Censorship in the art classroom.

This is the second of three articles examining issues and consequences surrounding the censorship and suppression of artistic expression in the artroom.

The first article discussed examples of censorship reported and documented in annual reports by People for the American Way (SchoolArts, January 1996, page 35).

This second article discusses the different faces of censorship and their consequences for art teachers and students, and their respective communities. The third article will identify strategies and procedures for helping art teachers, administrators and parents counter censorship and other attacks on artistic learning.

Censorship can be characterized in three ways: active, passive and self. The following discussion defines each of these ways and illustrates how they impact an educational setting. Often, these three forms of censorship are mutually inclusive and self-perpetuating. That is, active censorship often spawns passive and self-censorship that then repeats the cycle.

Active censorship occurs when the curriculum and pedagogy of the art teacher are publicly challenged or curtailed for their "ideological, sectarian or noneducational" content. Most of the examples discussed in the first article function as active forms of censorship.

Example of Active Censorship

In another example of active censorship, a Colorado high school teacher raised objections to the cover image of the December 1993 issue of Life magazine, available in the school library. The image was a photograph of a woman breast-feeding.

The teacher, claimed the image was not age-appropriate and requested that the magazine be removed. The incident was resolved after the teacher complained directly to the principal who agreed the image was inappropriate. The magazine then remained in the principal's office for a week while he discussed the matter with the superintendent.

Eventually, the magazine was returned to the library with instructions for the librarian to remove or conceal the image before returning the magazine to its shelf. The librarian strategically placed a sticker on the cover partially concealing the offending image and returned the magazine to its original location.

Direct and indirect Effects of

Censorship

What are the direct effects of censorship of educational materials on the educational program and on those involved with it? Typically, the effects involve the removal of artwork or publications from student view, restrictions on the content or imagery of works students look at and create, the intimidation of students and disciplinary action against teachers. Sadly, we may not always be aware of all of censorship's more serious consequences because some of them are invisible and long term.

What are the indirect or hidden effects of art censorship and other attacks on art? These effects may involve placing restrictions on one's own experiences including teacher and student self-censorship, or the loss of exhibition spaces, sponsorship of exhibitions, and the depreciation of art by the public. In the following examples, passive and self-censorship represent some of the most insidious forms of suppression.

Examples of Passive Censorship

Passive censorship occurs which the curriculum content of a teacher is challenged or curtailed due to indirect pressure or circumstances outside the classroom that represent extremist individuals or groups and their ideological missions. The example in our first article of the painting that was eliminated by the student committee in the Lake Mary, Florida, high school literary magazine due to its allegedly offensive nudity demonstrates active censorship on the part of the principal and passive censorship on the part of the committee.

Another example of passive censorship can be identified in the Mifflinburg case also addressed in the first article. An indirect yet clear message of fear was communicated to the faculty by the board of education and the school administration after the active censorship of the art teacher. Following the teacher's suspension, two other teachers in the school canceled field trips for fear of retribution. Not certain of how the content of their field trips would be perceived by their administrators, these teachers yielded their educational objectives thus subjecting their students to passive censorship.

Example of Self-Censorship

Self-censorship occurs when teachers, students and members of the school community suppress their own values, attitudes and beliefs about free speech due to a zeitgeist, a common impulse to do so. This impulse may be influenced by prevailing cultural attitudes and especially those reported through the media. It may not be associated with specific incidents.

An example of self-censorship recently occurred at the School of Visual Arts on the University Park campus of Penn State University. The undergraduate committee for student exhibits in the Patterson Gallery was asked to develop its own guidelines for exhibitions after several incidents in which the content of previous exhibitions was called into question by administrators and visitors to the gallery.

This committee, composed of students only, was given permission by the director of the School of Visual Arts to take full responsibility for the gallery space and to define its own policy. What the director did not anticipate was the committee's interpretation of the following rule: "Since the exhibit space is in a public hallway, and is the main entrance to the administration office, obscene or inappropriate work will not be permitted. Unlike a traditional gallery space, passersby have no choice in entering or avoiding this area. Every attempt will be made to accommodate all artwork, but sensitivity on your part is encouraged. Work that may fall into this category should be shown to the committee before it is displayed."

Upon reading the acceptance criteria developed by the students, the director and several faculty members advised students to reconsider this rule based on the premise that "a free exploration and expression of ideas and images in art must be preserved," which is a major purpose of art study in the school. Was the students' fear of possible future active censorship by the school's administration and faculty influential in their development of the language of the policy? Was it an acknowledgment of their intent to self-censor their own work? How do we judge between what might be regarded as such or just prudent decision-making?

Questions and Issues about Art

in Contemporary Society

In any development of plans and guidelines for responding to challenges to controversial artworks and exhibitions, the attempted censorship of art books, videos and other educational materials, or the vandalism or theft to artworks, the following questions may be of significance:

What is the role of art in a cultural democracy? Is the purpose of art to appeal only to the values, attitudes and beliefs of certain interest groups? Or, is the purpose to represent metaphors that openly deal with cultural issues and delve into content that may run the risk of offending the assumptions of some cultural groups?

Often the intent of the artist is not compatible with the expectations of the audience. The expressed intent of much of twentieth century art, especially contemporary art, is to challenge the assumptions of the audience, to provoke reaction and discussion. The artist increasingly views her or his role as the questioning of accepted societal values, attitudes, beliefs, and even taboos. But, how does one go about cultivating discourse and discussions about works of art when one or both sides of an issue are polarized and have assumed a position of attack? Are the attacks on artistic freedom an example of democracy in action?

Twenty years ago, few cared about art in schools, museums and galleries. is not the religious right's and other groups, participation in the discourse on art by means of censorship a positive thing in that more people are addressing issues that concern them in our culture? How effective are public forums in dealing with censorship issues? Should there be an expected outcome to public discourse or is the process of discourse itself the resolution to conflicting views and opinions about appropriateness?

How can teachers educate their students to enter the critical discourse hat exists about the ethics of expression in Contemporary culture? How an art classes be taught so that students can learn to appreciate the art of diverse cultures on the one hand and to freely and openly debate their cultural significance on the other? How should art be taught and what kind of art appropriately represents a cultural democracy?

Borrowing from the hyperbolic language of the politics of abortion, should citizens in a culturally democratic nation be given the "right to choose" the kind of art they see? If so, works of art would have to be contained in spaces that are clearly identified with labels, warning those who entered: "There is art inside." As art educators and curators, we would have to work diligently to prevent "accidental encounters" with artworks because they might take viewers by surprise and in doing so, cause antipathy towards art.

If such actions are to be taken, then how do we as art teachers justify our objectives to teach students to be open-minded, imaginative and uninhibited when it comes to their artwork? Are such objectives merely a revival of the horror vaccui syndrome - the mind's ability to free associate and to imagine the realm of the fantastic that medieval religious leaders were so fearful of because such ideas and images were contrary to Church canon? In contrast, are we now experiencing a modern version of the Inquisition which determined the appropriateness of artistic content based on the expectations of Church canon? Whose ideological mission is being represented by the school's curricula, the teacher's pedagogy, the artist's voice and the dissenting voices in the community?

Can our schools function effectively with an open discourse about content, or do we need a curriculum of absolutes? Democracy is a messy thing; it is engagement in a process of exchange that hopes in its highest achievement not to resolve conflicting opinions into absolutes but instead a respect for each other's cultural opinions and differences without feeling the threat of oppression.

Art as Cultural Discourse

These are difficult issues with no clear-cut answers. Yet, regardless of our individual beliefs, we rely on some basic principles to guide our search for solutions. As students enter our art classes, it is important that they be provided with a clear rationale regarding the purpose of art education in the schools. That rationale is to learn that works of are are not created in a void. Instead, the conditions of our culture influence the nature of images and ideas in works of art which, in turn, become part of the discourse that comprises the culture.

Members of the school community, including the students, ought to be clearly informed that in our classes they may experience strange, fantastic and controversial works of art - ones that are conceptually and emotionally challenging. Our intention as art teachers is not to shock nor to deny them their cultural values, attitudes and beliefs. They may not like what they experience, and it is not the art teacher's role to force them to do so. On the contrary, in a cultural democracy, students are taught to understand the purpose of such artworks despite the fact that they may not like or agree with them. Without such understanding, the knowledge of, appreciation and respect for our myriad differences may never be possible.

A Position on Censorship

What is the position of the National Art Education Association (NAEA) on matters concerning censorship in the classroom? The following statement was adopted by the NAEA board of directors in September 1991 as the position of "art educators in a free society":

* Freedom of expression in the arts must be preserved.

* The individual has the right to accept or reject any work of art for himself or helself personally but does not have the right to suppress those works of art to which he or she may object or those artists with whom he or she does not agree. The free individual and the free society do not need a censor to tell what should be acceptable or unacceptable and should not tolerate such censorship. All censorship is contrary to democratic principles.

* It is the duty of the art educator to confront students with a diversity of art experiences and to enable students to think critically. The art educator need not like or endorse all images, ideologies and artists he or she makes available to students but should allow the individual student to choose from among widely conflicting images, opinions and ideologies. While some works of art may indeed be banal and trivial, and some works may be repugnant and unacceptable to some individuals, the art educator should insist upon the right of every individual to freely express and create in his or her own way and to experience, accept or reject any particular work of art.

* The art educator should impress upon students the vital importance of freedom of expression as a basic premise in a free democratic society and urge students to guard against any efforts to limit or curtail that freedom.

What Does It Mean to Censor?

To censor is to silence, to remove from view, to make inaccessible. In the artroom, it is the removal or suppression of content for its allegedly obscene, objectionable or erroneous nature.

Who Is Responsible for Censorship?

Although we most often associate censorship with certain political positions, one should not assume that censorship is exclusive to certain individuals or groups who are ideologically conservative or prudish.

Thresholds of Tolerance

Each of us is unique when it comes to censorship because we each possess different thresholds for tolerating images and ideas. The capacity for tolerance of ideas and images is central to our concerns about censorship in the artroom.

Charles R. Garoian and Albert A. Anderson are associate professors of art education at Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania.