>No process, no review.  Once we make a decision to put something on view,
>it stays put until the exhibition ends.


But what do you respond to people who question why it's staying?

I've run into this situation many times.  Sometimes it happens because we
have no idea that a certain object will strike someone as objectionable
(honestly!), and sometimes we know it will be objectionable and make the
conscious decision to let it ride.  Sometimes something we think will be
objectionable (or has been objected to elsewhere) doesn't raise even an eyebrow.

While we have no formal procedures, we try to anticipate possible objections
in our Program Team (program area department heads plus the marketing head)
and work them out in advance internally, often with a written
question-and-answer piece (i.e. we ask the questions we think people will
ask, and then we answer them).  Sometimes the piece turns into something we
post or write up into a handout, which forestalls the objections.  Right now
we are working through an especially controversial exhibition for March with
a focus group of board and community people:  we are NOT using the group to
decide whether or not to proceed (we have already decided to go ahead), but
to help us anticipate what the problems could be and how to forestall them
creatively.


Julia Moore
Indianapolis Art Center