Ross Weeks, could you clarify where you stand on this, preferably in response to the descriptions of the three controversial works that I sent to the list on March 22? I'd also like to hear from others about whether, from the description, these artworks sound like anti-Catholic statements. Here are some excerpts from the latest letter. It is a letter of resignation from the Development Office representative to our Advisory Board, who has been out of town this whole time and has therefore only had the works described to him, not seen them himself or read the artists' statements. ". . . virulently anti-Cahtolic works dominating the Mary show . . . . aggressively insulting (sophomoric, artless) collections of trash . . . . The fact is, there is no such thing as artistic freedom in the contemporary arts community, any more than there is academic freedom on campuses. They censor each other absolutely, compelling total conformity to their prevailing ethics of leftist political engagement." In a phone conversation last week, he asked if I could give any examples of art that "lampoons" an ethnic group or a leftist political viewpoint. All I could think of offhand was a Robert Colescott painting in the Oakland Museum that I would think some African Americans would find offensive. Mel Ramos's paintings are potentially offensive to women. What else? Obviously I'm dealing here with someone who already had a major chip or two on his shoulder. I asked him to come see the show before writing a letter of resignation, but he decided not to. He says our claim that the artists didn't mean "to cause offense or mock anyone's devotional practices" is "like OJ Simpson saying he didn't mean to kill Ron Goldman." Dialog may be hopeless, but I keep trying . . . Ann On Wed, 26 Mar 1997, Ross Weeks wrote: > I'm sorry to read of this problem involving depictions of Mary. I thought > everyone had become acquainted with (but perhaps had not liked) the > depictions of Jesus on the Cross from the various Christian cultures and at > various times over the centuries. Carrie, I think it's trendy to do > Christian bashing....and this is "our Easter season" for those who are not > Roman Catholic. >