Werbel One obvious reason for an expectation of future restraints is the clear chilling effect that comes from reading news stories – and/or personally experiencing – conflict on campus that arises based on the exhibition of provocative art. Several interview subjects referred to these worrisome episodes, and also particularly referenced the fear of state legislative action.
6.1 Legislators unfortunately do have the power to threaten to defund your institution if you exhibit art they don’t like. It’s impossible to get around the fact that much funding for public higher education flows from state legislatures, and that in many conservative states running a campaign against higher education (and art) is an effective political tool. Several museum staff referenced real or anticipated problems resulting from the harsh spotlight of partisan conservative politics in their interviews: I think that the fear was that if the people in charge of the Republican legislature got hold of something like that performance, . . . if that went viral and they caught that, that there could be real ramifications for the university. That it could be financially punished, in a sense. The funding could get taken away. At one point, when [the director] realized that it was really going to be a problem, that we were going to get some backlash from the attempt to shut down the exhibition, he took it to his boss, who took it to University Legal. Legal came back and said, ‘We think you should let the exhibition go forward. We think that it should not be closed and that you should let this happen in the interest of free speech.’ They would allow us to do the performance in the gallery and let the performance take place. They did not want it to be on Instagram. They did not want it to be a live event on the internet, but it could take place in the gallery. Another interview subject shared the constant fear that epitomizes the ‘chilling effect’ of political threats, which are so corrosive to academic freedom in particular and civil liberties in general: That’s always my personal fear is politicians and board of trustees that have those types of political and lobby interests . . . we’re never intentionally trying to pick a fight with anyone. We are definitely mindful of the fact that the narratives and the dialogues and the conversations and the way we talk about the exhibitions are just as important if not more than the artwork itself. Needless to say, museum staff should be focusing on crafting narratives for the edification of their students, not “political and lobby interests” – but they can hardly be blamed for this situation. A decision-maker at a private institution shared fear of working in a public institution due to potential political interference:
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