I have a long article in this week's Brooklyn Downtown Star about the controversy over the "Brooklyn Footprints" exhibition. And the library offers a fuller explanation for its actions, including an acknowledgement that the exhibition should've been renamed.
Says the library's Jay Kaplan, “The library's ‘Footprints’ exhibition is not intended to be the original ‘Footprints’ exhibition minus the controversy. It is a separate, though largely overlapping, exhibition that falls within the very clear guidelines the library observes in choosing what to show. In retrospect, the library should have given the exhibition currently on display in its grand lobby a different title, so as to dispel the idea that it was merely re-presenting the original ‘Footprints’ exhibition originally mounted at Grand Space.”
My article also explores the American Library Association's interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights regarding exhibitions, the difficulty of drawing the line between documentation and advocacy, and the interesting question of what pro-Atlantic Yards art might be. Links to the art work cited are in a previous AYR post and also one from Paul Berger.
Says the library's Jay Kaplan, “The library's ‘Footprints’ exhibition is not intended to be the original ‘Footprints’ exhibition minus the controversy. It is a separate, though largely overlapping, exhibition that falls within the very clear guidelines the library observes in choosing what to show. In retrospect, the library should have given the exhibition currently on display in its grand lobby a different title, so as to dispel the idea that it was merely re-presenting the original ‘Footprints’ exhibition originally mounted at Grand Space.”
My article also explores the American Library Association's interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights regarding exhibitions, the difficulty of drawing the line between documentation and advocacy, and the interesting question of what pro-Atlantic Yards art might be. Links to the art work cited are in a previous AYR post and also one from Paul Berger.
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