The Cultural Battlefield: Art Censorship & Public Funding

GENERAL

Research Abstract
The Cultural Battlefield: Art Censorship & Public Funding

Since the Corcoran Gallery canceled the Robert Mapplethorpe retrospective in 1989, much has been written and said about art censorship and public funding of the arts. Newspaper articles explored and analyzed these issues; books documented their breadth and hypothesized about their implications; politicians batted around rhetoric, incorporating art and taxpayer funding of culture into both the Republican and Democratic platforms.

At the center of all this clamor, however, there has been a conspicuous silence. Little has been heard from the front lines, from the people who have been targeted by censorship and the arts advocates who have spent enormous energy and time working to defend freedom of expression. In [this book], we have gathered those voices together for the first time to tell their very personal side of the story.

The authors of this book come from many different walks of life and bring a variety of perspectives to the discussion. Some have chosen to analyze a specific facet of the issue of censorship. Others have taken a creative approach to make their point. Many have simply told their story: the photographer who one day found himself under siege by the FBI; the student who learned that academic freedom extends only so far; the arts administrator whose funding was revoked.

The arts are once again center stage as the newly elected Republican majority begins its work in the 104th Congress. What better time to examine the role of public funding of culture in a democracy and the broad implications of censorship in our own lives. (Preface)

CONTENTS
Preface by Jennifer A. Peter and Louis M. Crosier.

Foreword: Rebuilding the public consensus behind free expression by Jill Bond,
               Artsave director, and Virginia Witt, senior writer and public information
               coordinator, People for the American Way, Washington, D.C.

Introduction: The raw nerve in politics by Thomas Birch, arts lobbyist, Washington, D.C.

Chapter 1. Chronicle of an invasion: a personal account by Jock Sturges,
                photographer, San Francisco.

Chapter 2. The recurring nightmare, by Martha Wilson, director, Franklin Furnace, New York.

Chapter 3. The taxpayers' money': Why government funding of the arts doesn't mean 
                government control by Marjorie Heins, director, ACLU's censorship project, 
                New York.

Chapter 4. Cultural arson by Jock Reynolds, director, Addison Gallery of American Art, 
                Andover, MA.

Chapter 5. Confessions of a literary arts administrator, by Liam Rector, poet, 
                Cambridge, MA.

Chapter 6. Setting the record straight: diary of a controversy by Susan Wyatt, former director, 
                Artists Space, New York.

Chapter 7. The P question: a satirical examination of self-censorship by Joyce J. Scott, artist, 
                Baltimore.

Chapter 8. A brand of censorship called racism by Kimberly Camp, executive director, 
                Museum of African-American History, Detroit.

Chapter 9. Censorship Chicago style: a personal account by Diane Grams, executive director, 
                The Peace Museum, Chicago.

Chapter 10. Long may it wave: the ten commandments of the nineties by Jay Critchley, artist, 
                  Provincetown, MA.

Chapter 11. Community standards and national arts policy by Sanford Hirsch, director, 
                  Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, New York.

Chapter 12. Beyond Mapplethorpe: The culture war continues by Dennis Barrie, president, 
                  Dennis Barrie & Associates, Cincinnati.

Chapter 13. Behind ivy-covered walls: a personal account by Maria M. Monk, artist, 
                  New York.

Chapter 14. Artist-citizen-taxpayer by Elizabeth Sisco, artist, San Diego.

Conclusion: the future of the cultural landscape by David C. Mendoza, executive director, 
                  National Campaign for Freedom of Expression. Seattle.

Little has been heard from the front lines, from the people who have been targeted by censorship and the arts advocates who have spent enormous energy and time working to defend freedom of expression. In [this book], we have gathered those voices together for the first time to tell their very personal side of the story. (from abstract)
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Book
Peter, Jennifer A. and Crosier, Louis M.
The Cultural Battlefield: Art Censorship & Public Funding
962767174
179 p.
December, 1994
PUBLISHER DETAILS

Avocus Publishing
4 White Brook Road
Gilsum
NH, 3448
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