Category : Artistic Freedom Case Studies
Victory is Not an Option

The Victory is Not an Option exhibition is a great example of how with the right training and preparation controversial art can inspire and reward
Music Theatre Wales / The Golden Dragon

Although MTW’s production of The Golden Dragon had received positive reviews in the press, some had expressed concerns that all five of the performers were white, despite the fact they were playing various Asian characters.
Eric Gill / The Body

The case study of the exhibition Eric Gill: The Body at Ditchling Museum of Arts & Crafts is different from the others in this section. In all the other cases, Index on Censorship got involved because artwork had been removed or cancelled, but in this case we were brought in at the early stage of the museum’s planning of an exhibition that was potentially divisive and controversial.
Brett Bailey / Exhibit B

The Barbican’s publicity material described Exhibit B as: “a human installation that charts the colonial histories of various European countries during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when scientists formulated pseudo-scientific racial theories that continue to warp perceptions with horrific consequences.”
Positive Hell

As part of its Art and Offence programme exploring censorship and self-censorship in the arts, Index on Censorship researches examples of censorship in UK theatre, film and visual arts. Index looked at the case of Positive Hell -- a short documentary film that challenges the scientific consensus on HIV and AIDS.
Spiritual America 2014

Spiritual America 2014 Xenofon Kavvadias As part of Index on Censorship’s programme looking into art, law and offence in the UK, this case study looks at Xenofon Kavvadias’s mission to exhibit Spiritual America by Richard Prince in public, effectively reversing the censorship of the image by Tate Modern who removed it from the gallery and […]