Bateman Opts Out Pres. Takes Stand Against Art Censorship

By Phuong Tran ‘15

Published March 2015

For the past 24 years, Randolph College’s Maier Museum has enjoyed a successful partnership with Lynchburg City Schools (LCS). As part of this partnership, the museum holds several curated tours for second-graders and fifth-graders from the city’s eleven elementary public schools. Initiated and developed as an extension of classroom learning, the Art and SOL Tours program has contributed significantly to public school curricula, as required by the Virginia Department of Education’s standards of learning objectives for visual arts, language, and social studies. Despite the long engagement, LCS decided to cancel the spring SOL tour for second-graders at the very last minute, leaving the museum staff and over 40 docents who had worked diligently to prepare the tours at a loss for words.

The cancellation came about due to a controversy over the John Carroll painting, Summer Afternoon, which displays nudity. The LCS, acting in loco parentis (in place of the parent), decided that the community standards here in Lynchburg do not allow second-graders to view nude paintings, as it is stated in Code of Virginia for Family Life Education that sex education does not start until fourth grade. “We do not feel that there is anything wrong with school children seeing this painting,” said President Bateman, who took a firm decision opposing censorship. “It is not an erotic painting, it’s not sexualized. It’s just a nude painting, but nude doesn’t mean sex.”

"The LCS, acting in loco parentis (in place of the parent), decided that the community standards here in Lynchburg do not allow second-graders to view nude paintings..."

Both President Bateman and Maier Museum Director Martha Johnson were aware that this may raise issue to some parents. They proposed to the LCS an opt-out option which allows parents to decide whether or not it would be appropriate to let their children participate in the SOL tour. “I was under the impression a year ago that parents being provided an ‘opt-out’ solution was satisfactory to all parties and was going to be the model for this kind of situation going forward because it respected the differing opinions of all LCS families,” wrote Johnson to LCS Superintendent Scott Brabrand at the news of the cancellation.

LCS principals were still unhappy with the solution and felt that it was a compromise they reluctantly accepted. Questioning the default position that would support exposure to “children so young,” the principals voted unanimously to cancel the SOL tour this year, a decision that Johnson found disturbing.

“I am offended that in loco parentis trumps actual parents,” she said. “Clearly, what the school system is deciding as appropriate is a position with which I don’t agree, and I have children myself. They are deciding what is inappropriate on my behalf, and I have a problem with that. The opt-out allows parents to have the power to make that decision. It is respectful to a variety of opinions about this issue, so why that option doesn’t work is puzzling to me.”

Communication Professor Jennifer Gauthier, whose son is a second-grader, was disappointed at the news of the cancellation. “Art museums are such a valuable site for learning about other cultures and values; seeing art opens up young peoples’ eyes to forms of creativity they may have never encountered,” she said. “I worry about children who will never get to visit a museum or engage with art in their lives; cancelling this visit for all schoolchildren means that their worlds just got a little smaller.”

Despite the cancellation of the tour for second-graders, the LCS will continue to partner with the Maier Museum for age-appropriate trips. Johnson believes that it’s time the Maier Museum rethink its model for the SOL tours in the past 15 years and focus more on tours for middle and high school students. “Because our exhibitions are thought-provoking, and sometimes challenging, it is probably more appropriate for intellectually sophisticated students than second-graders to come to our museum,” she said. “I do believe that it is appropriate for people of all ages to come to the museum, but maybe we can be more meaningful to middle school or high school students than a second grader.”