Anita writes:
>
>The question is now if the exhibit should be allowed to continue for the next
>two months (it is scheduled through June). The Phoenix Art Museum is supported
>by public donations, but also by the City of Phoenix. The question is, if the
>city pulls the plug, will it be an act of censorship?

It would be censorship.

Realistically, I think there is sometimes little difference between the
objectives of curatorial discretion and the objectives of censorship, but
the boundary between the two is very clear: it is the opening day of an
exhibition.  When organizing an exhibition curators make many decisions
about including or not including certain works and those decisions are
sometimes made to avoid controversy.  Such decisions made on the near side
of the opening day boundary are curatorial.  On the far side of that
boundary, any attempt to re-curate an exhibit under the pressure of
controversy is censorship.

If the City of Phoenix wants to have the prestige of an art museum then it
must accept that art museums sometimes bring controversy.  If it wants to
avoid controversy then it should get into the business of curating the
museum's  exhibits itself.  After-the-fact it must stand behind the
museum's curatorial decisions or engage in censorship by interfering with
them.

BTW, isn't this the same show that blew-up at the Chicago Art Institute a
few years ago?


Stephen Nowlin,
Vice President
Director, Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery
Art Center College of Design
1700 Lida Street
Pasadena, California 91103  USA (818)396-2397vox (818)405-9104fax
[log in to unmask]