For immediate release: 3/7/97
provided through OPENAIR-MARKET NET
Yesterday members of A.R.T.I.S.T. braved 60 m.p.h. winds outside City Hall to protest Mayor Giuliani asking the U.S. Supreme Court to deny First Amendment protection to visual art. The Mayor's appeal brief, filed on 2/24/97 claims, "An exhibition of paintings is not as communicative as speech, literature or live entertainment, and the artists' constitutional interest is thus minimal."
Artists displayed provocative giant-sized portraits of the Mayor and carried placards saying, "Please buy my art before Mayor Giuliani has it destroyed". A number of the paintings depicted the Mayor's recent appearance on Broadway in drag. One artist carried a sign that said, "While His wife stars in a film about defending First Amendment rights, Mayor Guiliani is attempting to destroy those same rights for artists". Most of the artist/protestors had been arrested for selling their paintings on N.Y.C. streets.
In a radio interview on WNYC's syndicated business news show, "Marketplace", Elizabeth Freedman, an attorney speaking on behalf of the N.Y.C. Corporation Counsel's office, affirmed the City's anti-art position. "Visual art...does not express ideas", Ms. Friedman said, "and as such is not entitled to First Amendment protection." The appeal was filed in response to a 2nd circuit Federal Appeals Court ruling affirming that, "Paintings, photographs, prints and sculptures...always express ideas and as such are entitled to full First Amendment protection." [to read the ruling go to: http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html (or) http://www.tourolaw.edu/2ndcircuit/october96/95-90890.html]
During the demonstration, Jennifer Lim, a candidate for City Council running against Kathryn Freed, issued a strongly worded statement supporting artists' rights, including the right to sell one's art on N.Y.C. streets. Freed and the SoHo Alliance, a landlord advocacy group she sits on the board of directors of, played a major role in initiating the City's controversial artist arrest policy. Freed's district includes more than half of the art galleries in New York City.
On 2/28/96 Freed and the SoHo Alliance joined with the Fifth Avenue Association and four of Manhattan's Business Improvement Districts to file an amicus brief in the case claiming, "The sale of artwork does not involve communication of thoughts or ideas" and warning of, "the dangers of allowing visual art full First Amendment protection".
Robert Lederman, president of A.R.T.I.S.T. and a plaintiff in the case said the artists intend to show the Mayor he's dead wrong about art. "We'll fill the streets with artists showing paintings about the Mayor. Let's see if he still thinks art has no thoughts or ideas and is not communicative".
***[On Monday and Tuesday March 10th and 11th, A.R.T.I.S.T. members will be in Washington D.C. demonstrating against the Giuliani Administration's artist arrest policy. We will be outside the Supreme Court, the White House and the Capitol. For a schedule call 212 343- 4327.]
CONTACT #'s:
For information on the street artist Federal lawsuit or A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics) visit the A.R.T.I.S.T. web page at <http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html> [contact #'s; bibliography of newspaper articles; the case's rulings; descriptions of arrests, etc.] or contact Robert Lederman, artistpres@aol.com (718) 369-2111 or (212) 334-4327 Press kits, photos of arrests and artist demonstrations available on request.
N.Y.C. Corporation Counsel (212) 788-0303 Leonard Koerner, Elizabeth Friedman, Robin Binder attorneys. Council Member Freed (212) 788-7722. Mayor Giuliani's press office 212 788-2958 fax 788-2975. Wayne Cross and Randall Fox (attorneys for the artist/plaintiffs (212) 259-8000. Jennifer Lim Campaign 212 764-5200.