Chicago has given much to the creation and understanding of art, from its beloved Picasso sculpture and that great bean in Millenium Park, to what’s taught in the city’s schools and universities.
And Tuesday’s special meeting of the City Council’s Committee on Special Events, Cultural Affairs and Recreation — called to address a pro-Gaza art display at the Cultural Center that’s been called antisemitic — could have contributed to this by providing a forum to properly hash out what should be the public’s response to controversial public artwork.
Instead, the aldermanic hearing went cattywampus after progressive Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) accused Ald. Bill Conway (34th) of being a “white supremacist.”
The remark was bad enough for committee chair Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38th) to eject Sigcho-Lopez from the proceedings.
And an opportunity to enlighten the public was lost.
The controversial artwork is a puppet display titled “U.S.-Israel War Machine.” The puppet features a bloody Uncle Sam on one side, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the other, and the words “children killers” and “murders” at the base.
The work also depicts bombs and smoke. The majority of the City Council had previously viewed the work as antisemitic and voted for its removal.
Ald. Debra Silverstein (50th), the council’s only Jewish member, has led the charge against the display and the called unsuccessfully for Cultural Affairs and Special Events Commissioner Clinee Hedspeth to remove it — which led to Tuesday’s hearing.
Sigcho-Lopez and Conway made up and the artwork remains, although it now carries a content warning sign that was placed there a few weeks ago after concerns about the display’s subject matter were raised.
But as for the meeting itself, nothing was decided, little was accomplished, and the insult of an alderperson with a demonstrated propensity for grand-standing ends up carrying the day.
The City Council — Sigcho-Lopez in particular — had the chance to show the country that it’s possible at this time to have a spirited but civilized conversation about public art and free speech.
And that’s all the more important now with free speech and artistic expression already under assault nationally at the hands of the new presidential administration.
The public owns and funds the Cultural Center. Chicago deserved a proper debate over what’s shown there. City Council failed to deliver.
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