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Murals Can Depict Traumatic History — Schools Must Decide What To Leave On Walls : NPR

Part of a nearly 100-year-old mural at George Washington High School in San Francisco.

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town destroyer


Part of a nearly 100-year-old mural at George Washington High School in San Francisco.

town destroyer

A mural at George Washington High School in San Francisco has been the subject of intense controversy.

Includes life-size images of dead Native Americans and scenes of George Washington and the people he enslaved. The city board of education voted to paint the mural and later decided to cover it up. The commission canceled the directive after a tough election dismissed his three members of the board.it’s all recorded town destroyer, New documentary streaming until October 16th.

“The artist’s intentions are important to some extent, but even more important is the impact on the audience,” said Alan Snitow and co-director Deborah Kaufman.

Jessica YoungA scholar who focuses on the memory of genocidal literature, he told filmmakers that these controversial mural images can become traumatic over time.

“The definition of trauma is that it’s repeated,” Young said. “Sometimes [it’s] It’s a complete repetition of the violent event itself, and sometimes that’s how we see something in our mind’s eye over and over again. , I think these stacks can become traumatic over time. ”

Among the mural’s proponents are actor Danny Glover, a notable high school alumnus, and Bay Area artist. Dewey Crumpler He was commissioned to paint a response to it in the late 1960s.

Dewey Crumpler traveled to Mexico to study other muralists before painting reactions to murals at George Washington High School.

GWHS Alumni Association


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GWHS Alumni Association


Dewey Crumpler traveled to Mexico to study other muralists before painting reactions to murals at George Washington High School.

GWHS Alumni Association

Crumpler said artist Victor Arnautov criticized American history in his 1936 work.

“All great murals exist to teach,” Crumpler said. “They exist to talk about history, and history is full of displeasure. Arnautov, like all great works, tried to make history clear to us.”

When Crumpler was in high school, he thought the Arnautov mural should be taken down. But before accepting the commission to paint the mural in response, he insisted that neither his mural nor the Arnautov mural should be destroyed. The alumni association is working to have the school inscribed on the National Register of Historic Places as a means of preserving this mural.)

These two murals about Vermont’s abolition of slavery are 8 x 24 feet each and were painted by Sam Carson in 1993.

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Paul Rodgers/Sam Carson


These two murals about Vermont’s abolition of slavery are 8 x 24 feet each and were painted by Sam Carson in 1993.

Paul Rodgers/Sam Carson

A mural of the Vermont Underground Railroad that hung in the student center of the Vermont Law School for nearly 30 years is capped by a wall erected around it. This mural was unveiled on Martin Luther King’s Junior Day in 1994.

Over the years, some law students and faculty have accused the artist’s naive folk art style of portraying African Americans as racist caricatures. Her Jameson Davis, one of his law students who opposed the mural, declined repeated requests for an interview from NPR.

Sam prepares digital images for an exhibition titled ‘Song of the Silenced’ to be unveiled in September 2022 at La Muse en Goguette gallery near Toulouse, France.

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Sam prepares digital images for an exhibition titled ‘Song of the Silenced’ to be unveiled in September 2022 at La Muse en Goguette gallery near Toulouse, France.

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Law school dean Beth McCormack said the mural was an insult to Vermont law school’s commitment to diversity.

“Forcing us to display artwork that a court has construed as speech is contrary to our values ​​and violates the First Amendment as it compels speech.” McCormack said. “Speech is protected under the First Amendment, but it also protects our right not to convey messages that conflict with our values.”

Vermont artist Sam Carson, who created the mural, now lives in Quebec. He suggested that the school install theater curtains to cover the murals. This is a solution, he said, that allows anyone who wants to see the work to see it.

“For institutions that say, ‘We’re going to whitewash this black history,'” Carson said, referring to his mural, “Now it’s something else.

Carson has exhibited life-size digital reproductions of his Underground Railroad murals in Quebec and most recently in France. He filed a lawsuit against the law school, citing the Visual Artists’ Rights Act, which protects the work of living artists. The lawsuit claims that “burying” the work degrades it. A federal judge in Vermont has ruled that the law school has the right to cover the Carson mural, but an appeal is expected early next year.

Fresco by Anne Rice O’Hanlon, University of Kentucky.

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Fresco by Anne Rice O’Hanlon, University of Kentucky.

Mark Cornelison

black student University of Kentucky protested against 1934 fresco by Anne Rice O’Hanlon It depicts four slaves crouching in a tobacco field. The university covered this fresco in his 2015 and published it two years later with additional background information. In 2018, the school commissioned Philadelphia artists Karin Olivier Create a reaction to O’Hanlon’s mural. Days after George Floyd’s murder, the university announced it would remove the mural. But Olivier said that if that happened, he would like me to take down his artwork.

The University of Kentucky commissioned Karin Olivier to create a response to the frescoes.

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The University of Kentucky commissioned Karin Olivier to create a response to the frescoes.

Mark Cornelison / Mark Cornelison

“I understand the motive, but I think that act made my work blind and taciturn,” said Olivier. “[My work] You can’t exist without artwork created to face you. In one fell swoop, I think you censored me too. ”

The building with the mural hasn’t been used since 2020, but O’Hanlon’s relatives have filed a lawsuit in state court to stop the removal.

“What concerns us is the willingness of institutions to destroy prominent works of art,” said the prominent Kentucky author. Wendell Berry“To destroy it forever is fundamentally irresponsible.”

In Indiana, African-American college students deemed images of the Ku Klux Klan on campus murals offensive, even though the Ku Klux Klan was depicted critically. .

Students at Indiana University protested the removal of a mural by Thomas Hart Benton depicting the Ku Klux Klan.

Bert Everson


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Bert Everson


Students at Indiana University protested the removal of a mural by Thomas Hart Benton depicting the Ku Klux Klan.

Bert Everson

“We are in an era where any Klan imagery is considered offensive,” it said. Henry AdamsProfessor of Art History at Case Western Reserve University several books About Thomas Hart Benton, the artist who painted the hooded clan members and burning crosses on his Indiana mural.

Adams said the Benton mural was a clear tribute to the Pulitzer Prize-winning Indiana newspaper for exposing clan control of state government.

“I think Benton has shown a lot of courage by presenting an important piece of Indiana history. I think that’s a warning. It’s a warning to us. Today: Democracy is always very fragile.”

for Amna KhalidA professor of history at Carleton College in Minnesota, these controversial murals are a teaching moment. She encourages her students to consider the context of these works.

“These were artists who were criticizing the American history taught in textbooks,” Khalid said. The fact that there is this movement of inattention to the moment is tragic to me.As a historian, it pains me.”

https://www.npr.org/2022/10/14/1127843326/when-murals-depict-traumatic-history-schools-must-decide-what-stays-on-the-wall Murals Can Depict Traumatic History — Schools Must Decide What To Leave On Walls : NPR

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