The library’s board of trustees voted Thursday night to allow the exhibit, “American Portraits in a Time of War,” to remain in place and to include the two portraits the library director had removed after a public complaint.
Trustees also announced the library will host a public forum Nov. 16 to discuss and debate the exhibit. The forum will include a mediated discussion by panelists in the fields of art, military service and intellectual freedom.
“I’m ecstatic,” G. Bud Swenson, the local artist who created the collages, said today. “I’m very excited and so glad.”
Swenson said he planned to bring the Bush and Cheney images back to the library today and rehang them.
Library trustees voted to keep the exhibit up and restore the two portraits after hearing two formal complaints requesting that the exhibit be removed. President Kate Manahan said in a written statement that the trustees’ vote was not unanimous and followed a passionate debate on freedom of expression, censorship and the library’s fiduciary duties and role in the community.
“The board trusts that our library and our community can handle this controversial exhibit and that, ultimately, we will be better off for embracing intellectual freedom,” Manahan’s statement said.
Manahan said in an interview that the board also considered about two dozen written comments on the exhibit, both supportive and critical. She said trustees deliberated for nearly three hours before making their decision.
Library Director Janet Cate declined to comment on the board’s decision.
Swenson’s exhibit includes 25 works, most of which are made from worn American flags that he purchased at flea markets, then deconstructed and reassembled in collages that are glued to wooden panels. He told the library about the contents of the exhibit six weeks ago, and press releases describing the exhibit were distributed to area media.
But on Oct. 31, the day before the exhibit was supposed to be hung, Cate told Swenson the collages couldn’t go up because of complaints from the public.
The next day Swenson and Cate met with the trustees’ executive committee to discuss concerns about the exhibit. Manahan said in her statement that trustees could not vote on Cate’s decision at that point because they had not received a written complaint, which is required under the board’s exhibits policy.
The next day, Nov. 2, Cate reversed her initial position and told Swenson the exhibit could go forward.
But after he hung the pieces on Monday, Cate removed the Bush and Cheney portraits, saying they did not meet the “normative community standards” in the library’s exhibits policy because of Bush’s strong connection with the town. The Bush family has a summer home on Walker’s Point in Kennebunkport.
Library officials have said the formal complaints about the exhibit have focused on whether it was suitable for viewing by children, who frequently use Hank’s Room, the library room where the works hang.
The library has not disclosed details of the complaints, and Manahan said in her statement the library will not identify those who complained, to protect their privacy and safety.
Swenson has said the library was engaging in censorship by blocking the exhibit and then removing the two portraits. But today he thanked trustees for their decision and praised their resistance to critics in the community.
“This doesn’t surprise me because there’s a long history of freedom of speech in the democratic process,” he said.
Swenson said he is looking forward to next week’s forum. He also noted that he has received offers from several other venues in York County that would like to show his pieces, none of which are for sale. The library exhibit...
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