of Tennessee. "I believe that censorship is the enemy of freedom,” said DuVernay, honorary chair of Banned [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to the school board of Brevard Public Schools in Florida after they voted to remove Shō Harusono's Sasaki and Miyano Vol. 1 from school libraries contrary to the Book Review Committee's recommendation to retain it. NCAC is concerned that the board may have acted due to hostility towards the views expressed in the [...]
UPDATE - August 15, 2024: Following advocacy efforts and community concern, the Lubbock city council considered whether to fully reinstate the funding without any restrictions. In the final vote, the City Council approved a greatly reduced grant of $5,000 for security at FFAT. The Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts (LHUCA) expressed disappointment, but assured its commitment to [...]
Image caption: Danielle SeeWalker, G is for Genocide, 2024 In May, NCAC was alarmed to learn about the Town of Vail, Colorado’s decision to cancel Danielle SeeWalker’s artist residency with the town’s Art in Public Places Program. The residency was to include the commission of a new mural, a photo exhibition of existing work depicting contemporary [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to the Board of the School District of Indian River County after they removed Alan Gratz’s Ban This Book from school libraries despite a review committee's recommendation to retain the book. NCAC expressed concern that the Board may have removed this book due to disagreement with the views expressed within the material. Therefore, [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) announces the launch of a new resource, Art Censorship Index: Post-October 7th, documenting the recent spike in censorship of art and artists invoking Israel or Palestine. Artworks and artists referencing the subject of Israel and Palestine have long been subjects of controversy and/or censorship, but following the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and [...]
Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore Today the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), PEN America, and the ACLU of Florida (ACLU-FL) condemned Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s veto of the entirety of the state’s annual arts budget, because the governor stated the decision was based on his distaste for certain types of artistic expression. In particular, the governor [...]
Dani Collette and Allora McCullough, Planting Seeds, Sprouting Hope, 2024, Installation view. Today the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) expressed alarm at the cancellation of an exhibition at Craft Alliance, an art organization in St. Louis, MO. Following a complaint from a volunteer, the venue asserted that the project, which draws attention to the plight [...]
As part of the NCAC’s 50th anniversary, we are taking time to reflect on our achievements, how far we’ve come since our establishment in 1974, and the future ahead. We are also spotlighting those who stand with us in our coalition, such as the Children’s Book Council. Over the past 70 years, the CBC has developed from an organization [...]
Photo Credit: Ted Eytan https://www.tedeytan.com/2018/03/02/25277 The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) raised objections today regarding recent announcements by the Pérez Art Museum Miami, the Minneapolis Museum of Art, and the Joslyn Art Museum to postpone or cancel planned exhibitions featuring work by renowned American artist Kehinde Wiley. In recent weeks the artist’s behavior and moral integrity [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to the board of Greenville County Schools in South Carolina regarding the removal of Ellen Hopkins' Perfect and Tilt and Sarah J. Maas' Empire of Storms from high school libraries. The review committee evaluated these books and concluded that they should remain in the library. The school board, however, overruled the recommendations [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to the Cameron School District in Missouri after school administrators reviewed a dozen school library books and then restricted some of them. NCAC recommended changes to the district's policy to include a diverse review committee for adjudicating future book challenges. Read NCAC's full letter to the Cameron School District here:Click here for [...]
In March 2023, a month after installing his artwork Monumental Interventions in a temporary exhibition at the San Diego Airport, Evan Apodaca received a letter from airport authorities informing him that the airport was terminating its contract with the artist and removing his work from view. Publicly, the airport stated that Apodaca’s then-final iteration of the project [...]
Today, along with eleven other free expression groups, NCAC issued a letter to two congressional committees regarding their request to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen for Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) of twenty groups that the committees alleged had supported or funded recent college protests. NCAC's deep concern stems from both the breadth of the committees' requests for records (20 organizations, without [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to the school board to urge Rutherford County Schools in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to return over 18 books removed from school libraries, considered to be obscene under Tennessee law. We advise that all challenged books be reviewed using standard policy that requires adjudication by a committee of diverse stakeholders. Read NCAC's full letter [...]
When political passions run high, disagreement is often expressed as vocal protest. Cultural institutions in a democratic society need to be prepared to manage such protests without silencing the voices they target. Instead, vague “safety concerns” are used to justify the suppression of speech within US cultural and educational institutions with alarming frequency. On April 15th, the Provost and [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to the Roane County School District Board of Education in Kingston, Tennessee to recommend changes to their board policy. After almost 200 challenged books were temporarily removed, NCAC encouraged the district to revise their policy to allow challenge books to remain on shelves during the reconsideration process. Read NCAC's full letter to [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship urges the school administrators of PS 55, The Henry M. Boehm School in Staten Island, NY, to follow NY DOE policy and return these discarded books back to shelves and uphold the First Amendment values of free inquiry and free access to information. Read NCAC's full letter to PS 55 here: Click here for a [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) raised concerns today that Artspace, the nation’s leading developer of arts facilities, has repeatedly censored artworks presented on their properties. Since 2017, NCAC has been made aware of three incidents resulting in the removal of arts displays, as well as the 2023 ousting of an artist subtenant as punishment for an exhibition of [...]
UPDATE - July 10, 2024: Following NCAC’s advocacy efforts, Public Art UHS completed the installation of Shahzia Sikander’s exhibition, Havah… to breathe, air, life and revised its FAQ document to include more information about the work from the artist. Months following the installation of the exhibition, Sikander’s sculpture, titled Witness, was beheaded by an unidentified vandal. The artist has requested [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to the school board of St. Johns County School District in St. Augustine, Florida to express our concern that the district is not following their policy when conducting reviews of books with sexual content. Read NCAC's full letter to the St. Johns County School District here: Click here for a full-screen view: [...]
National arts and civil rights organizations expressed deep concern today over the extent to which cultural institutions are halting the development of programs that can be interpreted as relating to the conflict in Israel and Palestine. A rash of cancellations over the past few months has affected cultural programs and exhibitions that contain references to the conflict or that [...]
In a key legal filing last month, the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), in collaboration with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and other free speech organizations, took a bold step in the ongoing battle for free speech. Together, they filed an Amicus Brief with the Supreme Court in Murthy v. Missouri, challenging government overreach and defending the [...]
Recent news reports have surfaced, revealing attempts by the Biden administration to pressure Amazon to censor controversial anti-vaccine books and search results. According to the reports, representatives of the Biden administration have urged Amazon executives to take action against books that the administration has deemed to contain misinformation surrounding COVID-19 and vaccines. The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) condemns [...]
