Visual Art

Why is this artist’s work “too controversial” for an art center exhibition?

By |2019-03-15T17:47:16-04:00January 9th, 2014|Blog|

Paul Carter/The Register-Guard As a dues-paying member of the Emerald Art Center in Springfield, OR, Linda Cunningham prepared a piece of work for the monthly members' show. The "pastoral" works of other members were accepted without incident, but Cunningham's three-dimensional piece was deemed "too controversial" and rejected by the executive board of the Art Center, according to The [...]

Happy Nude Year! Lawsuit Forces Display of Nudes Until January 17

By |2019-03-07T12:08:03-05:00December 13th, 2013|Blog|

Court settlement extends San Bernardino County Government Center exhibit, to compensate for time during which paintings had been removed. Today NCAC and and the ACLU of Southern California were please to see the final court settlement that extends the exhibition time of three recently restored paintings at the San Bernardino County Government Center. The extended display period will compensate for [...]

*UPDATE: VICTORY!* ACLU files lawsuit to uphold artistic freedom in San Bernardino County

By |2020-01-03T14:08:10-05:00November 22nd, 2013|Incidents|

  **Victory! San Bernardino County Restores Artwork! NCAC congratulates artists, community members, and ACLU for defending First Amendment principles** Read the whole story in the San Bernardino Sun.   This past September, NCAC received a call from an artist outraged at the removal of three paintings from the Hispanic National Heritage Art Exhibition at the San Bernardino County Government Center. Apparently [...]

Street Artist Essam Talks About His Arrest, Importance of Artistic Freedom

By |2020-01-05T23:15:53-05:00August 15th, 2013|Blog|

Essam Political street artist Essam Attia, 30, was arrested last November for planting dozens of fake public service ads around Manhattan claiming that the New York Police Department (NYPD) used drones to spy on citizens. The pubic was quick to react, launching an online Free Essam campaign and a petition asking that all charges be dropped. We caught [...]

Photographer Betsy Schneider on the Kohler Arts Center Banning Her Work

By |2020-01-03T14:07:29-05:00August 12th, 2013|Blog|

Betsy Schneider Are photos of a naked child offensive? Some folks in Sheboygan, WI, thought Betsy Schneider’s images of her growing daughter were offensive and recently pressured the Michael Kohler Arts Center to remove them from a group show. NCAC spoke to Schneider, an award-winning photographer, about her reaction to the ban, her now-teenage daughter’s response to all [...]

Chris Brown’s Monstery House, Graffiti as Art and Other First Amendment Questions

By |2020-01-03T14:07:13-05:00July 1st, 2013|Blog|

Last week brought us one of those rare occasions where Perez Hilton reported on the invocation of First Amendment rights, as Chris Brown declared he would fight a Los Angeles citation. Brown was fined $376 for "unpermitted and excessive signage" for graffiti he had painted on the outside of his Hollywood Hills home, after neighbors complained that the pictures terrified [...]

Protests After Alaska School Censors Student Art Show

By |2020-01-03T14:06:48-05:00April 17th, 2013|Blog|

"Art is a way to speak our minds!!!" one hand-drawn sign reads. "IB Art Matters!" reads another. These signs hang on the art display boards where art, done by Palmer High School's IB Art students, once hung. In response to recent censorship by the High School, students have made their voice heard in defense of their work and in support [...]

Art, Porn and Censorship: the Mansfield Art Center (OH) Covers up Painting

By |2022-12-09T14:16:04-05:00May 24th, 2012|Blog|

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 [...]

MECA Outmaneuvers MOCHA, Shows Palestinian Youth Art Across From Original Gallery

By |2020-01-03T14:17:33-05:00September 28th, 2011|Incidents|

From Indybay.org: The Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) and supporters protested the decision by the Museum of Children's Art (MOCHA) to cancel the exhibit "A Child's View From Gaza" under pressure from Zionist organizations. MOCHA held firm that they would not allow the exhibit. MECA announced that the exhibit would open on the originally scheduled date anyway, outside rather than [...]

Victory Over Censorship in Colorado

By |2019-03-07T21:46:29-05:00June 9th, 2011|Incidents|

One more public exhibition space forgot about their obligations under the First Amendment and removed artwork they found subjectively "offensive." In April this happened in California, this time it was Colorado. To their credit, however, local officials quickly corrected their mistake when reminded by NCAC's letter that it is not the role of public officials to shield the eyes of the public from work because they subjectively decides it is not “family-friendly.”

Letter From NCAC and FAP To Marin Civic Center In Response To Art Censorship

By |2016-04-07T15:42:33-04:00April 14th, 2011|Incidents|

As organizations dedicated to promoting the First Amendment right to free speech, including freedom of artistic expression, we are deeply concerned about the removal of Sylvia Cossich Goodman’s work from the annual Marin Arts Council member show at the County Civic Center. Your decision, as a government employee, to remove an artwork from an exhibition held at a public space raises serious First Amendment concerns. We urge the Civic Center to immediately put the work back on display and, in the future, draft exhibition policies that are consistent with First Amendment principles.

Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’? Create a Statue of Jackson With Child

By |2019-03-15T17:03:42-04:00April 8th, 2011|Blog|

A statue commemorating the time Michael Jackson dangled his baby son out of a Berlin hotel window was unveiled in London this week. L.A. artist Maria Von Köhler has received death threats for the statute, entitled "Madonna and Child".  Others have asked that the installation be removed. Enraged fan krazy4kitties asks, "This is disgraceful.  What kind of person would do [...]

The National Portrait Gallery Betrays Constitutional Principles

By |2016-05-19T12:39:00-04:00December 3rd, 2010|Incidents|

A joint statement by the NCAC, ABFFE, AICA-USA, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, AAP, Catholics for Choice, and other art and free speech organizations protesting the removal of David Wojnarowicz’s 1987 video Fire in My Belly from the National Portrait Gallery in response to pressure from the Catholic League and Republicans in Congress.

Art School Pulls Student Pieces From Exhibition

By |2019-03-07T21:50:51-05:00November 24th, 2010|Blog|

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 [...]

Controversial Artwork Vandalized in Colorado

By |2020-01-03T13:38:39-05:00October 7th, 2010|Blog|

What began as a heated protest over Enrique Chagoya’s artwork at the Loveland Museum in Colorado has ended in vandalism.  A disgruntled woman ripped into Chagoya’s controversial lithograph “The Misadventures of the Romantic Cannibals” after she busted the artwork’s plexiglass case with a crowbar. City council members, religious groups and individuals had hoped that the public pressure caused by the [...]

Controversial artwork vandalized in Colorado

By |2020-01-03T13:38:38-05:00October 7th, 2010|Incidents|

What began as a heated protest over Enrique Chagoya's artwork at the Loveland Museum in Colorado has ended in vandalism. A disgruntled woman ripped into Chagoya's controversial lithograph after she busted the artwork's plexiglass case with a crowbar. City council members, religious groups and individuals had hoped that the public pressure caused by the artwor's racy religious content would get Chagoya's piece yanked from the government-funded museum.

 

NCAC Joins Brief in Snyder v. Phelps

By |2019-03-06T13:08:37-05:00August 13th, 2010|Incidents|

In July, 2010, NCAC joins The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, The Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project, and The Pennsylvania Center for The First Amendment in a friend of the court brief in the Supreme Court in support of the right to protest.

NCAC Protests Removal of Nude Painting from Art Exhibition, Temecula Apologizes

By |2019-03-15T18:13:43-04:00February 17th, 2010|Incidents|

NCAC is protesting the censorship of an artwork to be displayed at a city-owned gallery in Temecula, CA. Jeff Hebron’s painting, which had been selected for inclusion in Visual Expressions 2010, was removed from the exhibition because it depicted a nude figure.

Letter: Censoring Public Art Censors All of Us

By |2019-03-15T18:13:30-04:00July 7th, 2009|Blog|

The removal of "Walking Man" from the public space in front of the Anton Art Center because of individual complaints is a disturbing violation of both the artist's free speech and the rights of the public to have access to a wide variety of artistic expression ("Mount Clemens has gallery move nude statue indoors," June 23).

NCAC’s statement on the removal of sculpture from public university exhibit

By |2016-01-14T15:50:04-05:00March 23rd, 2009|Blog|

Statement from the National Coalition Against Censorship Regarding the Recent Removal of an Artwork from an Exhibition at BGSU Firelands’ Little Gallery The recent removal of artwork by James Parlin from an exhibition of sculpture in the Little Gallery at Bowling Green State University Firelands is an unacceptable violation of the academic freedom to openly discuss ideas and social problems [...]

BGSU Interim Provost Responds Regarding the Recent Removal of an Artwork from an Exhibition at Firelands’ Little Gallery

By |2016-01-15T16:31:26-05:00March 23rd, 2009|Incidents|

In an email to faculty BGSU Interim Provost stated that “the piece was initially removed so that [] legal review could occur.” Apparently, BGSU administrators wondered whether “the sculpture constituted child pornography or breached restrictions on depictions of child abuse.”

UNC Wilmington pulls nude photographs of minors from The Century Project

By |2020-01-05T23:15:46-05:00March 2nd, 2009|Updates|

Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at UNCW Resigns Brian Chapman, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, resigned this week after a less than a year-long tenure. The resignation came shortly after the UNCW Faculty Senate passed a motion admonishing the UNCW administration for not consulting with the Women's Resource Center, [...]

Letter to UNCW Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo

By |2016-01-15T15:14:55-05:00March 2nd, 2009|Incidents|

Rosemary DePaolo Chancellor UNC Wilmington 601 South College Road Wilmington, N.C. 28403-3297 [email protected] February 27, 2009 Dear Chancellor DePaolo- On behalf of the National Coalition Against Censorship, an alliance of over 50 national non-profit organizations united in defense of free expression, I would like to express deep concern over the removal of a substantial part of The Century Project photo [...]

Student Art Censored from Modesto Gallery Show

By |2019-03-13T15:16:06-04:00February 10th, 2009|Blog|

The art work of four art students at Ceres’ Central Valley High School (Ceres, CA) was rejected from the annual Young Masters Art Show. The Art Show, hosted by the Mistlin Gallery in downtown Modesto, CA, features the work of young people ages 1 through 18. Art teachers are allowed to submit 20 pieces (two per student), with all entries [...]

Exposing the Censor Within: The Installation

By |2020-01-03T13:38:06-05:00February 2nd, 2009|Events, Updates|

  Were there times you were afraid to speak up? Do you sometimes wish you spoke your mind more? Do you wish you censored yourself more? Have you changed what you’ve written for fear it would get you into trouble? In your art, music, writing, or filmmaking do you ever stop yourself from doing what you want because you are [...]

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