On Wed, 27 Mar 1996, Stephen Nowlin asked if
the flag show in Phoenix is the one that "blew up" at the Chicago Art
Institute a few years ago.  The one in Chicago was a student art show
that included a piece by an artist who called himself Dred Scott and was
titled something along the lines of "What is the Proper Way to Display
the American Flag."  You can rest assured that what he had in mind was
not what the American Legion would consider appropriate.  The ensuing
controversy was covered by the magazine "The New Art Examiner."  There
was another one at the same school where a student painted Mayor Harold
Washington in drag, not long after his death, and also caused an uproar.
Carol Becker wrote a very insightful essay about that one called "Private
Fantasies Shape Public Events: And Public Events Invade and Shape Our
Dreams" (how's that for an evocative title!) which can be found in Arlene
Raven's collection "Art in the Public Interest."

        The whole issue of controversies is very interesting to me.  I
think the field needs to generate ideas as to how to handle them
responsibly and sensitively without necessarily avoiding them.

--Helen Glazer
Goucher College, Baltimore, MD, USA
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