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Censorship at Brooklyn Public Library
A net of political fear seems to be widening across Brooklyn.
There is a an exhibition opening at the Brooklyn Public Library on February 13.
It is a re-exhibiting of an art show called Footprints:
Portrait of a Brooklyn Neighborhood which was on display in Prospect
Heights' Grand Space in November, 2006. According to the original show's website
statement:
The proposed "Atlantic Yards" arena and building complex in Brooklyn is poised to be one of the largest redevelopment projects ever undertaken in New York City. Its targeted 22-acre site is known as the "Footprint."
In the midst of the debate over "Atlantic Yards" and Brooklyn's future, local artists have banded together in an effort to move beyond the sound bites and take a closer look at this place, its community, and at issues surrounding redevelopment.
Their work may be viewed on this site, and will be exhibited at the Brooklyn
Public Library's Main Branch, on Grand Army Plaza, from Feruary 13 thru April
21, 2007.
It is now being reported on the Real
Estate Observer
blog that particular works in the show's re-display at the Public Library
have been excluded. That's one word for it. We call it censorship. From the Observer:
He [original Footprints show co-organizer Dan Sagarin] said library
officials saw the exhibit when it was up at Grand Space last fall, and decided
then not to take the more overtly critical pieces, including one very large
portrait his sister, Sarah Sagarin, painted of arch-opponent Daniel Goldstein,
as well as other, more abstract work....
Two of the several works the library censored (or "refused") for being
"too critical," include: an exquisite depiction of the proposed
arena as a toilet bowl, by artist and manager of Freddy's Bar and Backroom
Donald O'finn; painter Sarah Sagarin's portrait of DDDB
spokesperson and eminent domain plaintiff Daniel Goldstein. Other "rejected"
work includes this
photo and this
photo by photographer Amy Greer.
The Observer follows up its initial story with this statement
from the Public Library which seems to attempt to explain themselves by stating it is publicly funded.
But the statement does not answer the question: how are these works "too
critical," and if they are "too critical" why would that prohibit
them from inclusion as per the original vision of the exhibit's coordinators- a vision which must have caught the Public Library's eye?Everyone knows the "Atlantic Yards"
project is controversial and has drawn a lot of public interest. We'll assume
that is precisely why the Public Library chose to exhibit the show. But
why, then, have they chosen to cherry pick it and run from what they purport to be "controversial" works?
As reported in the Observer story, Freddy's will exhibit the "refused"
art works, in a show opening on February 22nd with a reception on the 23rd. According
to the Observer:
...Fortunately, one of the rejected artists, Donald O'Finn, knows
some French, and he is mounting a "Salon des Refusés de la Bibliothèque de Brooklyn"
at the condemned bar he manages, Freddy's,
with an opening Feb. 22...
In a bit of "irony" The Brooklyn Papers reported in
August (emphasis added):
Library
courts Ratner for big cash infusion
The Brooklyn Papers. By Ariella Cohen
Big shots at the Brooklyn Public Library are eying developer Bruce Ratner
as the key “partner” they need to jump start their long-delayed Visual and Performing
Arts Library just two blocks from his proposed Atlantic Yards project.
No deals have been brokered between the institution and the developer, but officials from Forest City Ratner are talking to library trustees about funding the $120-million arts library, The Brooklyn Papers has learned...
Interestingly, just three weeks ago another great Brooklyn civic institution,
the Brooklyn Museum of Art, did not find it "too political" to host a press
conference extravaganza for the Ratner/Barclays arena naming-rights agreement.
Of course there was no elephant
dung involved in that event.
Posted: 2.08.07
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