Student's Artwork 'Too Disruptive' For Display: Report

GREENDALE, WI -- A Greendale student's art project drew differing opinions between school administration and a local minority advocacy group over the content of its message.

Members of Greendale PAGE say the poster was created by an African-American student, who was fulfilling an art assignment that addressed stereotypes. The student's work depicted a solitary figure on its canvas, surrounded by racially-charged words and phrases. School administrators say posting the artwork went too far and took it down. Members of Greendale PAGE say the artwork shows what minority students go through on a daily basis and should have remained posted.

According to school officials on June 5, students in an advanced art class completed their final projects, with one of the allowable genres being to create a visual display that would point out stereotypes and allow viewers to engage in discourse.

The artwork in question was displayed for a total of 90 minutes before school administrators learned of it and took it down.

"One student’s visual project dealt with stereotypes and racism, and included racial slurs that are NOT appropriate in our learning environment. As soon as this piece was brought to administration’s attention, after about 90 minutes on display, it was promptly removed," Superintendent Gary Kiltz said in a letter sent to parents following the incident. "These words have the potential to create substantial disruption within the school. The messages contained on this art are upsetting, especially in light of the work our District does to build a culture and community of acceptance, inclusion and understanding in our schools."

Members of Greendale PAGE took a decidedly different tone over the matter, saying the student followed the examples of other notable black leaders in exposing the harms that have been historically visited upon people of color, in an effort to push contemporary conversations toward confronting racism.

"While P.A.G.E. sympathizes with school administrators’ concerns and shock at the use of vicious epithets in the school, the knee-jerk response of removing it suggests that they do not grasp that terms like these have a very different weight when used in a critical manner by those at whom they are usually directed," the group said in a statement to Patch. "In using racial epithets to expose the violence of racism, the student followed the example of Malcolm X, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., James Baldwin, Angela Davis, and many other great Black thinkers. The removal of the artwork shows no appreciation of the the student’s perspective on the terms as a Black person fighting racism on a daily basis."