Ogden’s annual arts grants, approved by the City Council on August 6, have new conditions this year regarding how the funds are used.
Recipients were informed of a new rule against “political advertising, lobbying, campaigning or editorials” – or “anything deemed offensive, abusive, obscene or inappropriate for the general public”.
The impetus for the change came from The LQ, a local queer arts zine that “featured an ad for Taylor (Knuth) as a candidate for mayor,” said city arts administrator Lorie Buckley at the June 11 meeting of the Ogden Arts Advisory Committee.
Knuth lost his candidacy for mayor to Ben Nadolski last November.
The LQ continues to receive cultural funding in its third year.
Buckley declined to comment for this article, but noted during the meeting that the amendment came from another part of the city government.
“I disagree, but the option was to make these changes or eliminate the arts grant,” she told the committee.
Hallows said only part of their funding comes from the city and that they can’t put conditions on the zine’s content. Given the strife in Utah and nationally over LGBTQ+ issues, he said, politics belongs in a queer publication.
“Who are they to tell us what we should recommend, what we should print, what is appropriate for the public, what is not, what is obscene,” he asked. “Where is the limit?”
Beyond the campaign ads, Hallows is concerned that the zine’s content could be viewed as political, offensive or inappropriate. To him, the change amounts to censorship.
“Being queer in America in 2024 is inherently political,” he said. “Frankly, people don’t want to see art that shows non-cis, non-heterosexual bodies. Our very existence is offensive to general audiences and could be offensive and deemed inappropriate.”
For Ogden, it’s a decision to “promote art that’s appropriate for the general public,” says Mara Brown, the city’s top administrative official.
“We are not trying to say what is art and what is not. We are simply exercising discretion in the use of public art funding.”
However, the change did not appear on the art scholarship application that was due in January.
Patrick Ramsay, owner of Happy Magpie Book & Quill, first saw the change in an email from the city’s arts coordinator.
“I would never have invested dozens of hours of my free time researching and applying for this fellowship if I had known that it came with conditions so subjective that I wouldn’t even be able to easily proceed with programming,” he said.
Ramsay wonders what would happen if someone found it offensive. His project involves paying local writers to run workshops in his second-hand bookshop, where he operates on a “pay what you can” basis.
“It’s art and it’s conversations about politics and the human experience, and sometimes that’s just more honest and ugly than things that maybe everyone in the general public would be comfortable with.”
Brown said the city has no process in place to govern what happens if a grant-funded project is deemed obscene or offensive, or to determine what qualifies as such. However, she noted that there are state regulations – such as the school code on “sensitive materials” – and that the state “does not fund things that are deemed offensive or obscene.”
“We haven’t actually had the opportunity to do that yet, but I think there might be some guidance that we could find if something came up where we felt we needed to exercise that discretion,” Brown said. “There’s always been a list of guidelines.”
According to the City of Ogden website, these guidelines include a requirement that projects be located in Ogden and have outside funding.
Rules similar to the new change exist in other cities. Provo Arts Grants cannot be used for “political lobbying,” and the Salt Lake City Arts Council will not support murals that “depict obscene, explicit material or hate speech.” However, the General Operating Support Grant guidelines do not include any restrictions on obscenity or offensiveness.
Hallows has not yet decided whether he will accept the scholarship.
“I think if we accept the funding, we will proceed with our planned program and see what impact it has,” he said.
Ramsay plans to reject the award unless the amendment is withdrawn and to share his views at the next meeting of the Ogden City Arts Committee and City Council.
“This wording is far too subjective for me to accept a scholarship in good conscience, knowing full well that I may not receive the money or that I may not get the money I invested in programming back.”
Hallows also plans to fight the change.
“We’re going to be loud and clear about it. It’s not going to happen without us making a big fuss about it.”
Macy Lipkin is a Report for America Corps member reporting for KUER in Northern Utah.
