I once had a printer refuse to print an exhibit invitation at the 11th hour
because some overzealous press technician noticed that the painting being
reproduced revealed a woman's nipple.  Apparently this printer had a
"no-nipples" rule and would print the job only if allowed to crop out the
offending part which, when reproduced, measured about 1/64th of an inch.

I pulled the job and paid another printer $2,000 more to finish it, and
never gave the nipplephobic printer any more business.

It is a sad commentary on our culture when depictions of the naked human
body, even when bracketed by the virtues of classical art or contextual
legitimacy, are thought to be titilating or lurid.

My impulse is to not appease those whose minds seem to be so full of sinful
thoughts projected onto innocent subject matter.  I hate giving in to such
stupidity and fear.

However, yours is not an "art" website, but an astronomy site, so this
becomes a bit more difficult.

I hope you feature the pictures anyway.

Stephen Nowlin
Director, Williamson Gallery
Art Center College of Design



>Opinions and suggestions please...
>
>I am currently helping develop a WWW site
>on space related themes (ie: universe, solar system, etc.) as part of a grant.
>
>This project is "crash testing" the Web pages at various places
>(museum, public library, schools, and university sites) before we turn it loose
>to the rest of the world.  [Don't worry , I'll post the URL :-) ].
>
>As one part of the project we are introducing cultural links relating
>to the mythological history of the names of planets and their satellites.
>We want to include images such as those found in classical paintings.
>The problem is that our school advisors say if there is "frontal nudity"
>in our Web pages,
>even in context, they will not use any part of our Web site.
>
>We as a group think that these images are "appropriate", but do not want
>to alienate
>a significant segment of our future audience.
>
>Does anyone have any opinions, suggestions, or personal experiences to share?
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>Paul Orselli
>Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum
>
>--
>Costello & Orselli