5/29/97
by Robert Lederman
provided through OPENAIR-MARKET NET
SoHo is certainly America's most unusual art district. Unlike other art communities, SoHo actively persecutes artists and fights against First Amendment freedom. SoHo's landlords became rich thanks to artists. Wealth brought the landlords so much leisure time they can now afford to dedicate their lives to calling the police about artists exhibiting paintings on the publicly-owned sidewalk across from their buildings.
Trendy stores that located in SoHo to benefit from it being an artistic neighborhood complain to the police that artists are, "Distracting the public from buying our merchandise", and demand that they be forcibly removed. Residents who moved into SoHo because they wanted to live in an art center whine that there are, "just too many artists". That's like moving to the country and complaining that there are too many trees.
From 1993 until 1996 a pogrom against street artists was undertaken in SoHo. Hundreds of artists were handcuffed and arrested due to relentless political manipulation of the police by the SoHo Alliance, a landlord advocacy group run by City Council Member Kathryn Freed and her CB2 appointee, Sean Sweeney. Thousands of original works of fine art were illegally confiscated and destroyed or were disposed of at a monthly N.Y.P.D. forfeiture auction, yet, not one artists' case was ever brought to trial.
To protect their own and every artists' constitutional rights, members of A.R.T.I.S.T. were forced to file a number of Federal and State lawsuits against the City of New York. Art museums, advocacy groups, the ACLU and world renowned artists eventually joined the street artists in the lawsuit.
Hoping to enlist the Federal government in their vicious campaign to permanently cleanse New York City of street artists, Council Member Freed and Sean Sweeney joined the Fifth Avenue Association, the Madison Avenue Business Improvement District and three of the City's most powerful real estate groups to file a scathingly worded amicus brief against artists' rights in Federal Court.
Their brief attempted to deny First Amendment protection to fine art, specifically, paintings, photographs, sculptures and limited-edition prints. Ironically, Freed and Sweeney's brief also denied the validity of Constitutional protection for SoHo's art dealers and gallery owners. Perhaps that's the reason why they are still trying to keep their brief, filed on 2/28/96, a secret not only from the public but from their own ever dwindling number of supporters. It states: "The sale of artwork does not involve communication of thoughts or ideas" and warns of, "the dangers...of allowing visual art full First Amendment protection." It goes on to state, "...An artists' freedom of expression is not compromised by regulating his ability to merchandise his artwork....the sale of paintings and other artwork does not reach this high level of expression (guaranteeing First Amendment protection)..." [#95-9089]. In a barrage of newspaper articles, hysterical quotes by Freed and her real estate allies likened street artists to "parasites" and scapegoated them for everything from litter and prostitution to the proliferation of communicable diseases.
Luckily for America's artists Freed and the real estate lobby's misbegotten views on freedom of expression were completely rejected by the court. On 10/16/96 the street artists won their Federal lawsuit. The 2nd Circuit Federal Appeals Court ruling unambiguously states: "Visual art is as wide ranging in its depiction of ideas, concepts and emotions as any book, treatise, pamphlet or other writing, and is similarly entitled to full First Amendment protection....the City's requirement that appellants be licensed in order to sell their artwork in public spaces constitutes an unconstitutional infringement of their First Amendment rights...Displaying art on the street has a different expressive purpose than gallery or museum shows; it reaches people who might not choose to go into a gallery or museum or who might feel excluded or alienated from these forums. The public display and sale of artwork is a form of communication between the artist and the public not possible in the enclosed, separated spaces of galleries and museums...Appellants are interested in attracting and communicating with the man or woman on the street who may never have been to a gallery and indeed who might never have thought before of possessing a piece of art until induced to do so on seeing appellants' works. The sidewalks of the City must be available for appellants to reach their public audience..." Lederman et al v. City of New York 959089 United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit. Argued April 26, 1996. Decided Oct. 10, 1996. For access to the full text of the ruling see: [http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html]
Will SoHo's landlords, merchants and gallery owners ever learn to accept street artists? So far, the persistent (and mostly anonymous) calls to the First Precinct and Peddler Squad continue. Such unjustified and bigoted complaints about artists would be an embarrassment in any civilized society, let alone in the self-proclaimed art capital of the world. It's time for SoHo to accept that there is a First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and that it vigorously protects the rights of artists.
Over thousands of years artistic freedom has withstood assaults from countless dictators, elites and self-righteous censors. As long as there is a SoHo there will be artists creating, displaying and offering, in freedom, their creations on its streets.
Artists are SoHo's greatest resource. Artists, not landlords or cast iron buildings, are what give SoHo its vitality, color and depth. Artists are what makes SoHo more than just another non-descript shopping mall.
It's time for SoHo to stop vilifying those who butter your bread, sustain your real estate values and attract the public to your profitable restaurants, galleries and boutiques: living, breathing, hard-working artists.
For more information on A.R.T.I.S.T. or to express your opinion on this issue please call: Robert Lederman (212) 334-4327; E-mail: ARTISTpres@aol.com or visit the A.R.T.I.S.T. web site at <http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html>.