Education
What Should Be Done With Art That Offends? Students Debate.
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After looking at the murals, I think that they should be taken down because they depict stereotypical images of Black people. From what I understood, these murals were meant to show the horrors of slavery but when stereotypes come up in an image like this, it makes you question if that really was the artist’s intended meaning, or if he’s just saying that to save his art.
— Aris, Justin Siena High School
And they dug deeper into the role artists’ identities play in the art they create.
While Mr. Kerson is correct that the murals depict history, Mrs. Young is also correct in her assertion that it is not Mr. Kerson’s history to tell. Even if Mr. Kerson’s intentions are not inherently racist or derogatory, if his artwork is interpreted by Black students as such, then it should be removed. Students are not calling for its removal because it’s uncomfortable, they call for its removal because its depiction is derogatory to the people it claims to represent and remember.
In my opinion, the art piece, even if unintentional, shows some aspects of previous racist depictions of Black people and I do not see the piece as empowering or showing Black resistance to slavery. Only being socially allowed to depict your own race’s experiences is a complicated stance. The artist profited from this piece and depicted a group of people that are not related to him; while I do think there is a problem with this, I do not think that artwork should be separated by race.
I think who paints it does not matter because he is portraying the history of his fellow Americans. He never stated that it was his history, and he went off of what he learned in class and heard from other people. It is important to preserve works from the past because it shows what people thought then. It helps us determine the past and what influenced people then and what they thought of the world and history.
Finally, they shared the steps they would take if the decision about the murals were up to them.
Everyone will have their own opinion and view of a certain piece of artwork, and I would take both the artist’s and the audience’s perspectives into account. I would look to others who have not yet seen the murals and will not necessarily have a biased look at the issue. I would ultimately decide to redesign the murals rather than take them down. A redesign would allow for both perspectives to be included in the making of the murals, allowing for a compromise.
— Alyanna, Valley Stream North High School
Public opinion is going to take precedence over the opinion of the artist, given how strong and influential it can be. However, no matter what the circumstance is, art should be protected from destruction, as it is considered a historical work. While I am aware that the mindsets of those 30 years ago are very different than now and can’t exactly be modified to fit current worldviews, the art has the potential to convey the wrong idea or skew others in the wrong direction. A solution to this problem would be to display the artwork but explain any harmful ideas or mindsets behind it in an infographic or a display, such as why the artist was problematic in making this piece or the historical circumstances that led to this piece’s creation.
If the decision was mine in regard to the murals, I would take into account the perspective of the artist but more importantly the perspective of the students and staff in the school because they have to see the murals more than the artist does. I would look to the community that the mural affects and ultimately decide to remove the murals, as those who are near it find it quite disturbing. I believe that the artist can only have so much say in what happens to his art in a public place in which people often have to look at said art. While I don’t believe art should be destroyed, in this particular circumstance where the mural cannot be moved, I think it is best to remove it entirely from the building.
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