For immediate release: 3/7/98
12th Day Metropolitan Museum
Street Artist Protest

The Parks Enforcement police made
repeated forays against the artists
yesterday, confiscating numerous pieces
of art and issuing multiple summonses.
Twenty artist/protestors continued to put
out more art to replace the losses and to
defy the unconstitutional permit
requirement.

Soo Balmuth, a 51 year old grandmother,
was arrested at around 4 P.M. Friday
after she recieved her third summons of
the day and still refused to stop
displaying her art. Balmuth was thrown
to the ground, handcuffed and taken to a
Parks enforcement vehicle. EMS was
called to the Central Park Precinct to
examine Balmuth s injuries.

Throughout the day police seized
handpainted protest signs and banners,
destroyed others and snatched signs out
of the hands of artists in direct violation
of the most basic NYPD procedures for
demos. Parks Enforcement Police
appeared to be attempting to incite a riot
or otherwise provoke a violent
confrontation in order to have an excuse
to institute mass arrests.

Today, Saturday 3/7/98 is expected to be
a day of arrests, confiscations and more
serious provocations from the police.
Media representatives are advised to
show up as early as possible (9-10 A.M.)
in order to catch the police in action.
Many more artists are expected to join in
the demonstration and civil disobediance.

The protest will continue every day
except Monday when the museum is
closed. Everyone that values art, free
speech, and public parks is invited to
attend and participate.

Why The Met Still Does Nothing
to Help the Artists
The following is a partial transcript of  a N Y 1
INSIDE CITY HALL 3/3/98 interview with
Henry J. Stern, Commissioner of The
Department of Parks on the street artist protests,
artist arrests and daily confiscations of original art
outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Interviewer:  A spokesman for the Met said they
preferred that the policy [allowing artists to sell
their work without a permit based on First
Amendment freedom] not be changed.

 Commissioner Stern:  The Met is of two minds
on this issue. Some people feel this way, other
people thank us privately for doing what we re
doing. There are a lot of artists on the Met s staff
and they have fears that whenever any artist is
regulated that it s a Police State.

Interviewer:  What do think of the folks who say
the Giuliani administration has gone too far?

Stern:  I think they haven t gone far enough .

In the interview Commissioner Stern also
described his policy on art, saying that the artists
in front of the Met,  ...can draw anything they
want, they can paint anything they want, free, no
permit anytime, but when you sell that s money
and that should be regulated.

Contrast the Giuliani/Parks Department street
artist policy with the 2nd circuit decision in the
street artist case. On 6/3/97 the U.S. Supreme
court denied hearing Giuliani s appeal of the
decision:.
* The City's requirement that appellants be
licensed in order to sell their artwork in public
spaces constitutes an unconstitutional
infringement of their First Amendment
rights...paintings, photographs, prints and
sculptures, such as those appellants seek to
display and sell in public areas of the City,
always communicate some idea or concept to
those who view it, and as such are entitled to full
First Amendment protection...The City further
argues that appellants are free to display their
artwork publicly without a license, they simply
cannot sell it. These arguments must fail. The
sale of protected materials is also protected.
-Bery v. City of New York/Lederman et al v City
of New York 1996 .


For more information contact: Robert Lederman,
President of A.R.T.I.S.T.
(Artists  Response To Illegal State Tactics)
255 13th Street Brooklyn, N.Y. 11215
(718) 369-2111 E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html
Parks Commissioner Henry J. Stern (212)
360-1305, Thomas Rozinski, General Counsel
Parks Department  (212) 360-1314, William
Leurs, President Metropolitan Museum of Art
(212) 570-3900, Ashton Hawkins, Legal Counsel
Metropolitan Museum of Art (212) 570-3936,
Central Park Conservancy (212) 315-0385

Also see: NY Times 3/2/98 B1; NY Times
Editorial 3/4/98; Newsday 3/2/98 A7; Village
Voice 2/24/98 pg 57; Newsday 2/26/98 A8; NY
Times 6/3/97 B2; Manhattan Spirit editorial
3/5/98  Keep Parks Free From Censorship