Pittsburgh Arts, Regional Theatre, New Work, Producing, Copyright, Labor Unions,
New Products, Coping Skills, J-O-Bs...
Theatre industry news, University & School of Drama Announcements, plus occasional course support for
Carnegie Mellon School of Drama Faculty, Staff, Students, and Alumni.
CMU School of Drama
Thursday, March 12, 2026
Text Messages Reveal How University of Texas Leaders Axed an Anti-ICE Show
hyperallergic.com: Weeks after the University of North Texas (UNT) abruptly axed an exhibition of works criticizing the treatment of immigrants in the United States, newly obtained internal communications show how university administrators deliberated their controversial action.
8 comments:
DogBlog
said...
This actually makes me so livid. Of all places, higher education institutions should be at the forefront of transformative and experimental art. The last thing they should ever be doing is censoring individual artists. I think this shows a very concerning trend in regards to universities and artistic censorship. This article mentions how the the University of North Texas (UNT) offered the explanation that the art works does not fit the requirements of promoting a “a safe and respectful campus environment” which is bullshit. The text messages in the article make it very clear that the reason the University of North Texas took down the exhibit was because of the pressure put on them by republican state legislature. If universities are not safe from government censorship, the places that are dedicated to the discovery of new knowledge, then who is? This whole situation is deeply concerning, both for free speech and expression, as well as democracy and freedom in this country.
I really have seriously had it with public institutions at this point. It's really reached a point were there is no credit to going to one of these places. After the University of Oklahoma situation. I've really began to ask the questions about the credibility of what these sort of places are even producing. You already have Universities like Ohio State basically sponsoring christian nationalism because they are practically owned by Les Wexner, and now they are acting on the behalf of preventing free speech, when they are public property. Of course you could argue that this might create an upset. But to be completely fair. In the Supreme Court case National Socialist Party V. Village of Skokie they basically established that any protest can happen on public property no matter what the intentions of the protest is. This will lead to a legal battle, and the University will lose. But to them its just another settlement as they expand their Monetary empire. Praying on students that are expecting a higher degree of education.
I think this shows us pretty clearly how involved politics is with the type of art we do, and I personally think that’s wrong. It should never be about “well we cant do this show because of the current political leadership.” We are basically glorified story tellers with fancy equipment, and stories are told at very specific times to ensure the past isn’t repeated and we grow as a human race, not because we want to appease the people approving our budgets, and it should never get to that point where we are worrying about that. It’s why people want Cabaret back on broadway so badly, that story tells us exactly what happened when people just stood aside as the world was lighting on fire with WW2, and how you need to take action on things you think are wrong. If we are setting this precedent to just say no to shows because they’re going to piss someone off up the food chain, that destroys the entire purpose of this art and the industry we are going into.
Scary, scary, scary… I used to read dystopian novels, but I can't anymore because they feel too much like real life. We need more champions of free speech and the arts right now. We need public figures, with money, to stand up and say I will give these voices a place. Create an art gallery that specifically invites artists whose shows have been censored or silenced. The US has become so insanely polarized that places for civil dialogue between people with different opinions has become few and far between. We’re each in our own echo chambers of people who think the same as us, and it's just as bad on the right as the left. How could artists in our industry cultivate experiences that encourage dialogue, while also maintaining the safety of the audience and artists. Not to be cliche and say “art changes the world” but art does have power. To unite people who are suffering, to call people to action, to call out injustices and demand change.
Art will always exist as the voice of the people and when that voice is barred or taken away art tends to find other ways to present itself. The thing that stuck out to me in this article was the lack of sincerity and truth used to tell the artist why their exhibit had been stopped. The ability to decide what voices are heard without justification because one does not agree with the statement is scary. I can understand the idea that if an exhibit is directly causing harm or safety concerns it can be moved or shut down but those terms have become used to manipulate artists words and freedom of expression. Censorship in general is an interesting concept that we will continue to deal with as a society. We as people will always share different opinions and because of this someone will always feel left out or fought against causing censorship to sometimes get out of hand. But as a community I believe that we all need to understand we're all just people trying to live our lives.
This is absolutely deplorable and only continues to show how horrible racist, xenophobic people are in power and use it to silence minorities and victims of racism and xenophobia. Censorship should have no place here in America; that is what freedom of speech preaches. Neither should racism or xenophobia or any discrimination, haven’t we learned anything from history? Especially xenophobia is absolutely laughable, as a majority of people in this country, even many people who are xenophobic themselves, ARE IMMIGRANTS. This country was built by immigrants and continues to be. It is horrendously stupid, especially since the actual Native Americans are treated absolutely horribly and as if they doesn’t belong on their own land. These actions are absolutely disgusting and I hope with all my heart that justice is eventually served to those responsible for this blatant censorship, xenophobia, racism, and discrimination. Our system is so broken that I unfortunately doubt they will be, but I can still hope eventually that punishment will be carried out.
I think it is absolutely awful when higher ups in an organization decide to shut down a project when they disagree with the message that the project is tiring to accomplish due to potential backlash that they may receive. It is like a parent stopping their child from wearing a shirt because the parent doesn't like the shirt it is just stopping the individuals ability to express themselves in the way that they see fit. The reason this particular instance in this article is even more upsetting is based on the timeline provided it looks like the creator of this exhibit when the through the proper steps to create the exhibit. It is just that after their exhibit was created the higher ups in the organization did not like it. Making it so that the creator of the exhibit's work went to waste. The alternative would have been stopping the exhibit at the start, and that is not better but at least it would have saved the creator's time.
8 comments:
This actually makes me so livid. Of all places, higher education institutions should be at the forefront of transformative and experimental art. The last thing they should ever be doing is censoring individual artists. I think this shows a very concerning trend in regards to universities and artistic censorship. This article mentions how the the University of North Texas (UNT) offered the explanation that the art works does not fit the requirements of promoting a “a safe and respectful campus environment” which is bullshit. The text messages in the article make it very clear that the reason the University of North Texas took down the exhibit was because of the pressure put on them by republican state legislature. If universities are not safe from government censorship, the places that are dedicated to the discovery of new knowledge, then who is? This whole situation is deeply concerning, both for free speech and expression, as well as democracy and freedom in this country.
I really have seriously had it with public institutions at this point. It's really reached a point were there is no credit to going to one of these places. After the University of Oklahoma situation. I've really began to ask the questions about the credibility of what these sort of places are even producing. You already have Universities like Ohio State basically sponsoring christian nationalism because they are practically owned by Les Wexner, and now they are acting on the behalf of preventing free speech, when they are public property. Of course you could argue that this might create an upset. But to be completely fair. In the Supreme Court case National Socialist Party V. Village of Skokie they basically established that any protest can happen on public property no matter what the intentions of the protest is. This will lead to a legal battle, and the University will lose. But to them its just another settlement as they expand their Monetary empire. Praying on students that are expecting a higher degree of education.
I think this shows us pretty clearly how involved politics is with the type of art we do, and I personally think that’s wrong. It should never be about “well we cant do this show because of the current political leadership.” We are basically glorified story tellers with fancy equipment, and stories are told at very specific times to ensure the past isn’t repeated and we grow as a human race, not because we want to appease the people approving our budgets, and it should never get to that point where we are worrying about that. It’s why people want Cabaret back on broadway so badly, that story tells us exactly what happened when people just stood aside as the world was lighting on fire with WW2, and how you need to take action on things you think are wrong. If we are setting this precedent to just say no to shows because they’re going to piss someone off up the food chain, that destroys the entire purpose of this art and the industry we are going into.
Scary, scary, scary… I used to read dystopian novels, but I can't anymore because they feel too much like real life. We need more champions of free speech and the arts right now. We need public figures, with money, to stand up and say I will give these voices a place. Create an art gallery that specifically invites artists whose shows have been censored or silenced. The US has become so insanely polarized that places for civil dialogue between people with different opinions has become few and far between. We’re each in our own echo chambers of people who think the same as us, and it's just as bad on the right as the left. How could artists in our industry cultivate experiences that encourage dialogue, while also maintaining the safety of the audience and artists. Not to be cliche and say “art changes the world” but art does have power. To unite people who are suffering, to call people to action, to call out injustices and demand change.
Art will always exist as the voice of the people and when that voice is barred or taken away art tends to find other ways to present itself. The thing that stuck out to me in this article was the lack of sincerity and truth used to tell the artist why their exhibit had been stopped. The ability to decide what voices are heard without justification because one does not agree with the statement is scary. I can understand the idea that if an exhibit is directly causing harm or safety concerns it can be moved or shut down but those terms have become used to manipulate artists words and freedom of expression. Censorship in general is an interesting concept that we will continue to deal with as a society. We as people will always share different opinions and because of this someone will always feel left out or fought against causing censorship to sometimes get out of hand. But as a community I believe that we all need to understand we're all just people trying to live our lives.
This is absolutely deplorable and only continues to show how horrible racist, xenophobic people are in power and use it to silence minorities and victims of racism and xenophobia. Censorship should have no place here in America; that is what freedom of speech preaches. Neither should racism or xenophobia or any discrimination, haven’t we learned anything from history? Especially xenophobia is absolutely laughable, as a majority of people in this country, even many people who are xenophobic themselves, ARE IMMIGRANTS. This country was built by immigrants and continues to be. It is horrendously stupid, especially since the actual Native Americans are treated absolutely horribly and as if they doesn’t belong on their own land. These actions are absolutely disgusting and I hope with all my heart that justice is eventually served to those responsible for this blatant censorship, xenophobia, racism, and discrimination. Our system is so broken that I unfortunately doubt they will be, but I can still hope eventually that punishment will be carried out.
I think it is absolutely awful when higher ups in an organization decide to shut down a project when they disagree with the message that the project is tiring to accomplish due to potential backlash that they may receive. It is like a parent stopping their child from wearing a shirt because the parent doesn't like the shirt it is just stopping the individuals ability to express themselves in the way that they see fit. The reason this particular instance in this article is even more upsetting is based on the timeline provided it looks like the creator of this exhibit when the through the proper steps to create the exhibit. It is just that after their exhibit was created the higher ups in the organization did not like it. Making it so that the creator of the exhibit's work went to waste. The alternative would have been stopping the exhibit at the start, and that is not better but at least it would have saved the creator's time.
The above post was mine.
Post a Comment