07 May 19 | Artistic Freedom Case Studies Supporting Documents
Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft is an award-winning museum in a picturesque Sussex village, yet its charm belies a deeper conflict. For some time, the staff, trustees and our colleagues outside the institution have been engaged in a difficult and at times emotional process of deciding how we should present and interpret the work of Eric Gill – an artist central to our narrative and whose importance to art and design history in the UK and around the world is impossible to ignore, but whose diaries record that he sexually abused his daughters as well as other disturbing sexual acts.
A museum has duties which are outlined in the Museums Association Code of Ethics, including to:
- treat everyone equally, with honesty and respect
- provide and generate accurate information for and with the public
- support freedom of speech and debate
- use collections for public benefit – for learning, inspiration and enjoyment
By not publicly acknowledging Eric Gill’s sexual abuse of his daughters we have been failing in these obligations; and that in many instances visitors’ understanding or enjoyment of Gill’s art would have been affected by having been given this information. Failure to provide acknowledgment of the abuse risks damaging our visitors’ trust in the museum, fails to fully interpret objects, and stops us from showing large areas of Gill’s work and our permanent museum collection. However uncomfortable it might be, we need to study the very prevalent themes of sex and the human body to really understand Eric Gill’s work. Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft exists to tell the story of the artistic and craft community of the village, the lives of the individuals, how they worked, were educated and interacted. We therefore do not, and cannot, see their work in isolation from their biography.
In addition to these reasons, we believe there are wider ethical or moral reasons around why we should share this story publicly with our visitors. As a trusted, public space and an organisation with education and wellbeing at its heart, we believe that museums (and other cultural organisations) have an opportunity to engage with and contribute to difficult societal issues. As Director of the museum, I do believe that we have a part to play in opening up a conversation around sexual abuse and not being complicit in a culture of turning a blind eye towards abuse.
The museum operates within these two positions: we condemn Eric Gill’s abuse of his daughters with no attempt to hide, excuse, normalise or minimise, yet we also have a duty to protect, display and interpret the art work we hold in our collections. Through this exhibition we are attempting to address that fundamental question at the heart of this discussion: is it possible to appreciate Gill’s depiction of the human form when we know the disturbing nature of some of his sexual conduct?
This exhibition is the result of two years of intense discussions both within the museum and beyond, including contributing to an article in The Art Newspaper in July 2015, hosting #museumhour twitter discussions on 22 February 2016 on ‘tackling tricky subjects’, a workshop day with colleagues from museums across the country hosted at the museum with Index on Censorship, and a panel discussion at 2016 Museums Association Conference in Glasgow. Through these discussions Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft feels compelled to confront an issue which is unpleasant, difficult and extremely sensitive. It has by no means been an easy process yet we feel confident that not turning a blind eye to this story is the right thing to do. This exhibition is just the beginning of the museum’s process of taking a more open and honest position with the visitor and we already have legacy plans in place including ensuring there will continue to be public acknowledgement of the abuse within the museum’s display.
I fully understand that there will be people who want to reject and forget the work that Eric Gill produced as a result of his sexual violence towards his children; although it is not a position that I share, it is one which I can easily understand. My hope is that from those who do take this position, there is also an understanding as to why this museum has decided that we should not hide the story, and that some public good can result from openly and publicly having a difficult conversation.
Nathaniel Hepburn, Director and CEO, Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft
07 May 19 | Artistic Freedom Case Studies Supporting Documents
Eric Gill: The Body
Training Day Schedule
10.00 to 13.30, 10 April, Clore Learning Space
Please arrive promptly, refreshments served from 9.30
Please rsvp if you haven’t already done so to [email protected]
SCHEDULE
10.00 NH: Welcome and introduction to exhibition – short version of talk and Q&A
10.30 RD: Front of House and gallery invigilation routine explained – Q&A
10.45 LJ/RD: Workshop on disclosure process and staff support.
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- Staff support and Info Packs
- Disclosure procedure
- Complaints procedure
11.00 RD /GW: Workshop on language to be used.
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- Discuss use of humour
- Discuss terms and those that are good and not
11.15 Tea break
11.30 Peter Saunders, NAPAC, National Association of People Abused in Childhood (napac.org.uk)
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- Key facts and figures
- Myth busters
- How an abused person might feel on visiting the exhibition
12.00 Presentation by Wellcome Collection staff, Georgia and Eleanor (wellcomecollection.org)
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- How to respond to visitor comments on difficult subject matter and make sure that you feel comfortable doing so
- How to close down conversations and signpost
- What to do if people are emotional – angry or upset
- Looking after yourself and team working
- How to ask for written feedback and complete surveys
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- NH/GW: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions and dealing with press
13.00 Q&A
13.30 Close
07 May 19 | Artistic Freedom, Brazil, News and features
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”106683″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][vc_column_text]It should come as no surprise that, when opening an exhibition exploring queer identity, there will be critics.
In Brazil, where LGBTQI+ concerns were removed from the country’s human rights ministry’s purview earlier this year, when the death threats come in relentlessly, attitudes toward gay rights pose a significant worry — particularly when one of the people making those threats happens to be the president.
For Gaudêncio Fidelis, curator of Queermuseu, this is the crushing reality he faces. Back in 2017, Fidelis launched the exhibition celebrating queer artists. Applauded by the creative community, it was soon shuttered after a backlash from the religious right – amongst them now-President Jair Bolsonaro, who at the time was a federal deputy for Rio de Janeiro.
“Bolsonaro said I should be killed when he was not even a candidate, just a few hours after Queermuseu was shut down,” said Fidelis. “He didn’t mention my name because he didn’t know it, I guess. He referred to me as the ‘author of that exhibition’.
“In the first two months I got more than 100 death threats to a point where I had to have security, I had to be careful. Very few people I know, and I know some brave people, could handle that situation. I never slept for a year.”
One of Fidelis’ main detractors were far-right group Free Brazil Movement (MBL), who attacked Queermuseu persistently for two days during its opening. MBL alleged the exhibition, which included 214 works from 82 artists, promoted paedophilia, zoophilia and blasphemy, subsequently leading to its closure.
“They took the painting of two teenagers having sex with a goat, but this is a painting about people’s habits and the colonisation of Brazil,” Fidelis said. “They cropped this image and put it on the internet as if it was the picture. They were also putting up pictures that were not in the exhibition. A lot of fake news.”
In the aftermath of its sudden demise, Queermuseu drew support from artists and academics, leading to more than 3,500 people to protest outside the Santander Cultural centre in Porto Alegre, which is owned by the Santander bank.
“It turned into a huge campaign of not only reopening the exhibition, but in favour of free expression and human rights, because people’s rights were attacked,” he said. “It was not just an attack against the exhibition, it was a whole campaign against free expression.
“It was the largest ever protest in Brazil in the field of art and culture. This became a very contemptuous debate, or fight you could say – it was an intense battle that lasted for more than 12 months.”
However, Fidelis says what followed was one of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns in Brazil, raising over $1 million. Fidelis said he was even more surprised by the the mainstream media, which backed his campaign, allowing him to counter the fake news around the exhibition.
“I’ve never seen that with the press, they always keep some critical distance,” he said. “They were engaged throughout the process in defending the exhibition. The press understood that they would be next to be attacked, and that’s what happened two months later.”
After a visit from the public prosecutor’s office, who declared the defamatory allegations made against Queermuseu to be false, the exhibition was officially reopened to the public in 2018. Despite his success, Fidelis remains fearful for the future of free expression in his country – particularly for queer people.
Bolsonaro removed LGBTQI+ concerns from Brazil’s human rights ministry in January, while openly gay congressman Jean Wyllys quit his position and left the country later that month. He explained how he had been inundated with death threats and that violence had increased since Bolsonaro’s election.
“We were in plain democracy, so much so, that we could appeal to the Supreme Court – I did it twice,’ said Fidelis. “We could go to the normal institutions of democracy, but we can’t do that now. It’s a whole new world in Brazil and that’s why people are leaving.” [/vc_column_text][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1557304208972-adcd0337-5d35-7″ taxonomies=”15469″ exclude=”105410, 105403, 105408, 105400″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
03 May 19 | Campaigns -- Featured, Statements, Turkey, Turkey Statements
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Musa Kart
Index on Censorship joins Cartoonists Rights Network International (CRNI) to report that the internationally acclaimed cartoonist Musa Kart is again a prisoner this World Press Freedom Day.
In November 2016 Musa Kart was one of a number of staff from the Cumhuriyet newspaper arrested without charge. He and his colleagues’ subsequent months in Silivri prison would be described as unlawful by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, “being in contravention of articles 10, 11 and 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and of articles 14, 15 and 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights”.
In April 2017 he was formally indicted with “helping an armed terrorist organization while not being a member” and “abusing trust”, prosecutors stipulating a maximum sentence of twenty-nine years. His trial began in July 2017. His funny, excoriating opening statement is worth reading in full.
After twelve months of court proceedings (arduous litigation being a well-worn censorious tactic) Kart was eventually found guilty and sentenced to three years and nine months. The appeals lodged on behalf of all those who received shorter sentences during the Cumhuriyet trials failed in February this year. Kart was informed he would be required to go to prison for one year and sixteen days.
On April 25th he and five colleagues – board members Önder Çelik and M.Kemal Güngör, news director Hakan Kara, columnist Güray Öz and financial officer Emre İper – decided to hand themselves in at Kandıra prison, a typically dignified and brave gesture.
Musa’s ultimate incarceration represents the culmination of fifteen years of persecution by then prime minister, now President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who twice tried and twice failed to use court action to silence the cartoonist in 2005 and 2014.
As those who have followed recent history in Turkey will be aware, the attempted coup of July 2016 and the subsequent state of emergency provided Erdoğan the pretext required to round up many of his perceived enemies in academia, local government, the military, press and media. His victory in the April 2017 referendum, granting the president greater powers, and subsequent re-election in 2018 have only entrenched his position. In survey after survey Turkey remains the world’s number one jailer of journalists.
Kart is a past winner of CRNI’s Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award, was given the Cartooning For Peace Swiss Foundation’s Prix International du Dessin de Presse last year and is currently the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Maison du Dessin de Presse, Morges. He formally retired from cartooning in December 2017.
The undersigned organizations join Index and CRNI in calling for the immediate release of Musa Kart and his five courageous colleagues and the dismissal of all charges against the criminalised former staff of Cumhuriyet. This World Press Freedom Day we express our solidarity with all those suffering in the protracted and unprecedented crackdown on freedom of expression in Turkey, and call for its end.
Cartoonists Rights Network International (CRNI)
Adil Soz – International Foundation for Protection of Freedom of Speech
Africa Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC)
ARTICLE 19
Bytes for All (B4A)
Center for Media Studies & Peace Building (CEMESP)
Child Rights International Network (CRIN)
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)
Free Media Movement
Independent Journalism Center (IJC)
Index on Censorship
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)
International Press Institute (IPI)
Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)
Media Watch
Norwegian PEN
PEN America
PEN Canada
PEN International
Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA)
South East European Network for Professionalization of Media (SEENPM)
South East Europe Media Organisation
Vigilance for Democracy and the Civic State
World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers
Articolo 21
Civic Spaces Studies Association – Turkey
Danish PEN
European Centre for Press and Media Freedom
German PEN
Global Editors Network
Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa
Swedish PEN[/vc_column_text][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1556869431554-27d0cab8-ff70-3″ taxonomies=”55″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
