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Home Front: Culture Wars
Artwork featuring Muslim woman removed from show
2015-12-12
MIDDLETOWN - Officials pulled a piece of art from this year’s “Artists Response to Human Rights” show at SUNY Orange after a student complained it was offensive to Muslims.

The work, which was submitted by a student from The Storm King School in Cornwall, includes two images. One pictures a woman in a head covering worn by some Muslim women, with the caption “Under Shariah law, men have the right to beat their wives for insubordination.” The other is a picture of a dog, and underneath it are the words: “In the United States, abuse of an animal is punishable by up to 10 years in a federal prison.”

This was the Orange County Human Rights Commission's fifth annual show. It features works from 224 students in 11 Orange County high schools. It runs through Dec. 16, with displays at both the Middletown and Newburgh campuses.

In their works, the students depict one of 30 articles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For example, one work shows outstretched fingers protecting children from bullying. Another shows an assembly of deaf people spelling out the word “equal” in sign language.

SUNY Orange’s communications officer, Mike Albright, said the student complained to the college Wednesday, and the college passed on the complaint to the Human Rights Commission. Thursday, after the commission said the artist had requested that the piece be taken down, the college removed it.
The artist 'requested'? Who threatened the artist?
In an emailed statement, the chairman of the Human Rights Commission, Fred Cook, said the artist who had created the work “felt that their submission could be offensive to some and that was not their intention.” Cook also said the commission would have supported the artist’s position if the artist wanted the work to remain in the show.
But they were happy to be let off the hook...
Some SUNY Orange students said the removal of the work stands in stark contrast to the goals in the Declaration of Human Rights, which include freedom of expression. Second-year psychology student April Acker, who is active in the campus gay-straight alliance, visited the gallery Thursday with the "SUNY Orange” legend on her T-shirt covered in tape as a protest.

Acker said the student who complained is an acquaintance from class, and she had urged the student to attend the art show to promote cultural diversity. Instead, said Acker, “It went the polar opposite.”
Artists have always offended people. And have always paid dearly when they offended the wrong people.
Posted by:Steve White

#1  "the artist who had created the work “felt that their submission could be offensive to some and that was not their intention.”

"please don't hurt me"
Posted by: Frank G   2015-12-12 11:05  

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