It's a Christmas Miracle: Non-Christmasy Art Saved by Superhero Local Paper

image via artistsoulspeaks.wordpress.com

I love the Magic Kingdom of Brooklyn during the holidays. It's a time when all its many peoples come together in peace and tolerance to celebrate our diversity. Here's an example: the recent case of Park Slope artist, Judith Z. Miller VS. Con Edison.

Ms. Miller was commissioned by Con Ed to spruce up the lobby of their offices in downtown Brooklyn for the month of December. When her installation was completed,  lobby curator Leon Kalas sent her an email stating that "employees demand a festive lobby … during the Christmas holidays."  Her art apparently "explores spiritual themes by carving animals into tree trunks" and was deemed unsatisfactory. She and her carved woodland creatures were promptly sent packing.

According to Miller, she was commissioned by Con Ed to display her work down on Fulton Street as part of a revolving artist showcase, and that the only stipulations were that the art wasn't religious or pornographic. Miller said she chose the month of December not for it's holiday fantastical wonderment, but to make a buck during the gift giving season. 

Con-Ed fired back with an email to her:

“Your exhibit has been cancelled. [Con Edison] has the right to ask for a festive look during the holidays.”

Needless to say she was incensed:

“They’re making an assumption that Christmas is for everybody." It’s so offensive.”

Miller, "who is Jewish by birth and Pagan by approach," was getting ready to take the exhibit down when the Brooklyn Paper ran the story this past Tuesday.  The next day the paper ran an updated story claiming that Con Ed had changed their tune:

'Some employees felt the work didn’t capture the holiday spirit, but we are leaving it up through the end of the month as originally planned,' the company said in an unsigned statement issued to BrooklynPaper.com on Tuesday.

The Brooklyn Paper took full credit for Con Ed's change of heart:

Con Edison has decided not to pull the plug on a holiday art show featuring “pagan”-themed pieces by a Park Slope artist, changing its corporate mind after a BrooklynPaper.com article highlighted the censorship.

Miller said the paper helped, but she claimed it was her speaking out against the energy superpower that did the trick. 

I was taught by my mother at an early age to speak up when I saw anyone mistreated. Also, I have a lifelong commitment to artistic freedom. The price we pay for silence is oppression.

But we should all really give a nod to that Ghost of Christmas Future (the fear of lawsuit after media attention) that worked his/her magic. Says Miller:

Once Con Ed realized that the media was aware of their wrongful treatment of me, they suddenly changed their tune. Prior to this, they figured, I guess, that I would go away quietly while they imposed ‘default Christianity.’

So really this is a story with a warm and fuzzy ending.

On a side note: Did you know that the Brooklyn Paper is also fully responsibly for the success of  Andrew Dice Clay?