Good morning,

As hard as it may be, for the moment, you need to separate the issues
from the current political climate in order to assess your options.  The
phrase in your email that struck me most is "until the artist was
hanging HIS [my emphasis] yesterday."  It raised questions for me
regarding the organization of the exhibition -- who is the curator of
the exhibition? who made the selection of artwork? using what criteria?
how could the museum not have known what was to be included in its
exhibition or is the museum simply providing gallery space for the
artist's own show?  Before you pull artwork off the wall and open
yourselves up to charges of censorship, you need to figure out how you
got into this position.  You indicate that you knew there were issues
with the church and this artist going in -- was there no discussion with
the artist ahead of time or did everyone just assume he'd tread
lightly?  I know raising these questions may seem like 20-20 hindsight
now, but you really need to figure out if there were any conversations,
correspondence, emails, etc in which the issue of criteria for selection
and/or approval of the final checklist by the museum was raised, even if
fairly casually, so that you can figure out how to approach the artist
on the issue.  If you should have known what was going to hang and never
heard from the artist, you have a much stronger leg to stand on --  it's
still going to appear to be censorship if the art comes down, but you
may be able to keep the situation private between you and the artist if
he never cleared the exhibition's content as he was supposed to have.
But it can also appear that the museum is allowing itself to be used for
personal political advocacy if that was the artist's intent in featuring
these certificates.  At least, a conversation with the artist regarding
his selection needs to happen before a decision is made.

The fact is that removing the works from the exhibition is censorship,
unless you can establish that including them in a museum exhibition
violates the museum's mission or other policies. Museums are faced with
censoring issues all the time -- what's important is that your decision
is based on policy and ethical guidelines and is not simply the most
expedient one.  Concerns about board members' opinions which are not
mission or policy based should not determine exhibition content either.

Whichever way the matter goes, you'd better get your PR ducks in a row
-- if the artist did mean to make a political statement by including the
works, you can be sure he'll make a political statement out of their
removal as well.  Make sure your board is behind the decision that's
made and figure out who'll speak to any press that choose to make these
certificates, in or out (no pun intended!), the issue.

Please let the list serv know what happens.  So often, people ask about
situations and others respond, and we never hear how things work out.
Good luck.

Maureen Hart Hennessey
Consulting Curator

Candace Perry wrote:

>I work for a small museum in SE PA that interprets the history of a small
>German Protestant group. We are private, not church-run, but are associated
>with the denomination we interpret. We are located in an area, politically,
>that generally votes for the party of our current president.
>On Sunday we are opening an exhibition of contemporary fraktur (PA German
>decorated manuscripts, if you're not familiar) by an excellent artist, who
>also happens to be gay.  This man has led an unusual life; prior to coming
>out he was married, had a child -- and was a member of a religious sect here
>in PA that is "plain" (meaning they live like the Amish). Very soon after he
>came out, he apparently met his partner (mid '90s) and they asked one of the
>churches in our denomination (this man grew up in the denomination) for a
>commitment ceremony.  Apparently a battle royal ensued.  They went elsewhere
>for the ceremony, and there are still some major hard feelings, particularly
>with one of our board members, who is active in that church.  Did I lose you
>yet?    The board member, who is often outspoken, has actually held his
>tongue and allowed us to go about our business in organizing the show. None
>of this mattered at all until the artist was hanging his show yesterday.
>In the middle of the show is the artist's commitment ceremony certificate,
>flanked by two certificates he made for his marriage.  Before I go any
>further, I want you to know that personally my views are more in line with
>the artist's, so this is very difficult for me.  I don't know if he is
>trying to make a political statement (not good), stick it to the church that
>wouldn't allow the ceremony (not good) or that he is simply proud and wants
>to share with others (okay, but is this the place?) I'm almost thinking that
>the commitment piece would be okay, but the marriage stuff also?  I hate to
>say it, but it's a little weird.  I don't want our volunteer receptionists
>to have to field odd questions, and I don't want to have to answer to anyone
>about this man's personal life; I don't think any of us should have to
>"defend" him...nor do I want to, and I feel that I am going to put in that
>position.
>WAAAAAHHHH! His work is really good, and all I wanted to do was have a nice
>show.
>Any suggestions would be welcomed.
>Candace Perry (who is going to stay awake nights worrying about this)
>Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center
>
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