UPDATE August 13, 2019: The San Francisco Unified School District voted to reverse their decision to destroy the murals, but to instead cover them with panels. More details available here. NCAC is relieved that these historical murals will be preserved, but hopes that efforts will be made to better contextualize the murals and incorporate them into the school's curriculum and [...]
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.
A student artwork critical of police was removed from a school exhibition in Madeira, Ohio, flagrantly disregarding the student's rights.
NCAC urges the school to consider the serious, irreversible ramifications of destroying thirteen WPA murals at George Washington High School.
A discussion of what to do with the art of morally compromised artists, how morally compromised is "too" morally compromised, whether it matter if the artist is alive and, ultimately, who decides upon these issues of what is acceptable
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.
A US-based Chinese artist was forced to remove three paintings from a show in North Carolina to avoid "offending" patrons.
New York's El Museo del Barrio recently cancelled a retrospective of the work of Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky. This cancellation is the latest example of art institutions cancelling or modifying shows in response to public pressure.
The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey relocated an art installation depicting the Saudi Arabian flag after public complaints.
Image courtesy of Drew Kerr The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) urges Queens Library to restore an exhibition of photographs it canceled and allow it to run for three weeks as originally planned. Drew Kerr’s exhibition, Faces of The 7 Train, consists of 32 black-and-white photographs that the artist shot of passengers on the 7 train over the course of [...]
On December 17th, Tumblr permanently banned adult content from its platform. Under the new community guidelines, any image that depicts sex acts, real-life human genitalia, or (with a few exceptions) female nipples will be hidden from public view. Despite the company’s claims, the new guidelines will not create a “better, more positive” Tumblr.
The superintendent of a Los Angeles school district has unilaterally decided to remove a mural on display on the exterior wall of RFK Community Schools’ theater after some members of the surrounding community complained that visual elements of the mural resembled the Rising Sun flag of Imperialist Japan.
A student artist at CU Boulder may have been censored by his university. Investigation in progress.
NCAC urges Cleveland State University to remove the cover the University used to block from view a political text featured on a sculpture displayed on campus.
The DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities has issued an amendment that sets limits on the content of their grantees' work, in clear violation of viewpoint neutrality.
SMART TACTICS: Curating Difficult Content examines the internal and external pressures curators must navigate when considering potentially controversial material. Combining decades of advocacy experience with extensive interviews and curatorial surveys, this volume includes both a report on what happens behind the scenes in art institutions and a handbook for confronting the challenges of curating difficult content.
The National Coalition Against Censorship is auctioning a selection of artworks donated by generous artists.
The University of Kentucky has unveiled a new site-specific public artwork by Philadelphia artist Karyn Olivier, commissioned in response to a heated controversy around a fresco that students said was traumatizing, creating a model for balancing conflict and tensions around campus art.
In the wake of recent controversies, the International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art is providing guidance to its members by endorsing NCAC's Museum Best Practices for Managing Controversy.
NCAC has joined the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Kansas in a letter to the University of Kansas (KU) strongly urging it to take a stand against censorship by restoring a public artwork that the university removed last week.
Kansas Governor Jeff Colyer and Secretary of State Kris Kobach separately pressured officials at the University of Kansas (KU) to remove an art display, threatening the free expression of the artist, curator and KU students.
NCAC is urging United States Customs and Border Protection to respect the artistic expression of deported US military veterans and the First Amendment rights of a recognized public artist. USCBP is considering destroying a mural on the border wall dividing San Diego and Tijuana, following a visit to the area by President Trump.
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and ArtsEverywhere have launched an online roundtable to investigate the intersections of art, freedom and the politics of social justice.
Despite winning an award in pre-show judging, a painting by blind painter Annie Young that takes on the difficult subject of police violence against people of color proved too controversial for display by the Burnsville Visual Arts Society at the Ames Center.
The University of Southern Maine has removed three works following a complaint to the university, citing the painter's previous conviction for sexual offenses. NCAC is urging the university to restore the works.
NCAC joins PEN America and 31 other prominent arts organizations in urging the Supreme Court to strike down the third version of the Trump travel ban issued in September 2017. The case will receive a hearing in the Supreme Court on April 25.
The Belskie Museum of Art in northern New Jersey has ejected an invited artist from its exhibit for painting on US flags.
(Photo: Masha George/Flickr/cc) NCAC joins PEN America and 31 other prominent arts organizations to jointly file a friend of the court brief in the case of State of Hawaii v. Trump, urging the Supreme Court to strike down the third version of the Trump travel ban issued on September 27, 2017. Executive Order (EO) 13780 bans all immigration from six majority Muslim [...]
After anonymous complaints about brief images of sexual acts in an avant-garde film shown in class, the Massachusetts College of Art and Design launched a sexual harassment investigation. Saul Levine, the professor teaching the class and the target of the investigation, who is also a well-regarded avant-garde filmmaker, resigned in protest. This incident raises serious concerns beyond the individual case.
Following a censorship incident last month, artists at Artspace Jackson Flats issued an open call for submissions for a new show, CENSORED; Artists Respond, that addresses contemporary, often negative reactions to the female body, particularly the nude in art.
Early last Tuesday morning (March 6), the Kalamazoo City Commission voted 5-1 to remove Fountain of the Pioneers. The decision follows a flurry of recent protests by local activist groups, indigenous people, residents and historians. NCAC is concerned by the swiftness of this decision and cautions that such determinations should not be made in hasty emotional response to complaints.
For the latest edition of our Arts Advocacy Podcast, we talked to the bi-coastal artist and photographer Savannah Spirit. Her sun-drenched nude self portraits are repeatedly flagged and removed as ‘obscene’ or ‘inappropriate’ by Instagram and Facebook. This interview discusses her frustration with social media and its necessity to artists working today.
