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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huckleberries Online

Meat Art Censored In Spokane

"This has kinda put me off meat, to be honest,” Ryan Desmond says, sitting on a stool in Neato Burrito, surrounded by his paintings, which hang from the duct work like sides of beef in a meat locker. Two months in a row, now, patrons of Spokane’s First Friday art walk have gazed upon Desmond’s large-scale paintings of raw cuts of meat at local bars, only to find them pulled from the walls by the time the work week rolls around. The first time, in May at Soulful Soups & Spirits, the paintings hung through the weekend, when a bar crowd dominates. By the time of Monday’s lunch rush, however, they were taken down. Owners feared that the paintings would offend their mostly vegetarian customer base/Luke Baumgarten, Inlander. More here. (Inlander photo)

Question: When does discretion re: customers' feelings toward art become censorship?



D.F. Oliveria
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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