Dear Salem State Community,
Yesterday, we held a discussion on campus surrounding the “State of the Union” exhibit in our Winfisky Gallery. This discussion was arranged due to strong negative reactions students had to items in this exhibit. The forum included students, faculty, staff, the exhibit’s curator, and the artist who created two of the controversial pieces of visual art.
We would like to apologize to those in the campus community who have experienced distress resulting from this exhibit. We are sorry. Yesterday’s conversation made clear the strong emotions this exhibit has caused. The artist offered his intent in creating the piece and participated in discussion with the students, as did faculty and administrators. At the end of the discussion, we announced that the two of us – the chair of the art + design department and the exhibit’s curator – have decided to temporarily suspend the exhibit and work with students to discuss next steps. Immediately following the meeting, we arranged a Monday meeting with students to discuss how to move forward while taking all concerns into consideration.
We understand that not displaying the context in close proximity to the artwork in the exhibit contributed to the strong reaction from our community. It is our usual practice to provide a “guest book” in the gallery which contains information about the artists’ intent of their work. This is centrally located for visitors to read, either before or after they have viewed the art. Many of our visitors were not aware that this resource was available to them and therefore did not have the advantage of the context of each piece. When concerns began to be raised, we posted the artists’ intent statements adjacent to the art so the information was immediately available. Further, we covered the glass doors of the gallery and posted a warning that the exhibit contained art that may be upsetting to some viewers.
Art is often intended to spark discussion about societal ills. In this case, it did just that, but we deeply regret the distress it has caused students. We thank the students for sharing their views, and we look forward to working with them to determine how to move forward.
Sincerely,
Mary Melilli, Chair
Art + Design
Ken Reker, Curator
Winfisky Gallery