SHORT TAKES : Obscenity Flap Imperils Gallery

Dennis Barrie, acquitted of obscenity charges for showing photographer Robert Mapplethorpe’s controversial works, says the uproar may put his museum out of business.

Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center and Barrie, its director, were acquitted this month of obscenity charges stemming from an exhibit of Mapplethorpe’s photographs, some of which showed nudity and graphic sexual behavior.

Barrie, in New York on Thursday to accept a Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award from the Playboy Foundation, said the dispute has crippled the museum’s fund-raising efforts.

“We quite honestly don’t know if we will exist in a year or two,” he said.