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Newsday.com

Brooklyn art exhibit on police shootings draws ire

BY SARAH PORTLOCK
Special to Newsday; Staff writer Rocco Parascandola contributed to this story.

March 1, 2008

City and state officials defended an exhibit at a Brooklyn museum Friday, where targetlike depictions of people who have been shot by police have upset city officers.

The retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, "Welcome to America," was created by Dread Scott, who focuses on police and governmental violence and marginalized members of society.

Six victims of police shootings, including Amadou Diallo, who was shot in the Bronx in 1999, are represented by targets in the mixed-media installation, titled "The Blue Wall of Violence." Below the targets, three nightsticks rigged to a motor strike a wooden coffin.

Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, blasted the exhibit, calling on city and state agencies to cut the museum's funding.

"You can fill the museum with people of all races and ethnicities who are alive today because of the work of New York City police officers," Lynch said in a statement. "Taxpayer dollars certainly should not fund any art that promotes hate, and that's certainly what this does."

The Fort Greene museum receives $61,000 in city and state funding through the state Council on the Arts and the city's Department of Cultural Affairs, said its founder, Laurie Cumbo.

Scott, 43, said he draws inspiration from his experiences as a black man. "I want people to think about what their country does in their name," he said. Responding to the criticisms, Scott said, "There are some critics, and those critics happen to wear guns and shoot people.

"There are other people who are often shot at by people like that, and they think this represents their interest and ideas."

Heather Hitchens, executive director of the arts council, and Kate Levin, commissioner of the cultural affairs department, both said their organizations, which did not provide direct funding for this exhibition, support the museum. "It is always the council's policy to support artistic excellence and the creative freedom of artists without censure," Hitchens said in a statement.

The museum, Levin said in a statement, "is one of many cultural organizations in Downtown Brooklyn that together are creating economic activity and improving quality of life in the community."

City Council member Letitia James (D-Fort Greene) toured the gallery Friday and said public funds should not be cut off. "I believe in the freedom of expression," James said. "[This art] is a reflection of how certain sections of our community feel, and you can't ignore it."

Scott said if he were making the installation today, it would include Sean Bell, who was shot by police in November 2006. The timing of the exhibit, as three detectives are tried in his shooting, was coincidental, he said.

Cumbo said she was "taken aback" by the negative responses. "I think controversy comes when you're trying to sway someone or your audience's way of thinking," she said. "We're not trying to put out ideas that they should subscribe to. We're just documenting history."

Staff writer Rocco Parascandola contributed to this story.

Copyright © 2008, Newsday Inc.


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