NY City Art Vendor Protest “Messy Reality of Free Speech”

Last week we reported on the planned protest by NY City art vendors group, ARTIST, concerning the NYC Department of Parks’ proposal of new rules for street artists who display or sell art in NYC Parks.

Robert Lederman has told Clancco that media coverage of the protest was not only biased against ARTIST and art vendor protesters, but also unfairly characterized the protest.  Lederman:

The actual number of artists protesting was more than 500 (video link here).  Some newspapers went out of their way to minimize us, claiming there were only 100 artists in total. Others were far more accurate. We filled the street, the hall (300 plus seats) and there was still a long double line of artists around the block after the hall was filled. The protest took up both sides of 25th street and spilled out into the street itself.

Lederman adds that the “anti-artist campaign” has “enlisted Henry Stern (former Parks Commissioner), Ed Wallace(former City Councilmember now a lawyer and lobbyist for the BIDs [Business Improvement Districts]) and David Ferguson (an elderly poet on whose behalf Stern and Wallace created the Written Matter Exemption in 1982) to attack us and claim we are not even artists let alone First Amendment protected and that we are destroying the Parks. That’s how it goes in a war. Both sides use propaganda and try to influence the media as a weapon. It’s all part of the messy reality of free speech.”

As to what NYC art vendors can do to counter this “campaign,” Lederman concludes:

You can fight back by creating art at your stand (it proves we are artists) and always displaying signs (the more, the bigger, the better). Ultimately, the hundreds of thousands who see you in parks every day will understand the truth for themselves. Let your signs disprove the media spin. The signs are our own totally independent free speech media machine. Crank it up!

Tags: Art Law, artistic disobedience, constitutionality of art, first amendment and art, Free Speech, new york city and art vendors, protest art