Will religious art be supported by Maine’s creative economy?

Will topical political art be defended by the creative economy?

Will directors of Maine’s creative economy support artists’ creative freedom?

Will financial values undermine artistic values in Maine’s creative economy?

Will conservatives or the liberals control the creative economy?

Artists need creative freedom to explore form and subject matter if art is to be vital for a society. However, creative freedom has been censored and restricted in societies even when it was not religious, politically topical or morally offensive.

Individuals can ignore art that displeases them by not visiting art exhibits and not purchasing works of art. This is a simple exercise.

The public and government’s reaction to art that displeases is not, however, and never has been, that simple. Art has been censored by the public and the government.

The history of Maine art illustrates well that the acquisition and installation of art in public places can displease the public and local or state governments. That history points out that opposition to some art has created such controversy that it was rejected or replaced, even after purchase.

Let me present some examples.

In Portland, an abstract metal sculpture called “Michael,” donated to the city, became such a problem for the city’s politicians, educators, businessmen and art critics that it was moved from its prominent place to a gallery where it was obscured by saplings.

The Barridoff Gallery in Portland exhibited metal sculptures on its lawn and city officials tried to remove them, labeling them a public menace.

Also in Portland, Marjorie Moore’s fanciful sculpture fence was totally dismantled by vandals.

A fountain commissioned for the Charles Shipman Payson wing of the Portland Museum of Art was never installed because it was deemed inappropriate by the museum director.

An abstract sculpture was erected in Lewiston that met with protest and was replaced by a more suitable sculpture. The sculpture was not religious, politically topical or morally offensive.

A Poland community school commissioned art with so many restrictions of the artist’s creative freedom that the finished work was of poor quality.

These examples obviously point out that the marriage of artists with the public and government has not been easy here in Maine.

On the national art scene, the United States Congress has sought control of art through the National Endowment for the Arts with censorship of the creative freedom of artists through the grant system because it was displeased with some of the artists funded.

The NEA funds our Maine Arts Commission, which has a serious stake in the creative economy. The NEA connection to MAC points to possible censorship of the creative freedom of Maine artists.

One might remember the NEA funding controversy over William Pope.L’s retrospective at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the Maine College of Art, which included installation pieces and video of his performance art.

Of course, this is not something new to history. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, artists created a revolution that displeased the public, art critics, art dealers and governments. There was such resistance and outrage to that revolution that the art was not promoted and many artists could not earn a living from their work. We all know many artists of that revolution are now icons in the history of art.

There are some contemporary artists who seek to take the public out of “comfortable” thinking patterns with strange forms and politically or socially radical subject matter. This art has drawn protest and outrage from the public and governments.

Add to the above historical situations the fact that America at this time is a divided, politically polarized society, which means we may say with some certainty that art in Maine’s creative economy could become a “political football” between conservatives and liberals.

So I think we might very seriously consider this question: Will Maine’s creative economy be a Pandora’s box?

Tom Fallon, a Maine poet and former Maine Times poetry editor, has been awarded two Maine Arts Commission grants. He is the former director of the MWPA and the author of several books. He lives in Rumford.

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