FacebookTwitterYouTubeInstagram

Art Censorship

NCAC, FIRE release joint letter on censorship of State College of Florida art exhibition

By |2023-03-10T17:33:32-05:00February 23rd, 2023|Blog, In The News, Letters, News, Press Releases|

Photo Credit: Clifford McDonald, Good Trouble, 2023 The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) are alarmed by reports of the apparently politically motivated censorship of an art exhibition entitled "Embracing Kindness" at the State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota’s Bradenton campus. Please see our letter attached, which outlines our concerns below: Click [...]

Read More

NCAC objects to Kutztown, PA School District’s cancellation of reading program

By |2023-02-23T21:07:40-05:00February 21st, 2023|Blog, In The News, News, Press Releases|

The National Coalition Against Censorship objects to Kutztown Area School District's Superintendent’s unilateral decision to cancel the One-Book Project following complaints about the climate change themes of the selected book. We urge the district to reinstate the project and adjudicate any challenges pursuant to the district's policy. Read NCAC's full letter to the Kutztown Area School District here: Click here [...]

Read More

NCAC asks Madison County, VA School Board to keep books in libraries

By |2023-02-23T21:08:26-05:00February 15th, 2023|Blog, News, Press Releases|

The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to Madison County School Board in Madison, Virginia, to express our concern with recent district policy changes requiring books that include "explicit sexual content" to be removed even if they have substantial educational value for students. It's our understanding that this policy has already led to the removal of over 20 books [...]

Read More

NCAC Demands Investigation of Secret Order to Ban Books   

By |2023-02-23T21:09:05-05:00February 8th, 2023|Blog, News, Press Releases|

NEW YORK, February 8, 2023 - The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) today demanded that officials in a western Michigan school district investigate whether their superintendent secretly ordered the removal of books, violating a policy that requires a formal review before a book is banned.  They also pointed officials to an audio recording in which a man who has [...]

Read More

NCAC Urges Ohio School District to Resume Canceled Student Production of ‘The 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee’ | UPDATED

By |2023-02-14T16:09:52-05:00February 8th, 2023|News|

Updated 2/14/23 – According to the Geauga County Maple Leaf, the Cardinal School District Board of Education has reversed their decision to cancel the spring production. The play will go on as previously scheduled with minor revisions. On 2/8/23 – The National Coalition Against Censorship has written a letter to express our deep concerns over the cancellation of the high school [...]

Read More

NCAC and CAA denounce Arkansas Tech University’s handling of Controversial Exhibition

By |2023-02-23T21:15:18-05:00February 7th, 2023|Blog, News, Press Releases|

The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and the College Art Association (CAA) expressed their deep concern with Arkansas Tech University’s handling of its on-campus exhibition, Artifacts, by artist Dominique Simmons. According to the artist's statement, Artifacts sought to acknowledge “the past, good and bad,” as it relates to the American South and included fraught imagery. However, the university’s museum [...]

Read More

New library collection policy at McKinney (Texas) Independent School District cause for concern

By |2023-02-23T21:09:51-05:00February 1st, 2023|Blog, In The News, News, Press Releases|

The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has written to McKinney Independent School District in McKinney, Texas, concerning a recent change to district policy.  The District has amended Board Policy EFB Local to exclude books from school libraries that contain material that appeals to "the prurient interest of a minor in sex, nudity, or excretion" or describes sexual activity in [...]

Read More

NCAC and SPLC to co-host an online event on fighting for press freedom in U.S. high schools

By |2023-02-23T21:10:41-05:00January 30th, 2023|Blog, Events, News, Press Releases|

NEW YORK - Student journalists play an essential role in their schools by covering complex and, at times, controversial issues that aim to broaden interest in contemporary issues among their peers and community members. The National Coalition Against Censorship's (NCAC) Student Advocates for Speech (SAS) project and the Student Press Law Center (SPLC) will host Fighting for Press Freedom: [...]

Read More

NCAC condemns unconstitutional censorship legislation in North Dakota

By |2023-02-23T21:04:50-05:00January 30th, 2023|Blog, News, Press Releases|

NEW YORK, January 30, 2023 -  The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), an alliance of 59 national literary, artistic, religious, educational, professional, labor, and civil liberties groups, is alarmed by the introduction of two bills in the North Dakota legislature that would make it a crime for booksellers to display a wide range of books and ban libraries from [...]

Read More

Florida Officials Wrong to Reject AP African American Studies Course | UPDATED

By |2023-02-23T21:11:47-05:00January 20th, 2023|Blog, News, Press Releases|

Updated 01/24/2023—  On Friday, January 20, the Florida Department of Education released a list of reasons for rejecting the Advanced Placement course. This document makes it clear that what the state officials really object to is not a lack of educational value but some of the ideas discussed in the course. For example, they reject the discussion of Black [...]

Read More

Statement on Faculty Firing at Hamline University | UPDATED

By |2023-01-18T13:16:30-05:00January 10th, 2023|News|

Updated 01/18/2023— NCAC and CAA have sent this joint statement to the Hamline University president. In an egregious and chilling violation of academic freedom, Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota refused to renew the contract of an adjunct professor in retaliation for her inclusion of two artworks depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a class on global art history. As [...]

Read More

National Organizations Condemn Cancellation of Student Production of Play ‘Indecent’ in Duval County, Florida

By |2023-01-10T14:15:07-05:00January 10th, 2023|News, Press Releases|

NEW YORK — The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), PEN America, and the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund, organizations dedicated to artistic, intellectual, and academic freedom, today expressed deep concern over the cancellation of the student production of the play, Indecent, by the administration at Douglas Anderson School of Performing Arts in Duval County, Florida. The groups urged school officials [...]

Read More

Wilson County School Board in Lebanon, Tennessee, removes “Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts)” and “Tricks”

By |2023-02-23T21:12:42-05:00January 10th, 2023|Blog, News, Press Releases|

The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) contacted Wilson County Schools Board in Lebanon, Tennessee, in regards to the School Board's decision to remove Tricks by Ellen Hopkins and Lev A.C. Rosen's Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) despite the book review committee's recommendations to retain the books. NCAC expressed concern that the board may have removed the titles due to disagreement with the [...]

Read More

NCAC reflects on past advocacy letters

By |2023-02-23T21:13:31-05:00January 5th, 2023|Blog, News|

The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) wrote more than 46 letters responding to book challenges and bans in 17 states in 2022. Below are summaries of letters from October 14 – November 28, 2022, that were not individually highlighted on our website but were instrumental in advocating for students' First Amendment rights and fighting censorship in U.S. schools. NCAC worked to bring [...]

Read More

Following advocacy efforts by NCAC and DDA, Meta pledges to improve transparency around “shadowbanning”

By |2023-02-23T21:16:17-05:00December 9th, 2022|Blog, In The News, News, Press Releases|

New York - The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), which represents 59 education, publishing, religious and arts organizations, and Don’t Delete Art (DDA), a collaborative project between NCAC and several other organizations and artists, welcome Meta’s recent announcement of Instagram policy updates that promise to improve transparency around downranking for the platform’s professional account users. The announcement follows several [...]

Read More

NCAC and DDA Join Other Organizations to Demand Internet Infrastructure Providers Stop Censoring User-Generated Content

By |2022-12-02T13:26:11-05:00December 2nd, 2022|News, Press Releases|

NEW YORK – Today, the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), which represents 59 education, publishing, religious and arts organizations and Don’t Delete Art (DDA), a project of NCAC and several other organizations and artists, joined the Electronic Frontier Foundation and over 50 other organizations and institutions in supporting Protect the Stack, a statement calling on internet infrastructure providers not [...]

Read More

Censorship at the Orange County Museum of Art

By |2022-11-09T18:10:15-05:00November 9th, 2022|Blog, News, Press Releases|

In the Fall of 2022, the much-anticipated reopening of the Orange County Museum of Art was marred by the censorship of a painting by renowned artist Ben Sakoguchi in the museum’s California Biennial 2022: Pacific Gold.  A few months prior to the opening, the artist was informed of concerns coming from the museum’s education department that some of the [...]

Read More

NCAC Condemns San Francisco Public Library’s Cancellation of Art Exhibition

By |2022-10-05T10:28:59-04:00October 5th, 2022|News|

The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has written to the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) regarding their decision in March to cancel the exhibition Wall + Response over objections to an idea expressed in one of the pieces. It is our understanding that when Wall + Response was approved by library officials, the poems and murals comprising the project [...]

Read More

NCAC responds to NY Town’s Move to Censor Civil Rights Mural

By |2022-10-05T10:28:05-04:00September 16th, 2022|News|

Photo Credit: Jerald Braddock The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has written to the Town Supervisor of the Town of Greenburgh, New York, regarding its recent call to remove the depiction of Minister Louis Farrakhan, and potentially other controversial figures, from a new town-commissioned mural overseen by the artist known as Kindo Art. The mural was initially commissioned to [...]

Read More

Artists, Curators and Advocates Condemn Florida Mayor’s Political Censorship of Coral Gables Public Art Show

By |2021-09-28T10:46:49-04:00September 22nd, 2021|News|

In July 2021, echoing the rhetoric of the 1950s McCarthy era and in flagrant disregard of fundamental constitutional principles, Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago urged the city’s commissioners to condition city funding for Illuminate Coral Gables, a public art show, on the exclusion of two of the participating artists because of their purported political views. As artists, arts professionals and free speech organizations we are deeply troubled by demands to censor a public art show so as to penalize political viewpoints.

Read More

NCAC Objects to Removal of Artwork by Public Officials in California

By |2021-08-09T12:31:17-04:00July 26th, 2021|News|

The National Coalition Against Censorship is concerned that the City of Encinitas’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts has removed several works from an exhibition because of apparent discomfort with some of the content of those works.  The censored artist, Elena Karavodin, was selected by the city to produce a number of works for an exhibition in one of [...]

Read More

Don’t Delete Art Hosts Workshop for Artists on How to Avoid Instagram Censorship

By |2021-06-11T11:05:04-04:00June 11th, 2021|News|

On June 2, 2021, artists Dina Brodsky, Savannah Spirit, and Spencer Tunick hosted a conversation to share advice on how to tag, contextualize, or modify artwork on Instagram so as to improve its chances of not being removed. The webinar is part of Don't Delete Art, a gallery, resource center and campaign advocating for artistic freedom on social media. [...]

Read More

NCAC Opposes Removal of Mural Depicting Slavery

By |2020-07-27T11:47:28-04:00June 24th, 2020|News|

NCAC is asking the University of Kentucky (UK) to cancel recently announced plans to remove a 1930’s-era mural depicting aspects of Kentucky history, including slavery. Some students have demanded its removal because they consider it demeaning to people of color on campus. In 2018, the university commissioned an installation by Karyn Olivier, a noted Black artist, that was painted above [...]

Read More

Don’t Delete Art: A Virtual Gallery of Art Censored by Social Media

By |2020-05-19T09:04:56-04:00May 19th, 2020|News|

On May 19, 2020, an international coalition of arts and free expression organizations, including the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), IBEX Collection, Article19, PEN America’s Artists at Risk Connection (ARC), International Arts Rights Advisors, and Freemuse, launched Don’t Delete Art, a virtual gallery showcasing work which is banned or restricted on social media. The gallery, whose curators include frequently-censored artists [...]

Read More

Mayor Vetoes Bill Clarifying Washington DC Arts Commission’s Independence

By |2019-10-25T10:51:31-04:00October 11th, 2019|News, Updates|

UPDATE: 10/24/19: On October 22, the DC Council voted unanimously to override Mayor Muriel Bowser's veto of an emergency bill that would have clarified the DCCAH’s independence. “The underlying legislation cemented DCCAH's separation from the executive's office after a tumultuous summer during which the mayor tried and failed to grab control of the District's public arts.” (see original post below) [...]

Read More
Go to Top