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It's one thing to strive for political correctness.
But it's another thing to censor based on misguided fears of how a decision might be perceived.
That's exactly what the board of trustees at the Youngstown-based Butler Institute of American Art did when it voted this month to table for one year a decision on whether to become custodian of a $130 million art collection that includes more than 66 original Norman Rockwell works.
By putting off the vote, the board might have effectively killed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to showcase the second-largest collection of original art by Rockwell, a renowned American artist.
Why did they do this?
Because the collection is owned by the Boy Scouts of America. You see, the board fears losing patrons or donors because of a stigma that might accompany the art based largely on a December Wall Street Journal article reporting potential legal and financial challenges the Boy Scouts of America faces from past child abuse allegations.
Howland attorney Ned Gold, a member of the Butler board who worked for two years to bring that collection to the Mahoning Valley, called the decision "incredibly disappointing."
That is an understatement.
In fact, we see the decision as incredibly short-sighted and unfair to the art community and museum patrons who otherwise never may have the opportunity to take in the history and beauty of this vast and wonderful collection that includes about 350 pieces, nearly all of which are Boy Scouts-related. The main attraction, of course, is the 66 works by Rockwell, renowned artist and illustrator. Boy Scouts of America was one of Rockwell's first employers.
Rockwell is an American-born artist, who left a legacy that is beyond reproach. He is widely known for his work painting covers for the Saturday Evening Post magazine, as well as for his 1943 enormously popular four interpretive paintings of America's freedoms: Freedom of Speech, Freedom to Worship, Freedom from Want and Freedom from Fear. Those works, inspired by President Franklin Roosevelt's address to Congress, toured the United States in an exhibition that, through the sale of war bonds, raised more than $130 million for the war effort.
Yes, this is the artist -- among others in the collection -- whose works may be denied a place in this museum of "American" art because of illogical fears about the collection's owner.
Here is what one reader said about the Butler's decision: "Is art once owned by (Adolf) Hitler or (Hermann Wilhelm) Goering less valuable because it was owned by despicable people? Or does the intrinsic value remain because the works were created by master painters? Nothing is diminished by a painting's history, no matter who the previous owners were."
Precisely.
The fact is, refusing to accept this amazing collection to exhibit right here in Howland and Youngstown simply because it is owned by the Boy Scouts of America is absurd.
John A. Anderson, a former Butler board member and director of Foundation Medici, the not-for-profit group that funded the construction of the Butler's Trumbull branch in Howland, equated the decision to censorship. He questioned whether the Butler is prepared to censor all art on an ongoing basis out of irrational fears of how its patrons and the community might view various works of art for varying reasons.
Of course, that would be equally ridiculous.
That fact is, the board of trustees made a terrible error in judgment. The good news is, there is still time to correct that mistake.
We urge the board of trustees to reconsider the decision and vote immediately to accept the collection.