Neo-Nazis Nixed
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But Beacon Street Gallery director Pat Murphy apparently saw the work in a different light once the photos were on view. The gallery has been housed for the last 14 years in the Uptown Center Hull House, which is also home to social service organizations counseling troubled youths, battered women, and immigrant torture victims. Murphy says clients and workers in Hull House were disturbed by the imagery and wondered if it was promoting violence since it carried no explanatory text or disclaimer. Beacon Street has had a written policy since 1986 prohibiting art containing gang symbols, such as swastikas. “It’s a very volatile situation in this area,” she says, adding that in a neighborhood rife with gang violence “people could die if it looks like we’re taking a side.”
According to Knopp, two weeks after Kubiak and Rauch arrived to install the exhibit the Goethe-Institut received a call from Beacon Street asking that they remove two photos containing images of swastikas because there had been complaints. On October 26 Murphy called the Goethe-Institut and said that if the troublesome photos were not removed immediately the entire exhibit would be taken down. That same day Rauch and Kubiak replaced the photos with two different works and then wrapped the display cases in rubber to call attention to the fact that the contents had been changed.
In a move that could mean major changes for the 31-year-old Chicago International Film Festival, the management committee of the fest’s board of directors voted last week to remove founder Michael Kutza from his post as artistic director; any final action will have to be approved by the entire 32-member board. As reported in this column last summer, Kutza had come to loggerheads with board president Ellis Goodman, and sources indicated that Marc Evans, the festival’s programming director at the time, had been offered Kutza’s post. But Evans rejected the offer, citing a desire to head to Los Angeles to explore other opportunities in the film industry rather than play a role in Kutza’s ouster. Evans did not return calls earlier this week, but a source on the festival’s board says Goodman thought highly of Evans, who could be considered a prime candidate to replace Kutza.
