National Coalition Against Censorship's video: Resolving Tensions Over Race and Representation in Public Art--A Conversation on Historical Murals

The National Coalition Against Censorship hosted a virtual luncheon to explore the various approaches to resolving tensions around historical public murals–including shrouding or relocating artworks, commissioning new works, innovative course offerings, and public programs. Works Progress Administration (WPA) murals on college campuses occupy a special category on the spectrum of fraught public art. Decidedly different from Confederate monuments and dormitories named after slave-holding benefactors, yet still troubling due to the flattened, exclusionary histories they portray. While some muralists inserted details that may be read as subversive and acknowledge America’s racist history, others perpetuated racial stereotypes in paint and stone. Aside from providing work to artists during the Great Depression, these murals in schools, libraries, and post offices were meant to uplift economically downtrodden communities. Today, however, universities are acknowledging that these works pose barriers for inclusion—and developing solutions to satisfy a host of constituencies. Participants also examined the context and outcomes in several cases, including controversial murals at the University of Kentucky and the University of Oregon. Participants: -Karyn Olivier, Artist and Associate Professor of Sculpture at Temple University, Philadelphia -Dr. Adriene Lim, Dean of Libraries at the University of Maryland, College Park -Anthony Huffman, Brooklyn-based scholar, curator, and cultural critic Recorded on February 16, 2021