Warhol Foundation Threatens to End Smithsonian Funding

Regarding the recent National Portrait Gallery fiasco over their removal of David Wojnarowicz’s video, the Warhol Foundation has taken an aggressive stance and threatened the Smithsonian with zero future funding if the NPG does not restore Wojnarowicz’s video.

The Warhol Foundation is proud to have been a lead supporter of Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture, but we strongly condemn the decision to remove David Wojnarowicz’s video A Fire in My Belly from the exhibition. Such blatant censorship is unconscionable. It is inimical to everything the Smithsonian Institution should stand for, and everything the Andy Warhol Foundation does stand for.

After careful consideration, the Board voted unanimously to demand that you restore the censored work immediately, or the Warhol Foundation will cease funding future exhibitions at all Smithsonian institutions.

You can read the Warhol Foundation’s letter here. What do you  make of this move by the Warhol Foundation? Aggressive? Timely? And more importantly, will it set new funding standards?

Tags: censorship, Free Speech, NEA, nonprofits, private, public, Religion, video