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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Companies providing core internet infrastructures—including internet service providers, website host companies, payment processors, and more—rarely have substantial contact with their users, user-generated content, or user activities. And, even though they typically lack expertise, authority, resources, and policies to regulate user content with consistency, many online infrastructure companies do just that. The result has severely restricted free speech on the internet, [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
Update 5/27/2020 – The online marketplace Redbubble has reinstated the sale of the editorial cartoon that criticizes President Trump. Original Post 5/27/2020 – The National Coalition Against Censorship has joined the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) and other free speech organizations in calling for the online marketplace Redbubble to resume the sale of an editorial cartoon that criticizes President [...]
George Washington High School students, Lía Sánchez, Rowan Francis Taylor and Dava Munyon, share their thoughts on the Victor Arnautoff murals.
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) [...]
The National Coalition Against Censorship is grateful to the incredible artists who have generously donated to this year's NCAC Art Auction. The works will be displayed on Monday, November 11th at Let Me Speak: A Celebration of Free Speech and Its Defenders, NCAC's annual benefit in New York City. The auction is hosted online by Paddle8. The auction is [...]
NCAC proposes holding an open forum where GWHS students can talk about how they see and interpret the Arnautoff murals. We invite the San Francisco Board of Education to collaborate with us in presenting the forum.
As a criminal defense attorney, and a mother, I am used to not being liked occasionally, and as necessary.
NCAC is offering support to Allegheny College in encouraging its student artist to re-display their work after social media controversy and to offer students support in navigating such controversies around their work.
The posters were deemed to break the school's policy that forbids classroom materials that attempt to sway the political opinions of students.
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.
The language, NCAC argues, reflects a historical reality and its inclusion will help to educate students about the ugly reality of racism.
Representative Clay has stood in support of artistic free expression in the face of criticisms that the painting contains an anti-police message.
The Boston Museum of Fine Arts responds to NCAC's letter regarding protests over "Kimono Wednesdays."
The Twelve Days of Censorship No art in Newark library This post is part of our Twelve Days of Censorship series, reporting the gifts of the Ghosts of Censors Past and Present in honor of the holiday season. On the First Day of Censorship, the Censors Gave to Me... no art in Newark Public Library. The Newark Public Library is [...]
A painting, included in a juried exhibition show at the Mansfield Art Center in Ohio, was partially covered with black paper. The painting had been selected for inclusion in the show, but the management of the Art Center decided that the outside edges of the work, which were covered with clippings from pornographic magazines, should not be seen by anyone. Sans [...]
Sweden’s minister of culture has been in the global news spotlight recently, and not for her nation's propensity for neo-noir literature. Minister Lena Adelson Liljeroth was invited to attend and speak at World Art Day at Stockholm’s Museum of Modern Art. The engagement took a turn for the bizarre when Liljeroth was invited by artist Makode Linde to cut into [...]
Until a few weeks ago, the Arts Building at the Aurari Higher Education Center in Denver featured several walls emblazoned with the kindly decree to “Post Artwork Here.” However, in light of recent controversy over the graphic work that student Estee Fox hung on one of these walls, the “authorities” (that blissfully meaningless blanket term) have rechristened these areas as [...]
Update: Lawrence, KS officials have banned the project, saying the proposed art installation would amount to animal cruelty. The Kansas code allows “with respect to farm animals” for “normal or accepted practices of animal husbandry, including the normal and accepted practices for the slaughter of such animals for food or by-products and the careful or thrifty management of one's herd [...]
2012 has already brought a few cases of censored art to our attention: Microsoft Skydrive froze UK blogger Michael Ohajuru's storage account because Modigliani’s painting “Reclining Nude” violated Microsoft's Code of Conduct which prohibits images that “depict nudity of any sort”; and ?zmir Metropolitan Municipality removed three photographs (below) from the exhibition “Aykiri” (Contrary) at the Izmir Art Center in Turkey as they reportedly [...]
NCAC is adding to the global community of artists and institutions calling for the immediate release of the renowned Ai Weiwei, one China's most innovative and socially engaged creators. He was arrested at Beijing Airport this week for "economic crimes", and he alleges that in 2009 the security police attacked and beat him. Check out our call to [...]
In response to the disturbing story of a woman who attacked a Gauguin at the National Gallery, Flavorwire Art Editor Marina Galpernia has helpfully compiled a photo set of great works modified for those with...delicate sensibilities: Thou shall not show your wiener to God, Adam. Even if Michelangelo’s God is emerging out of an embracing pile of amorous angels, he [...]
NCAC participating organization, People For the American Way, has developed a detailed summary of the events around Hide/Seek complete with suggestions as to "what to do next time." PFAW was one of the organizations who signed NCAC's joint letter to the Smithsonian Board of Regents (PDF download). Click here to read the PFAW report online.
Joy Garnett of NEWSgrist has posted her reflections on the NCAC's panel at CAA: 'Policing the Sacred' broached the most interesting age-old conundrum of art, religion and censorship. It asked that we ourselves examine the lines between hate speech, critique, parody, and appropriation of the sacred and its symbols by artists as well as by governments. Several factors were noted [...]
On Thursday, January 13th, a new museum opens in Washington, DC: The Museum of Censored Art, founded by art and free speech activists Mike Blasenstein and Michael Dax Iacovone. Mike and Mike are the iPad protesters, who were expelled from the National Portrait Gallery when they attempted to show David Wojnarowicz's video Fire In My Belly in the galleries of [...]
The familiar "he said/ she said" binary so beloved of the media has shaped the controversy over LA MOCA's whitewashing of a political mural as an opposition between those who define it as censorship and those who define it as sensitivity. Here is the LA Times: “Censorship,” some cry, referring to Deitch’s removal of Blu’s antiwar mural on the north [...]
A photograph of a male nude by Savannah College of Art & Design student Nicole Craine was among the several artworks taken down before an Open Studio Exhibition at the school in October. Reportedly, the students were given no explanation as to why their work was taken down. College administrators later admitted that the content would be “unacceptable” for a [...]
Last week, the Plano Independent School District in Texas decided to pull a humanities textbook that is used by freshmen and sophomores in the district's gifted and talented program. The book in question, Culture and Values: A Survey of the Humanities: Alternative Volume, is a survey of various pieces of artwork throughout history. Apparently, a couple was concerned that their [...]
Over the holiday weekend, the town of Bemidji, Minnesota removed a piece of public artwork by Deborah Davis entitled Gaea. It is a statue of a beaver, one of ten in the city. The reason for its removal was over what was depicted on the beaver’s belly. The artist said it is supposed to be a depiction of two hands [...]
Representations of nudes in painting, sculpture, and photography frequently become subject to controversy. The law, however, is clear: simple nudity (that is nudity outside of a sexually explicit situation) has full constitutional protection. (That does not mean that public officials are always aware of this as a current case in Temecula, CA, testifies.) But what about a live [...]
Cooper Union takes down a banner of Stalin, a reproduction of a drawing by Picasso that was part of an exhibit designed by Norwegian artist Lene Berg. The explanation: In a statement issued to Cooper Union staff members and students, the university said it removed the banner after the Buildings Department, which had received complaints about it, pointed out the [...]
