"Seeing Red, White or Blue"
- Artist/Author/Producer: Visual Arts Center of Alaska
- Confronting Bodies: Christian and veterans' groups
- Dates of action: 1993
- Location: Anchorage, Alaska
- Description of the Art Work
- "Seeing Red, White or Blue -- Censored in the USA" compiles works of art
that have been censored or threatened with censorship, including Robert
Mapplethorpe's "X Portfolio" photographs, Dread Scott's "What is the
Proper Way to Display the U.S. Flag?.," and a number of other works from
across the country.
- Description of incident
- The Alaskans United Chapter of AFA filed a complaint with the police
claiming VAC was in violation of local obscenity laws. The group
demanded that the show be closed, but the police department failed to
find the exhibit obscene. Meanwhile, the Veterans of Foreign Wars
chapter stole the flag in Scott's work three times. Community member
Robin Brogan stole the flag as well because she claimed it needed to be
in "protective custody" to keep it from being desecrated further.
- Results of incident
- When the Alaska State Council on the Arts met to allocate funds among
Alaska arts groups and individuals, Council Member Dale Hanson proposed
cutting all of VAC's state funds. Hanson's motion failed in a 4-6 vote,
and the center received three-fourths of the funding requested in its
grant proposal.
Source: Artistic Freedom Under Attack 1994
