USM Symposium in response to Tom Manning art censorship

Portland Victory Gardens Project wrote:

Hello fellow Victory Gardeners and friends of free speach,

Portland VGP member Daniel Chard will be speaking with others on the November 15 symposium panel described below, on the topic of "Controversy in the Public University: Who Decides?" The symposium was organized by a committee of the USM faculty senate in response to USM President Richard Pattenaudes cancelling of the scheduled campus exhibit of political prisoner Tom Manning's art work in September, following the vocal protests of various police agencies. Please join us at this event, and share your thoughts on this important issue.

PVGP

----- Forwarded message -----


>>> Sharmon Toner 11/2/2006 3:24 PM >>>

NEWS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 1, 2006

Symposium on Free Speech at Public Universities Slated for 11/15 at
USM

"Controversy in the Public University: Who Decides?" -- the second
of two symposia USM planned to explore issues relating to the closing
of a controversial art exhibit, has been scheduled. It will take
place from 4-6 p.m., Wednesday, November 15, in USM's Woodbury Campus Center Amphitheater on the Portland campus. The public is invited.

Participants in "Controversy in the Public University: Who
Decides?" will be USM President Richard L. Pattenaude; Portland Press
Herald City Editor Andrew Russell; USM Muskie School Professor of
Public Policy and Management Bruce Clary; USM Gallery Director
Carolyn Eyler; USM student Marie Follayttar; and Portland Victory
Gardens Project representative / USM Student Daniel Chard. The Maine State Troopers Association has been invited to send a representative, but have not confirmed at this time. The panel will by moderated by USM Professor of Education Lynne Miller, who is co-holder of the 2005-2007 Walter E. Russell Chair in Philosophy and Education at USM.

USM closed the exhibit, "Can't Jail the Spirit: Art by 'Political Prisoner' Tom Manning and Others," on Friday, September 8, citing that "any reasoned discussion of ideas has been overshadowed completely by Mr. Manning's and Mr. Levasseur's criminal acts, and the pain and suffering they caused." USM scheduled two symposia to explore issues related to this cancelled exhibit. The first symposium, "Changes in Activism, Political Repression, and Subversive Art, 1960's-Present" took place in October, and looked at the debate concerning what constitutes a political prisoner and subversive art in the U.S.

For more information, call USM Director of Community Service &
Civic Engagement and Interfaith Chaplaincy Andrea Thompson McCall at
228-8284.


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Judie Alessi O'Malley
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