Embracing Our Differences, an arts and education nonprofit, announced this week that it had canceled an art exhibit scheduled to be staged on the Manatee-Sarasota campus of the State College of Florida (SCF) this April.
Since 2003, the organization has put on an annual show in Bayfront Park in Downtown Sarasota and, for the nonprofit’s 20th anniversary this year, it was going to travel for the first time. The third stop on the tour was to be SCF, which began talks with the organization early last year.
But earlier this month, officials from the university approached the nonprofit to advise that it wanted the words “diversity” and “inclusion” excised from the exhibit, Sarah Wertheimer, executive director of Embracing Our Differences, told ARTnews.
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“But promoting those values is literally the goal of our organization,” Wertheimer said.
Embracing Our Differences typically uses billboards, with art and photographs sourced through international submissions, to teach about diversity and inclusion.
While negotiating the terms of the exhibit, SCF requested that three pieces in it be put up for discussion in case the works were triggering or difficult for their students. The university said it was especially concerned about student-veterans who suffer from PTSD, according to Wertheimer. Embracing Our Differences agreed and, in turn, asserted that if the integrity of the show were in jeopardy, it had the right to cancel its presentation at the Manatee-Sarasota campus. The nonprofit also brought a child and adult psychologist on their board in order to consider the effect of showing any potentially harmful work.
Then, according to Wertheimer, in early February, after the artworks had been selected, an SCF spokesperson called to raise concerns about the use of the words “diversity” and “inclusion,” particularly in a piece that displays a quotation submitted by a 5th-grader from India, that reads: “Diversity and inclusion are like the needle and thread that stitch together the harmonious fabric of peace for humankind.” Another work that was to be censured is titled “Good Trouble” and was made by an SCF graduate.
“I asked if this was up for discussion, but they were firm that they wanted these pieces removed,” Wertheimer said. “So we knew we needed to stand strong and not let our artists be censored.”
Though the show was pulled from SCF, it can still be viewed at other locations—it may just be a little less convenient for the K–12 schools in Manatee County that had planned field trips there. Tens of thousands of schoolchildren visited last year’s exhibition, according to the nonprofit’s website.
Wertheimer added that the day the nonprofit got the call was the same day Florida Governor Ron DeSantis spoke at the campus about his new proposed legislation that will eliminate funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
DeSantis’s office has said it believes DEI initiatives to be a tactic “of liberal elites who suppress free thought in the name of identity politics and indoctrination,” according to a recent press release. That proposed legislation has not yet been passed into law.
SCF did not respond to multiple requests for comment. However, faculty with SCF sent along a statement drafted by the United Faculty of Florida-State College of Florida chapter, telling ARTnews in an email that “We feel it’s important the public know that the actions of the administration do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of the faculty.”
The statement points out a variety of concerns that faculty have over the censorship of the artwork and push back on the narrative that SCF has provided for their censorship. SCF administration told faculty that, “We also took into consideration the values of the college, the recent vandalism of EOD’s display and current threats of violence on school campuses,” according the UFF-SCF statement. But as the faculty point out, one of the four Institutional Values of SCF is inclusivity: one of the words the administration didn’t want included in the exhibition.
The statement also added that not only were the words “diversity” and “inclusivity” censored but that the college also didn’t want the words “equality” and “justice” included in the exhibit. That justice as a concept has not been directly targeted by Ron DeSantis’s proposed DEI-related legislation yet still came under censure by the SCF administration “troubled” the SCF faculty greatly.
Update 2/24/2023 11:56 AM: This article has been updated to add a statement by the United Faculty of Florida-State College of Florida chapter.