Overwhelmingly Value Freedom of Artistic Expression ........................................................................... 10 Why freedom of artistic expression matters

2.1 Why freedom of artistic expression matters.

When asked why freedom of artistic expression matters, many decision-makers in the interview group elaborated on their belief that their art exhibitions play a central role in achieving core pedagogical aims of higher education Four interview subjects offered similar explanations:

There are certain encounters I think that art museums need to be able to offer, that have to do with the sadness and grief of the world and offering windows into situations that the upper middle class privileged person or student doesn’t see unless they walk in to the art museum and have some experience that is more about asking a question, ‘Is this really okay?’ I’m so much more worried about that than I am getting into trouble.

How can I break these rules as quickly as possible? That’s what happens. Then those are the artists that we are supposed to be showing in an academic gallery because academic galleries are the places to push the boundaries, to have those discussions, to utilize those spaces for educating ourselves on those topics, as opposed to just shutting them down and saying they don’t exist.

I think that one of the reasons it’s been a joy to work at a university museum is that there is this really deep interest in scholarship and exploration and investigation, that my primary constituency is the university students and the faculty, so that we’re really a laboratory for experimentation. I don’t have the types of stakeholders that a municipal museum has. I’m not getting money. I do obviously from the state, but I don’t feel that as directly as somebody who’s running a municipal museum or just general whatever museum. I don’t have board members who have fiduciary responsibility and might threaten to pull up stakes and leave if I don’t do this or that or the other. There’s a lot of freedoms here.

There’s something about visual art that I have that I feel is a really effective way to have these really difficult conversations, in a way that doesn’t become a shouting match. It doesn’t become a personal attack.

A survey respondent also shared in an open text box:

I definitely feel as one of the only galleries on a college campus in our community that engages nationally acclaimed artists that we have a responsibility to often bring in artists dealing with more controversial subjects as our peer institutions, which are often privately funded or that rely on governmental grants, must think more about and cater to the public opinion on certain topics or jump through hoops with funders on the same.