- NCAC recently launched the first-ever “Museum Best Practices for Managing Controversy” at the College Arts Association Conference in New York City. The document is designed for museums and other cultural institutions concerned about accusations of inappropriate or offensive content, and offers guidelines on how to deal with potential controversies. You can find the guidelines—a joint project with other national arts organizations—at Museum Best Practices.
- Eden Taylor Ames of Illinois won the grand prize in NCAC’s 2012 Youth Free Expression Project film contest, followed by Naomi Clements of Utah, and Alexis Opper of Colorado. Daniel Pritchard of Shirley, NY, won the contest’s first People’s Choice Award. All winners gathered in New York City on March 30 to attend a special screening of their works and to receive their prizes. Stay tuned: the contest theme for 2013 is “Video Games in the Crosshairs!”
- Photographer Sally Mann, along with critics, scholars, and 10 artists featured in a recent exhibition at Wisconsin’s John Michael Kohler Arts Center joined NCAC in protesting the removal of Betsy Schneider’s work from the show. Museum officials claimed that nude photos of the artist’s growing baby daughter in the “Kids Are All Right” exhibit polarized the community.
- Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Councilman Brad Lander, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and other city, state, and federal New York officials recently tried to stifle dialogue on the Israel/Palestine conflict by pressuring Brooklyn College to cancel or alter a planned discussion about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign. Brooklyn College President Karen Gould and CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein stood behind the principle of academic freedom—and the panel discussion eventually went on as planned.
- Got a censorship story to tell? Post it to NCAC’s Censorpedia Wiki (wiki.ncac.org), a repository of censorship incidents, information about what’s vulnerable to attack, and a guide to strategies and tactics that have defeated past attempts at censorship. The wiki contains over 1,000 articles about cases around the globe. Check them out or add your own.
- Visit ncac.org during Banned Books Week, September 22-28!!
- Make sure to sign up for The Write Stuff (ncac.org), a new NCAC newsletter that provides updates on the latest censorship cases and NCAC’s work, and features exclusive interviews with your favorite authors and artists.