What was meant to be an election-themed art exhibit turned out to be something else. Salem State University cancels its art pieces against President-elect Donald Trump because it offended certain minorities.
The art exhibit is called "State of the Union." Held in Salem State, the exhibit aimed to educate students and help them cope with the 2016 election results and its campaign. The exhibit was made by artist Garry Harley and Salem State University commissioned several art pieces from him.
Harley declares himself not a Trump supporter but his art work was quite controversial. Garry Harley provided two paintings to the anti-Trump exhibit, cites the Daily Caller. One of which has a picture of the Ku Klux Klan members on it and another are images of Nazi soldiers collecting Polish Jews.
Garry Harley wanted to initiate a provocative take on how Trump is going to be a danger to the American community. But instead of achieving that, his art pieces angered minority groups at Salem State University and the communities outside of the school.
People who have seen the exhibit claimed that they were offensive, particularly the KKK image. Many are already protesting online about what they have seen and are targeting the Caucasian teachers and students for it. Salem State University is already facing a ton of criticism for their exhibit.
Because of the backlash, Salem State held a forum last week to discuss about the paintings in the exhibit. To provide clarity, Harley even went to the forum and compared his works to that of Picasso and Goya.
However, not many were receptive to his pleas because of the anger coming from a wider minority community. The end result of it all comes down to Salem State University taking down the art and canceling the exhibit. According to publications, it is not worth defending Harley's art for art's sake.
In addition to closing down the anti-Trump exhibit at Salem State University, the school apologized for any distress the public and its students may have suffered.
