| Secret service visited college about art Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/sep05/357552.asphttp://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/sep05/357552.asp
Ban on anti-Bush artwork stirs up dispute Mock stamp of president with gun to head is kept out of show at UW-Green Bay By MEGAN TWOHEY mtwohey@journalsentinel.com Posted: Sept. 21, 2005
There is nothing confusing about the image in "Patriot Act," a work of art that has the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay in an uproar. The face of President Bush is clear. So is the revolver being held to his head.
What has sparked fierce debate is what the image means and whether it belongs on a college campus.
In the eyes of UW-Green Bay's chancellor, "Patriot Act" is an endorsement of assassination. He has banned it from the university's gallery, where it was scheduled to be shown as part of a traveling exhibit, saying in a letter to faculty and staff that "in a society all too violence prone, using these or other venues to appear to advocate or suggest assassination is not something the UW-Green Bay may do."
To the artist, the work expresses nothing more than a desire to see Bush voted out of office. Faculty members and students say the chancellor violated principles of free speech and academic freedom, no matter what the artist intended. When the traveling exhibit opened on campus last week, a blank frame hung in the place of "Patriot Act."
"I've been here for 18 years," said Christine Style, chair of the university's art department. "We've never dealt with something this controversial."
Different views of evil Al Brandtner, a graphic designer from Chicago, created "Patriot Act" for a traveling exhibit called "Axis of Evil: The Secret History of Sin."
The exhibit - a compilation of 127 mock postage stamps made by 47 artists from 11 countries - came together after Bush described Iraq, Iran and North Korea as the "axis of evil" in his 2002 State of the Union Speech. The organizer, Chicago artist Michael Hernandez de Luna, instructed the artists to depict what they viewed as evil. As Brandtner recalled, he told them to "leave the wimpy stuff at home."
Wimpy, the exhibit is not.
One mock stamp shows a naked woman wearing a black hood and a belt of explosives. Other works by Brandtner include images of children killed or severely wounded in Iraq and an image of Mother Teresa with a forked tongue.
The exhibit drew little attention when it debuted at a gallery in Philadelphia, but the Secret Service took notice of it at Columbia College in Chicago in April. Two agents attended opening night, and Brandtner's attorney fielded questions about the artist's motives.
In the end, the Secret Service took no action, and Columbia College defended the display.
Stephen Perkins, curator of the UW-Green Bay's Lawton Gallery, booked "Axis of Evil" early this year, thinking it would be good to display around the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. A curator committee made up of faculty members from the art discipline agreed, despite the controversy in Chicago.
"We knew there were terrorism issues addressed in the show, and that some of the characters in the current administration were being critiqued," Perkins said. "It seemed like a good time to bring it to campus."
Perkins didn't inform university Chancellor Bruce Shepard or other top administrators. As was his practice, he told only his dean. It wasn't until a couple of weeks before the exhibit was scheduled to open that Shepard found out.
Administrative reaction After consulting with the school's lawyers and with other university leaders, including UW System President Kevin Reilly, Shepard sent an e-mail to faculty and staff Sept. 1 saying he would ban "Patriot Act."
"It is not a question of being too provocative," Shepard said in the e-mail. "It is a question of whether this campus will use publicly provided resources for what, very reasonably and by many, will be construed as advocacy of a most violent and unlawful act."
Unlike UW-Green Bay's performing arts center, the Lawton gallery is not rented to the public. It is controlled by the university and funded with taxpayer dollars. That means it is not a public forum in which citizens are guaranteed a right to free speech, Shepard said. Nor is it a classroom where professors and students have the freedom to examine a variety of viewpoints, no matter how controversial.
Perkins and the art faculty disagreed, saying in a statement that "the Lawton Gallery must house an exchange of viewpoints and rigorous critical thinking." When the exhibit opened, students stood outside wearing shirts displaying "Patriot Act."
"We didn't just want people to see the image," said Erica Millspaugh, an art student who organized the protest. "We wanted the chancellor to know that censorship is not OK."
Shepard didn't go to the opening and was absent from a panel discussion on the controversy the next day. But he promised to talk with angry students and faculty members.
"It's the toughest decision I've had to make," he said.
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