West County Issue Arts Controversy

The president of the Ventura Arts Council resigned recently to protest an art exhibit at Momentum, a city-sponsored gallery. He said the director of the council used public

money to promote her personal anti-war beliefs. Should public money be used to support potentially controversial art or art displays?

Elva L. Kauer

Vice president, Realistic Painters Club of Ventura Of course almost anything could be controversial, but I do not think this particular exhibition should have been shown. To me it seems unpatriotic to begin with. I saw the pictures of the exhibition in

the paper. I thought it was in poor taste. There have been so many sort of way-out things shown there with not very much artistic value. Once the director had a truckload of gravel dumped on the floor and a car sitting in the midst of the gravel. We have felt for a long time that the effort and the money should be directed in nobler artistic developments. Other groups have been trying to show their things for a long time. I would like to see the gallery involve more of the arts groups of the county. I wish I understood the thinking on the part of the director. I just can’t imagine any artist feeling that war was glorified excitement. Do you spank the naughty boy? If you don’t, he’s going to become naughtier and naughtier. That is why the war has come into existence. I do hope something constructive and good can come of the discussion that has taken place as a result of this showing.

Edward W. Robings

Executive director, Ventura County Museum of History and Art I would prefer to not comment on the appropriateness of the Arts Council exhibit, which I was not able to see. In regards to the question of the funding of arts exhibits that are controversial, almost

every exhibit could be controversial to someone. The government should not be involved in determining what art is exhibited in galleries that receive all or part of their funding from government sources. The worst examples of such government involvement have been observed in Stalin’s Russia and Hitler’s Germany. The conservative point of view is that the government should not get involved with such activities. The overwhelming number of artists and exhibits sponsored partly or fully with government funds have been absolutely worthwhile. Funding programs should not be judged because of a minuscule number of exhibits that many consider to be controversial. If you based your decision on whether to fund almost anything on a few extreme examples, then we wouldn’t publish books, issue phonograph and CD recordings or allow movies to be made.

Chuck Aliberti

Artist I feel that the show wasn’t an anti-war show and my piece in the exhibition wasn’t an anti-war piece so much as a “war” piece. The way I see it is that there is no such thing as a pro-war or anti-war

exhibition. What comes out of a war is death, and I feel the human race is scared to death of death. No one in their right mind would want to die or kill, and if someone says they are pro-war, then I feel they must not be in their right mind, because that just means death. War is not an abstract idea. It is basically brutal, bloody and gory, and if we were to all speak from our guts instead of from our intellect, we would do everything we can to not go to war. I think art is about authenticity. It is about an artist being in his or her studio and painting or sculpting or creating something that comes from within them. What the artist creates is a personal statement, and if you object to that statement you object to freedom of expression, authenticity and living out our own individualism. The public should decide whether they want authenticity or not, and either cut off all public funding or go all the way with it. And what will come out they will either object to or accept, but it’s the chance one has to take.

Maureen Davidson

Executive director, Ventura Arts Council The arts play a vital role in a free society in giving voice, shape, color and movement to many different ideas that represent society’s search for truth. This is the role of the arts in society: to be an

energetic caldron of ideas. Through the best visual arts, literature, theater, dance and music, our minds and hearts are open to new realizations, new understandings, to the appreciation of beauty in our natural and social environment, but also in the minute order and relationship of things. The best of art is moving, uplifting, challenging and, yes, sometimes provocative. If government does not support such art, who will? Publicly funded museums sell no art, they present it solely for education. Likewise, nonprofit galleries like Momentum present artists whose work transcends the ordinary, the comfortable and the familiar and reaches for an expanded awareness. Commercial galleries must play to the popular taste because they must sell what they exhibit. As former President Ronald Reagan once said, “In an atmosphere of liberty, artists and patrons are free to think the unthinkable and create the audacious.”

Patricia J. Olney

Current acting president, Ventura Arts Council The executive director of the Arts Council called all of the board members to discuss the proposed exhibition, and to the best of my knowledge all of the board members told her nothing other than to go

ahead with the exhibit. I’m not sure Mr. Alviani, the president of the Arts Council, ever gave his opinion, but with his resignation it became quite clear. I think any time you’re talking about people’s reaction to war, you’re going to have some controversy. It is a very emotional subject, involving life or death. Every war our country has ever been in has raised a lot of controversy. The Constitution says that government shall do nothing to inhibit freedom of expression and freedom of speech. When using public money there is less reason to try to censor an exhibition than if it were organized with private funds. I think artistic excellence should be the criterion for an exhibit. None of us have a veto power over the way our tax money is spent, otherwise I might have vetoed spending my money to study cow belching, which has been supported by the government. I think a lot of people would object to having their money used that way.