Vermont Law School has been entangled in a legal debate over a mural for some time. At the core of the legal discourse was the question whether the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) prevents an artist’s work from being concealed. The mural, created by Sam Kerson, celebrates Vermont’s involvement in the Underground Railroad. However, the work has drawn criticism due to an art style that some claim illustrates Black people as Sambos, leading to controversy within the Vermont Law School community. The Second Circuit, has now issued a verdict, ruling not in favour of the artist, Kerson. According to a report by the ABA Journal, murals that are deemed offensive are allowed to be covered up over the artist’s objections that such actions violate their rights.
The rights in question involve the authority to prevent distortions, mutilations, or modifications of an artwork that could potentially harm the artist’s reputation or honour. According to the Second Circuit’s verdict, encasing artwork behind a barrier neither modifies nor destructs the work, in the context of the Visual Artists Rights Act. Thus, the abolitionist mural appears likely to be concealed behind a covering.
While some may argue that the mural isn’t offensive, this judgement gives a wide berth to the realities of those living and working at Vermont Law School, who are subjected to the artwork’s presence on a daily basis. The regulation of disputed artworks, like this mural or a statue of Columbus, should centre those who are directly involved with the art and its related history.
This decision has been met with robust opposition from Kerson’s attorney, Steve Hyman, who has expressed his disagreement with the Second Circuit’s ruling. As reported in Law and Crime, Hyman forewarns that permanently entombing murals of such dimensions that cannot be moved and can never be seen again is contrary to what Congress clearly intended in enacting the statute. Irrespective of whether the case makes it to the Supreme Court, it presents a fascinating judicial question around the preservation of an artist’s honour and reputation in connection with their work.