The National Coalition Against Censorhip’s Arts Advocacy Program (ACAP), launched in 2000, is the only national project dedicated to working directly with individual artists and curators involved in censorship disputes. Its main goal is to protect artists’ rights to participate in the democratic dialogue by defending public access to their work and supporting their ability to freely express views that might be unpopular or controversial. The project resolves controversies through education and advocacy, avoiding the need for legal action. Working within a larger organization allows it to capitalize on the fact that controversial issues are not confined to one medium of expression or one social sphere. The NCAC works with different constituencies to mobilize a wide base of support, and produce policy documents and materials for educational programs. It also analyzes censorship trends and train artists to become their own advocates and develop strategies to counter censorship in all its ever-changing forms.
Arts Advocacy Project
Image promoting “Artists have digital rights, too: Santa Clara Principles 2.0 and advocating for artistic expression online,” a workshop held by NCAC’s Arts & Culture Advocacy Program, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Don’t Delete Art.
Diego Marcial Rios, Stop Killing Us, 2020, 10 x 10 in and Will Kill Mexicans and Blacks Cheap, 2020, 10 x 10 in.
Radhika Subramaniam presents at the National Coalition Against Censorship’s 5th Annual Curatorial Workshop, held in partnership with Creative Capital on November 15, 2023. Image courtesy NCAC.
Taravat Talepasand, Demons, Dictators, Blasphemy, and Man, 2016, 17 x 5 x 5 in., part of the exhibition TARAVAT.
Shepard Fairey, Rose Shackle, 2019, 30 x 41 in, as seen in the program announcement for the Mesa Arts Center’s Fall 2023 Exhibition season.
See Also
“The terrific range of project proposals we receive each year speaks to the mobile and porous disciplinary boundaries of contemporary art practice, and to the rich and inventive ways writers approach art today. They are alert to the urgent need to expand the conventions of art history and criticism with ideas from other discourses, such as black studies, transnational and diaspora studies, gender and women’s studies, and LGBT studies. The work of lesser known and overlooked artists and art communities continues to be mined, with writers articulating new ways to counter the striking imbalances of race, class and gender that continue to affect the arts and the culture industry.”