I am posting this from my colleague, who sincerely sympathizes with your problem: Candace, a friend sent me your email about your sticky situation and let me say off the bat that I commiserate and I had a similar experience: mine was an African American and Jewish fracas following (not too soon after but not long enough after) the Crown Heights murder. Anyway what I learned were the following things from my experience and the experience of Susan Talbot when she was director of the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (# 1 won't help you now): 1. Examine the artists objectives and goals of the show as well as the art before accepting it, especially if you have reason to believe that there could be a political hot potato. By doing this you can (1) refuse if you don't want a hot potato on your hands or (2) plan proactively for the hot potato. 2. For hot potato exhibits -- (1) identify why you want to do this exhibit and be prepared to defend it to the death -- remember Mapplethorpe in Cincinnati. If you AND YOUR BOARD won't defend the artist from criticism then don't do the show. It makes you look weak to open a show and then close it due to criticism. (2) Identify what potential groups will be incensed and invite their leaders to meet with the board, to tour the exhibit and to hear from you about why you think this show is worthwhile. Set it up as an exploration and not a challenge, threat. Maybe have an objective moderator-- in your case a highly respected religious or educational leader. (3) Promote opportunities for these groups to express their fears and anger and seek to find common ground. negotiate if necessary. (4) Warn the artist that there may be some negotiating going on and certain pieces maybe pulled (of course if that wrecks the theme of the show that will be another problem). (5) Make decisions based on the meetings and what you are willing to undertake and defend. (6) Always go back to your mission, is this relevant? For your immediate Situation: 1. You must now pull apart the threads of this complex story and get to the real issues and help the artist understand that you, your board and staff are not prepared to defend his political position -- you thought you were just getting an exhibition of fraktur (right?) so this is really unfair and you have not had time to prepare the community so that this is a powerful and positive transformative process and not a debacle with parties entrenched. You can view this show (if he removes the offending parts) as the first step towards a series of exhibits that might eventually lead to transformation of beliefs about homosexuality in your community. But ground work has to be laid for this to be successful. You may loose funding, membership, participation (what will it do to your school and children's programs?). Is he willing at this point to forgive the past hurts and move toward reconciliation over the long term or is he seeking a battle ground and you are it? Best of luck. Let me know how it goes. Shellie Williams Director, East Coast LORD Cultural Resources 1225 Eye Street, NW Suite 100 Washington, DC 20005 Tel: 202-842-2992 Fax: 202-842-3322 Toll Free in USA: 1-800-749-3486 ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).