Artists Facing Censorship Can Turn to This New Guideline for Guidance
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) released a new resource, “The Artist’s Guide to Defending Artistic Freedom,” offering strategies for artists facing canceled exhibitions, demands to alter work, and contract disputes. The guide defines censorship as institutional or government actors withdrawing opportunities due to disagreement with a work’s perceived message or fear of backlash, including suppression tied to socio-political positions. It appears amid multiple recent controversies, including Amy Sherald canceling her “American Sublime” retrospective at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery after alleged pressure to alter a painting of a Black transgender woman as the Statue of Liberty, and artists Nicholas Galanin and Margarita Cabrera withdrawing from a Smithsonian American Art Museum symposium they described as subject to government censorship (an accusation the museum denied). Other cited cases include Indiana University canceling a Samia Halaby retrospective over “security concerns” and the University of North Texas shutting an exhibition by Victor “Marka27” Quiñonez amid concerns about political scrutiny and state funding; NCAC co-author Elizabeth Larison said institutions risk reputational damage when they sidestep curatorial integrity.
From This Briefing
This story was covered in Restitution Reckonings and Censorship Flashpoints