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 [...]
The Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London, Connecticut, removed a work from an exhibition because it was considered by the museum to be “inappropriate for children.”
NCAC is urging Eastport-South Manor Central School District in Manorville, New York, to allow students of differing views to display art on school grounds.
School officials in Athens, Georgia, removed student artwork celebrating gay rights and compared displaying a rainbow flag to displaying a swastika in the classroom.
A student’s Black Lives Matter poster was censored at Hillsborough Middle School in New Jersey because of apparent disagreement with the political views it expressed.
The principal at the elementary school in Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood removed a mural created by several fifth graders because of apparent discomfort with some of its content.
The Northampton Arts Council cancelled its 2021 biennial exhibition days before it was to open following criticism from an Indigenous artist about a particular work and the overall selection process.
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.
The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to Missouri Governor Michael L. Parson after state officials removed an exhibit about LGBTQ history from the Missouri Capitol.
NCAC applauds Instagram's reversal of its censorship of the movie poster for Pedro Almodóvar's Madres Paralelas and calls for the same standard to apply to all artistic content on the platform.
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 [...]
NCAC objects to Bullock Texas State History Museum cancellation of an event for "Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of An American Myth" under pressure from a number of state politicians, including Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
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. [...]
An exhibition, Veterans' Voices: Painted Realities, at Walt Disney Family Museum left out two controversial images by artist Amos Gregory.
Instagram censored a post by Dread Scott showing his artwork "White people can't be trusted with power" for violating their hate speech policy.
Free virtual luncheon will explore the approaches to resolving tensions around WPA murals representations of race and history, particularly on college campuses.
Virtual book launch exploring art world pressures to self-censor and the curatorial responses from a range of international perspectives.
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 [...]
New Mexico Museum of Art chilled artistic expression by removing a project focused on the impact of fracking on the local community from an environmentally-focused exhibition over political concerns.
The City of San Antonio censored queer Latina performance artist Xandra Ibarra's work addressing race and gender stereotypes, likely infringing on the First Amendment.
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts renews its major support of NCAC's Arts Advocacy Program
In November 2019, for Creative Time Summit X: Speaking Truth, our Arts Advocacy Program (AAP) organized the roundtable session Fear and Controversy: Censorship in the Arts at the Cooper Union with artists Christina Freeman (UltraViolet Archive), Roopa Vasudevan (Center for Media at Risk, University of Pennsylvania) and Joy Garnett (NCAC's Arts Advocacy Program). The number of attendees (approx. 25 [...]
Pepperdine University is refusing to display an art student's works alongside her peers because the works depict nudity.
Washington College, Maryland, has censored a student-directed production of The Foreigner due to the appearance of the Ku Klux Klan as the play's villains.
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 [...]
Svetlana Mintcheva, NCAC's Director of Programs, presented a talk at the Harvard Law School Library on the effects contemporary moral outrage has on the arts and culture.
An artist in Hermosa Beach, California, has been pressured by Hermosa Beach Mural Project organizers to remove poet Allen Ginsberg from a new public mural.
Christy Chan turned censorship into a powerful artistic statement in Richmond, California
UPDATE October 4, 2019: The George Washington High School Alumni Association filed a lawsuit in the public interest against the San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education, challenging the School Board’s commitment to remove from public view Victor Arnautoff’s 1936 New Deal mural with panels without conducting an environmental review, which is required by California law. UPDATE August 13, [...]
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.
Dramatists Legal Defense Fund will present an award to Svetlana Mintcheva, NCAC's Director of Programs, for NCAC's fierce commitment to protecting and advocating for the First Amendment.
The Jewish Community Center of San Francisco removed two works from its exhibition, La Frontera: Artists Respond to the U.S.-Mexico Border Crisis.
Doane University in Nebraska has closed a library display and suspended the library director over the inclusion of historical photos of students wearing blackface.
Facebook’s policy team has committed to convening a group of stakeholders to consider a new approach to nudity guidelines.
NCAC and artist Spencer Tunick created a nude art action in front of Facebook and Instagram's New York City headquarters as part of their #WeTheNipple campaign against art censorship on social media.
After intervention from artists, advocates and community groups, a compromise has been reached that will allow the mural to remain with artist Beau Stanton overseeing changes to the work.
In addition to likely violating the artist’s constitutional right to free expression, the removal of the work is antithetical to the spirit of Memorial Day and shows a particular disregard for its African American roots.
The City of Carrollton, Georgia pulled its sponsorship from a theater production of Calendar Girls in response to the play’s textual references to nudity, raising serious First Amendment concerns.
