Censorship is Offensive

A departure from her beaded sculptural necklaces, Joyce Scott's Spring is a collaboration of significant proportions. Working with a glassblower, Scott integrated her intricate beadworking process into a free-standing figure, seated in a found chair from Zimbabwe. As one child scales her shoulder, the figure cradles in her lap a newborn child, an enduring symbol of rebirth and the cycle of the seasons.

Nashville's Frist Center for the Visual Arts has canceled an upcoming show featuring Ms. Scott's artworks At issue is one image of a black man hanging from a rope by his toe from a tree. Its title, and others, uses a common racial epithet for blacks. Another artwork depicts a portion of male genitalia. Story

Kickin' It with Joyce Scott has toured the country since 2000. Her images can be arresting and downright disturbing. Too much so for Nashville apparently. Censorship over racial and sexual issues still prevails in the Old South.

Disregarding her artistic message we would find that even Ms. Scotts most innocuous works would not qualify under St. Augustine City Code as protected speech. According to St. Augustine's arcane and poorly written code she is using the wrong material to qualify as free speech protected art. More