Steve Pfarrer’s recent article about the Northampton Arts Council’s apology for its cancellation of the Biennial Exhibit in 2021 brings up a number of points that need to be addressed [“Arts Council apologizes for canceling 2021 Biennial,” Gazette, March 28]. Many people feel that any apology containing the word “but” in it disqualifies it as an apology. I suggest that an apology coming a year and a half after an incident also renders it essentially meaningless. Why did the Arts Council choose to publish the apology on its website, but not in the newspaper? Are they hoping to avoid bringing new attention to the unresolved issues?

The apology lacks significant components. There was no apology to Doris Madsen, whose work was vilified at the meeting in which the council voted to cancel the Biennial. The vilification constituted a gross trampling of the council’s stated meeting norms, for which we see no apology. With a vote on the Biennial not having been listed as an agenda item, the vote itself constituted a violation of open meeting laws; we see no recognition nor apology for this. Most importantly, the Arts Council owes the creative community an apology for not standing up for Doris’s rights as an artist to be free from censorship. Instead, the council again puts forth its claims that there was no censorship involved, but rather that the process of inviting artists to submit to the Biennial was flawed, thus forming the basis for the cancellation. It defies logic to claim that the outreach was faulty, since many of the artists who attended the fateful meeting had indeed been reached and had submitted work; they largely complained about their work not having been accepted.

The apology should also have acknowledged the fact that the clumsy handling of the Biennial led to the Arts Council being unable to function for many months due to the loss of a quorum when members resigned in protest. It is unfortunate that the Arts Council never chose to have any kind of public forum in which these matters could have been debated. The absence of such debate makes it hard to believe that the Arts Council has any interest in hearing anything but its own opinions on the issues.

Stephen Petegorsky

Florence

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