Update, Aug 13, 2024: In a meeting of the Ogden City Arts Commission, some of the restrictive language of the grant amendment was rolled back. The prohibition on political advertising remains, but the intent of the restriction was clarified. Our original story continues below.
Ogden’s annual arts grants, which the city council approved on Aug. 6, have new conditions on how the funding can be used this year.
Recipients were informed of a new rule against “political advertising, lobbying, campaigning, or editorials” – or “anything that would be considered objectionable, offensive, obscene, or inappropriate for the general public.”
The amendment was prompted by The LQ, a local queer art zine, that “had an ad in there for Taylor [Knuth] for mayor,” said City Arts Administrator Lorie Buckley at the June 11 meeting of Ogden Arts Advisory Committee.
Knuth lost his bid for mayor to Ben Nadolski last November.
The LQ still received arts funding for a third year.
Buckley declined to comment for this story. But in the meeting, she noted that the amendment was coming from elsewhere within the city government.
“I don’t agree, but the option was, make these changes or we’re canceling the arts grant,” she told the committee.
Kye Hallows, the publisher of The LQ, said only a portion of their funding comes from the city and asserts that they cannot put conditions on the zine’s content. Given the fights in Utah, and nationally, over LGBTQ+ issues, politics, he said, belong in a queer publication.
“Who are they to say what our endorsements are, what we can print, what's appropriate for the general public, what's not appropriate for the general public, what’s obscenity,” he asked. “Just, where's the line?”
Beyond campaign ads, Hallows is concerned that the content of the zine could be considered political, offensive or inappropriate. To him, the amendment amounts to censorship.
“Being queer in America in the year 2024 is inherently political,” he said. “People don't want to see art depicting non-cis, non-straight bodies, honestly. Just our very existence is offensive to and could be objectionable and could be deemed inappropriate for general audiences.”
To Ogden, it’s a choice to “fund art that is suitable for the general public,” said Mara Brown, the city’s chief administrative officer.
“We're not trying to say what's art, what's not art. We're just exercising discretion in the use of public art grant funding.”
However, the amendment did not appear in the arts grant application, which was due in January
Patrick Ramsay, owner of Happy Magpie Book & Quill, first saw the amendment in an email from the city’s arts coordinator.
“I never would have put a dozen hours of my personal time into researching and applying for this grant, if I would have known that it came with these sorts of strings attached that are so subjective that I can't even comfortably move forward with the programming,” he said.
Ramsay wonders what would happen if someone deems it offensive. His project would pay local writers-in-residence to lead workshops at his pay-what-you-can used bookstore.
“It's art, and it's conversations about politics and the human experience, and sometimes that is just more honest and uglier than things that maybe everyone in the general public would be comfortable with.”
Brown said the city has no procedure in place governing what would happen if a grant-funded project were considered obscene or offensive, or to determine what qualifies as such. However, she noted there are state codes — such as the school “sensitive materials” law — and the state “doesn't fund things that would be considered objectionable or obscene.”
“We actually haven't had the opportunity to do this as well, but I think there might be some guidance that we would find if something were to come up, that we felt that we needed to exercise that discretion,” Brown said. “There’s always been a list of guidelines.”
Those guidelines, according to the Ogden City website, include requirements that the projects be based in Ogden and be matched by outside funds.
Similar rules to the new amendment exist in other cities. Provo Arts Grants may not be used for “political lobbying,” and the Salt Lake City Arts Council does not support murals that “depict obscene, explicit material, or hate speech.” The guidelines, however, for General Operating Support Grants do not list limitations related to obscenity or offensiveness.
Hallows hasn’t decided whether he’ll accept the grant.
“I think that if we do take the funding, we will go forward with our intended programming and wait and see what the repercussions are,” he said.
Ramsay plans to decline the award unless the amendment is removed and share his views at the next Ogden City Arts Committee and City Council meetings.
“That language is way too subjective for me to feel comfortable accepting a grant knowing that the money could possibly not actually be given to me, or that I would not be reimbursed for the money that I put into the programming.”
Hallows also plans to fight the amendment.
“We're going to be loud about it. It's not just going to go down without making a fuss about it.”
Macy Lipkin is a Report for America corps member who reports for KUER in northern Utah.
