Blog / 2017 / You Make a Difference.

It all came down to one person. When they were gone, so was the support. And without that, there couldn’t be art—or at least not my art.

The story began last summer, when two libraries in Ocean County, New Jersey, asked to show my work. The first was thrilled to exhibit my art until I sent them the description for the show, Crime Against Nature. Through stonewalling and other unsettling behavior, my contact there communicated to me that art which teaches viewers about the fact that, in nature, females and males don’t always follow traditional gender roles was not acceptable at a public library around here.

Given the unpleasant series of interactions I had with the first library, I was very direct with the second one, prepared for the worst and unwilling to be treated rudely again. Happily, my contact there returned the favor, negotiating with me about what the show should look like. The whole exchange was appropriate and professional, a model of precisely what an artist needs in order to feel good about displaying art.

Unfortunately, now that it’s time to actually exhibit the work, my contact at the second library has moved on to another position. Their replacement was behaving a lot like the person at the first library—doing the whole “not answering” thing—as I tried to nail down show logistics. I don’t feel good about displaying my art with someone like that. I cancelled the exhibit.

One person makes the difference.