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Fayetteville, home to extreme liberals and extreme conservatives, has always had a strange mix. In the middle of the Bible Belt are Donald Harington, Ellen Gilchrist, and Joan Hess, internationally recognized novelists and visual artist Donald Roller Wilson, among many others. Fayetteville is also the home of many churches. In the Southwestern Bell regional phone book there are five pages of churches listed. To contrast, there is only half a column contributed to art galleries and most of those entries are shops that sell commercial art like lamps and picture frames. Both cars with Jesus fishes and Darwin fishes drive down Dickson Street. Polo and Ralph Lauren clad individuals walk downtown, passing purple-haired skateboarders. Break-dancers jam to the beat of hand drums outside the Walton Arts Center as fur-coated women leave a night at the opera. For a town of only 52,976 according to the 1996 special census there is definitely a diverse mix of opinions and tastes. And Fayetteville is growing fast, with a projected population of 62,100 for the year 2000, according to Fayetteville.com.
There's a catchy song on the radio at Common Grounds Coffee Bar. People are standing at the bar, shaking their rumps to the mambo beat. The song is titled "Mambo No. 5," and the male vocalist Lou Bega sings about women. "A little bit of Monica in my life, a little bit of Erica by my side. A little bit of Rita's all I need, a little bit of Tina's all I see."
The entire song is some man singing about jumping from one girl to the next. But, there's no one complaining about the song and its treating of women as sexual objects there to satisfy one man's lust. It's an international hit that has been on top 20 lists in Europe and the United States.
"There's a lot more women than men likin' my music, and that's surprised a lot of people," Bega said in an on-line interview at the Lou Bega Information site. "Also, there's not been one woman in any of the countries where the record has been a hit that's told me they think that this is a macho song. So they really do understand that this was meant on another level, that it's about fun. And in fact the names can be replaced by the word fun."
Sara Matson, a University of Arkansas undergraduate in the creative writing department, talks about art and what it means to her as she sips hot Chai at the coffee bar. The pop music continues to blare in the background and there's constant noise from other tables and from the wait staff using loud machinery to make their specialties.
"Art to me is communication," Matson says. Although she is a creative writing major, she is constantly involved in the visual arts as well. She shares a studio with another artist and recently had a gallery showing with other local artists titled "The Mezzanine Artists" at Studio 302. Her appearance is somewhat unkempt. She isn't wearing makeup. Her medium-length blonde hair is up in a sloppy ponytail. Her priorities are not with physical appearance; instead it's with her passion, art.
"You don't have to speak any kind of language to watch a ballet," she says. And she continues by explaining the importance of appreciating another person's passion and being able to think differently enough to know something one individual might not see as significant could be important to someone else.
"It's personal, emotional," she says. "Words change from person to person. Art is society. It reflects exactly what is tolerated. It pushes the boundaries."
And that's exactly what's going on at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. An exhibit, titled "Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection" features dead pigs cut in half and preserved between sheets of glass by Damien Hirst and a black Virgin Mary with a breast made out of elephant dung by Chris Ofili. New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani threatened to pull all the city funds from the museum because of the exhibit. Giuliani and other Catholics saw the Virgin Mary depiction as negative, when in fact the artist is Catholic himself.
Locally there has also been a controversy about a recent exhibit.
Last semester Robert Ross, professor emeritus of the UA, had
a collection of his works displayed starting at spring break of
last semester in Mullins Library
.
There was a petition collected to have his collection taken down
from the library early.
The works consisted of nude studies of women drawn in pastels on wood. They were life-sized. Ross compared his works to those in the "Sensation" exhibit.
"There was an intention to shock in ["Sensation"] and in my work I wasn't," he said. He said he was reluctant to exhibit figure works because of the environment. Ross, a frail looking, small-framed man with a white beard and a soft voice, hardly seems like a man that would cause a petition to start against his works. Articulate and thoughtful, each word he spoke was carefully chosen so he said exactly what he meant.
Alberta Bailey, head librarian of Mullins Library, confirmed that there was a petition going around to take down Ross' works.
"There was a petition," Bailey said. "The kinds of complaints I received were that they did not think it was appropriate for the library."
She said those who complained made the argument that a person can't choose whether they want to see the work or not. Since the library is a place where students must go to do research, some students felt it was unfair to be subjected to works they were opposed to. They argued that the library was not an art gallery, where a person was able to choose to see an exhibit.
"If you chose to go to a gallery, you're making a conscious choice," Bailey said.
She said the way the library dealt with the petition was to develop a committee. They decided not to take down the works because of intellectual freedom. She said she didn't think the library should censor. The works stayed up until the beginning of the fall semester. Bailey said she was not at liberty to say who was responsible for starting the petition.
Ross' exhibit was only the third show the library had displayed. Bailey said for exhibits since Ross' there is a committee that reviews all works before they go up on the walls of the library.
Ross spoke of how it felt to know that people wanted his art to be taken down.
"It's the opposite of appreciation," Ross said. He mentioned that he felt the art department had become more conservative at the UA than when he first began teaching in the art department.
"Walk around the HPER building and then walk around the art department," he said. "Then you can tell where priorities are. Last year the art department was air-conditioned for the first time. When I was asked to come here one attraction was that I would have a studio. So I had considered it a part of the deal. Then it was revealed that the building where my studio was would be converted into a parking lot. At that time engineering was having a new building built for it. The university itself has been fairly restrained in its codling of the art department."
Matson took a watercolor class from Ross.
Although she now involves herself constantly in visual art and can't imagine doing anything else with her life, Matson was told that she wasn't a good artist when she was in elementary school. Since then she's taken many art classes, was a Fine Arts Gallery intern, sells her work and is applying to Cooper Union, a prestigious art school in New York City.
"My art teacher basically told me I wasn't a good artist," she says. "So I never did any art ever since then."
Her senior year in high school she decided to take an art class. That year her portfolio placed third in the state.
"It was super random. I didn't go in thinking I wanted to be an artist," she says. "Now I couldn't imagine doing anything else with my life, at all."
Although what Matson wants to do with her life is be a visual artist, she is not an art major at the university.
"You think about things like the arts and the humanities and you imagine that those are the kind of programs where you're going to walk in and it's going to be nurturing," she says. "And the students are going to actually cater to each other and be supportive of what each other are doing. And you also assume the faculty would do that."
Matson didn't feel that the art department at the UA was welcoming enough. She explains that every teacher had something to offer her and that she enjoyed her classes, yet something was lacking.
"To me it wasn't cohesive enough," she says. "You walk into this dirty art building where people were just constantly creating, but the building closes at 10 o'clock. The doors are locked."
She continues by spouting a long, run-on, passionately worded statement. It doesn't even seem she has the time to take a breath:
"It wasn't conservative. It was probably just my romantic idea of wanting it to be this big nice feeling of a bunch of people really just wanting to do art, wanting to learn art, wanting to be supportive, wanting to think creatively and not be afraid that this person did something first, and not be afraid to say hey I'm doing what I'm doing because your work inspired me so much and so I'm trying to understand what you're doing with paint. People don't do that. It's like a race. I hate that," she says.
Michael Peven, the chairman of the art department, had different views of his department. In his office, a wall was covered with visual images, like a large collage of post cards and photographs. He spoke as a business person wanting to sell his product.
This year is the 50th anniversary of the Fine Arts Center, which was designed by famed architect Edward Durrell Stone. It was the first integrated art institute around, Peven said. When the building was first opened the architecture, art, music and drama departments were all housed in one building. It was written up in architecture journals of the day, Peven said, and it was featured in Life magazine in 1953.
He added that the Fine Arts Center has recently seen an upgrade, with remodeling in both the Fine Arts Center Gallery and Concert Hall.
"The department has been treated very fairly," Peven said. "We've recieved excellent funding."
Peven said the UA has an excellent liberal arts program for those wishing to receive a Bachelor's in Art degree or a Bachelor's in Fine Arts degree. He also mentioned the Master's in Fine Arts degree.
He said students come from all over, as does the faculty.
Some art classes had to be canceled this semester.
"It's due to enrollment," Peven said. "It's difficult to justify to the administration a class that only enrolls two people.
"In some ways we've been treated generously," he said in reference to a new cultural activity fee students pay that contributes to the art department.
He said that the cultural activity fee that was passed recently at the university helped the Fine Arts Gallery and that he hoped to see the gallery improve 300 to 500 percent in the next five years.
To contrast, the Art Experience is a private business that teaches art classes in Fayetteville.
Jo Ann Kaminsky is its co-owner and also markets a little philosophy and counseling along the way. She would like to see more people in Fayetteville be exposed to the arts.
When stepping into the Art Experience, visitors are greeted by a warm environment and cats jump into their laps. There are potters wheels with clay handprints on the wall and tables covered with paint, pastels, plaster of paris and other art supplies. Often an eclectic mix of music plays in the background.
Kaminsky herself has a presence that allows others to feel comfortable to discuss with her any subject. She has a distinct voice that is high-pitched yet soothing and round. Her long curly uncontrolled hair compliments her free spirit attitude.
"I think a lot of people who don't know they need to be here should be here," she said. "There are a lot of things that stand in the way. People are intimidated by art. I'm ready to attack that fear of art directly. When people take a class they realize it's more than mindless dabbling."
The Art Experience began in 1993 and has been growing ever since. She and her husband Hank Kaminsky run the business together.
"I think we are an artistic community in Fayetteville,"
Jo Ann Kaminsky said. "There are a lot of possibilities because
we're small. We can't run down to the store to get it. We have
to make it. There's still room to grow."
She said the Art Experience is a safe place to explore and practice being non-judgmental. She said she uses as few rules as possible to allow for a lot of room for self-expression.
"When people come, they become part of a community," she said, adding that the Art Experience community is made up of all types of people, including liberals and conservatives.
"There's not just one certain person that's an artist. People bond. The feel for each class may be totally different. They're really surprised about the variety," she said.
Kaminsky is also an art group leader for people who have been raped. She said that the group is amazed with the process of art therapy.
"It becomes a metaphor for everything else in your life," Kaminsky said. She said art exercises skills that are needed for the inner self. She helps people find an intuitive place and helps people move into creative, artistic space.
She explained that many clients don't feel comfortable vocalizing anger. By giving them a mound of clay to pound on to express that anger, it gives them a way to communicate when they otherwise wouldn't have. Art becomes a tangible symbol for their emotions, she said.
So, what if professional artists want to express their anger and display this anger for all to view at a museum that receives public funds? Katherine Shurlds, a lawyer and the Communications Law professor for the UA journalism department, explained First Amendment rights and how this amendment protects art. She described the basis for artistic freedom in a clear-cut and easy to understand manner. It is easy to see that she teaches this information every semester to journalism students. Reading about law is complicated. Shurlds connects these abstract ideas to concrete real-life situations and makes such complex ideas understandable.
"When you look back to see why our society, our democracy, was formed in the first place, a lot of that was getting away from the tyranny of the king," Shurlds said. "And so, when we came over here there really was a lot of focus and emphasis on the individual. And in fact the individual is the whole reason for the bill of rights.
"And one of the reasons for the First Amendment in addition to government is that we want to foster a tolerant society. We want tolerance of religion and tolerance of political thought and we wanted the press to be free. And along with that is one way to have a more tolerant society is for people fulfill themselves, to explore their own expression in whatever medium they choose to use. They may choose to write a newspaper article or they may choose to paint a picture. And I think there's a real good argument in at least half of the cases where art is exhibited that it makes a political statement. Just because your political statement is not written down on a piece of paper in English doesn't mean that it's not valid.
"There is also very strong support for self-fulfillment, self-expression," she said, adding that art is a way to develop and reflect a tolerant society and being exposed to art can create more tolerance.
"I think that artistic expression without a doubt is covered by the First Amendment for many reasons.And as far as far as I know the only quasi-legitimate reason is when its obscene," she said.
The legal definition of obscene according to the textbook "The Law of Public Communication" is " 'hardcore' pornography that is so 'offensive' and so lacking in 'social value' that it is denied First Amendment protection."
Under Chief Justice Warren Burger, a three-part test for obscenity was founded during the 1973 case Miller vs. California. This case is the foundation case for the discussion of obscenity.
"For a work to be obscene it must be taken as a whole to be patently offensive and appeal to the prurient interest of the average person applying contemporary community standards. Works are patently offensive if they are 'hard-core' pornography containing graphic, lewd displays of the genitals or sexual acts. A work appeals to the prurient interest if it is sexually arousing to the average person. Materials that appeal to the prurient interest of minors or deviants may also be obscene to those audiences even though the materials might not be obscene to the average adult. Materials that are not obscene, but that 'pander' in an intense commercial promotion of their sexual appeal, may also be prohibited as obscene. To be obscene, materials must also lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value, as determined by a reasonable person," stated the book.
All three parts of the obscenity test must be passed in order for the work to be considered obscene.
Patently offensive acts, according to the Supreme Court might include patently offensive representations or descriptions of ultimate sex acts, normal or perverted, actual or simulated. Or they could be patently offensive representations or descriptions of masturbation, excretory functions and lewd exhibition of the genitals. That means mere nudity, such as Ross' works displayed in Mullins Library, would not seem patently offensive.
But, what about a depiction of a black Virgin Mary with a breast of elephant dung and cutouts of genitals floating around Mary? Chris Ofili used paper collage, oil pain, glitter, polyester resin, map pins and elephant dung on linen to create his "Holy Virgin Mary" in 1996 that is on display as a part of the "Sensation" exhibit. According to 'www.davidbowie.com/sensation', his techniques borrow from folk art and he uses a combination of many elements. He was in Zimbabwe when he thought of the idea of using elephant dung to expand his works. The web site described Ofili's works.
"Ofili rehabilitates loose, patterned, decorative, joyous painting by placing it in a context of ethnic art and challenging our Western assumptions about ethnicity," the web site stated. Ofili also described his own work on the web site.
"The paintings themselves are very delicate abstractions, and I wanted to bring their beauty and decorativeness together with the ugliness of shit and make them exist in a twilight zone," Ofili said. "You know they're there together, but you can't really ever feel comfortable with it."
In The New York Times Ofili is quoted describing his depiction of the Virgin Mary.
"As an altar boy, I was confused by the idea of a Holy Virgin Mary giving birth to a young boy," the paper quoted him. "Now when I go to the National Gallery and see paintings of the Virgin Mary, I see how sexually charged they are. Mine is simply a hip-hop version."
Shurlds explained why the "Sensation" exhibit was not obscene.
"Giuliani is talking about pulling funding that would close down the Brooklyn Museum of Art over basically one picture. And his definition of offensiveness went directly to Roman Catholicism. If it had been a picture of Buddha with a breast of elephant dung I doubt seriously he would have said anything. When you throw in someone's religion into the definition of offensiveness or obscenity, then you've really got a dangerous thing."
The exhibit opened in Europe and saw record attendance in London and in Berlin, according to The New York Times. The newspaper also stated that "Sensation" is a landmark show for the Brooklyn Museum of Art and that the museum "sought to create the same excitement for the show's only North American engagement." The exhibit opened Oct. 2, but had already seen tons of press. The paper quoted Giuliani's reaction to the catalogue of the exhibit.
"If somebody wants to do that privately and pay for that privately, well that's what the First Amendment is all about," he said in the Sept. 23 paper. "I mean, you can be offended by it and upset by it, and you don't have to go see it, if somebody else is paying for it. But to have to government subsidize something like that is outrageous."
Giuliani vowed to cut the city's funding of the museum, which amounts to more than $7 million a year. But, Arnold L. Lehman, director of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, would not compromise. The museum filed a lawsuit in federal court against Giuliani, accusing him of violating the First Amendment. The court decision was made Nov. 3 by U.S. District Court Judge Nina Gershon. She ruled in favor of the Brooklyn Museum of Art's request for a preliminary injunction against the city of New York.
"Sensation" is not the first exhibit to cause an uproar. Shows by Robert Mapplethorpe shared similar attention.
An irony noted in an article published by Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly in the summer 1998 edition, was that attendance for shows that some try to close because of controversial content get more mass media coverage and therefore see record attendance and increased sales of works.
The article, by Douglas M. McLeod and Jill A. MacKenzie titled "Print Media and Public Reaction to the Controversy over NEA Funding for Robert Mapplethorpe's 'The Perfect Moment' Exhibit" follows Mapplethorpe's controversial exhibit and proves that after the mass media coverage the exhibit is overwhelmingly more popular.
According to the article, in the spring of 1989, Senator Jesse Helms attempted to pass legislation that would add content restrictions to all grants offered by the National Endowment for the Arts. He showed sexually explicit photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe to try and persuade the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee.
Mapplethorpe's photographs that were on exhibit included a section "depicting gay male sadomasochism and portraits of nude men," stated the journal.
The museum that saw the largest percent increase in attendance was in Washington, D.C. with a 3,279 percent increase. The average price of Mapplethorpe's works went from $1,204 in 1986 to $8,900 in 1989. The journal admitted that part of the increase was due to the artist's death from AIDS, but it couldn't possibly be the only factor to create such an increase in the value of his works.
Such a theory can be applied in Fayetteville exhibits.
Ross' exhibit was given more attention after the petition went around. Groups organized to protest the petition and fliers went around campus and downtown to voice that opinion.
Both nationally and locally, art remains controversial, especially when public places exhibit works or when public funding goes toward the exhibit in question.
Peven said though, that the UA art department had a definite disadvantage from metropolitan art schools because there are not as many art exhibits as there are in big cities.
"There's not enough art on campus," Peven said. There are statues, sculptures and a gallery, but he said most of the work is typical memorial type art. The department has to take students on field trips to larger cities to see more art, because there's not enough of it here, he said. Compared to his education at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he could walk by Rauschenberg, Warhol and Picasso works every day, the UA and Fayetteville are definitely lacking in such exhibits.
Myron Brody, an art professor for the UA, is trying to change
that. A bold, direct man, he spoke without waiting for any questions
to direct his statements.
"The university has no art collection to speak of," Brody said. "It does have tidbits here and there."
He said that through Act 1079, (most states have a version of the law) 1 to 1.5 percent of a building's architectural budget would go to putting works of art up in the finished building. The catch in the Arkansas law is that the act reads that the funds "may" go to the arts, not that they must.
"When will the Fayetteville community and the university community move beyond the wannabe environment that it has longed to be?" Brody said. He wants to know why no exhibits he considers to be major visual arts exhibits come to the Fine Arts Gallery or the Walton Arts Center. Brody headed a campaign to enhance the recently built Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport. He said it was important to have art in the airport because it is the port of entry for people visiting Fayetteville.
"It seems to me there's an attitude that prevails and says 'it's good enough'," he said. "But where's the icing on the cake?"
If problems such as this exist in the Fayetteville community, why do artists choose to come here as opposed to the art mecca of New York City?
Peven suggested that tuition to the UA was many times cheaper than most art schools. Both Kaminsky and Ross said it had something to do with the natural beauty and also the small intimate feel of the community. With the Buffalo National River close by and the location of Fayetteville in the middle of the Ozark Mountains, with tons of deciduous trees everywhere and bluffs with views for miles, there's a reason Arkansas is nicknamed "the Natural State."
"It would have been easier to make a living in the city," Kaminsky said. "But the natural beauty has such a draw. I don't want to live a city lifestyle. Money is not my main decision-making force."
She said she found her inner search more important than selling tons of work and getting critical acclaim. Ross agreed with Kaminsky.
Ross said he grew up minutes away from New York City and any afternoon he could take an express train into the city and in 25 minutes he could look at all the museums and galleries. He was educated at Yale University. So, why did he come to Fayetteville?
"Coming here, it was not to get into the center," Ross said. "It was precisely because there was that distance and all things had significance to me in that sense. In a way I kind of felt like this was a very important place to meet myself and explore an edge."
He said that he was intrigued in examining the Ozarks.
"I wanted to go to a place where I could commune with nature," he said. "When I'm communing with a creek there are things that I find quite wonderful in terms of spiritual being. I want to work somehow to really open the values of perception in relation to nature.
"More than anything I'm wanting to do work that goes a little bit further than the work I did the day before," Ross said. He said he studies the human form in connection to nature.
"I see nature in the human figure. These two things are actually quite similar to me," he said. "My work is about appreciation to nature and form and the human figure. This is obviously something that many have done before myself."
Just as art can be seen in nature, it is also historic and unique to humans.
Pter Ungar, an anthropology professor at the UA, said that art is uniquely a modern human trait. There is no evidence besides burials and a tooth with carved patterns on it that connnects art tp primates that lived before modern humans. As long as 30,000 years ago drawings of mammoths and other animals are documented on cave walls. Art has been important since the first conception of it.
What becomes controversial about it is the content. Mike Armstrong, director of Christ on Campus, a non-denominational Christian organization at the UA, said that art and Christianity go together.
"God puts creative desire into us," Armstrong said. "Christians need to have a high value of art. All art begins on a personal level. I think art can be used to express and to influence. It should be used to let the world see, not as a shock tool."
He said that all art doesn't have to be pleasant or sunny, and that many powerful works of art aren't.
"There are problems when art becomes hateful or abusive or politicized," he said.
He said he didn't think the motive for the "Sensation" exhibit was as pure as other exhibits. He said the exhibit was sensationalized in order to draw large crowds and become a commercial success.
"I think there should be art I don't agree with," he said. But he doesn't like his government funds to go toward art that mocks his religious beliefs or anyone else's religious or other beliefs. He did not, however, believe that the government could be selective.
"I don't think NEA can be selective," he said. "If I had to choose one or the other, I would choose government subsidy and responsible action to those who display art."
Matson says she does not agree with censorship, although she has censored her own work.
"The minute you say you can't do that, that's not right," she says. "You just can't draw a line like that. There's a lot more going wrong in the world than 'Sensation'. I don't think stopping the show is going to help. I don't think censorship is a cure for any problem. The root of the problem is elsewhere."
She says that although she might not agree with Lou Bega's song, the radio has a right to play it and people have the right to shake their rumps in Common Grounds to the song. She thinks it is a positive experience to be exposed to ideas and concepts that challenge her own belief structure. It might be a scary process, but she thinks it is a worthwhile one if it means being able to understand someone else's mindset.
"I think being scared is a good thing. If you're scared, know why it scares you," she said.
The world continues, "Sensation" didn't cause the downfall of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and still no one makes a public protest of Lou Bega's Mambo No. 5. Artists everywhere still struggle with controversy over censorship, but they can be comforted knowing that the First Amendment protects any art not legally obscene. Every artist has a different idea to contribute to art, and there is virtually no agreed upon definition of art. Art remains as abstract or concrete as an individual wants to make it.