!! !! Giuliani Gives Billionaires $67 Million for Art Museum
ARTISTpres
by Robert Lederman
[See below: Daily News 11/29/2000 Rudy Has His Art Set on E.
River Museum]
No New Yorker should imagine that Mayor Giuliani, aka "The
Enemy Of Art", is trying to promote culture by backing a new art
museum on the East River. This is the same Mayor who has
ordered hundreds of artists illegally arrested, who has had more
original art confiscated and destroyed than Adolf Hitler and who
submitted an appeal brief to the US Supreme Court in 1997
seeking to eliminate First Amendment protection for all visual
art.
His 1977 appeal brief stated:
"An exhibition of paintings is not as communicative as speech,
literature or live entertainment, and the artists' constitutional
interest is thus minimal." -Giuliani appeal brief against street
artists having First Amendment protection, Giuliani v Lederman
et al and Giuliani v Bery et al, filed with the U.S.Supreme Court
2/24/97.
Elizabeth Freedman, an attorney speaking on behalf of the
N.Y.C. Corporation Counsel's office [Mayor Giuliani’s 680
lawyers-yes, he needs that many] explained the City's anti-art
position during a radio interview. "Visual art...does not express
ideas", Ms. Friedman said, "and as such is not entitled to First
Amendment protection." 2/24/97 radio interview WNYC's
syndicated business news show, "Marketplace".
[See: http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nydem7.html for an
expose on the Corporation Counsel].
The past seven years of the Giuliani administration has been
notable for featuring more persecution of artists, more censorship
of museums and more violations of the First Amendment than the
entire previous 335 years of NYC history. As in all things
Giuliani, this is nothing more than another badly disguised effort
on behalf of his favorite real estate developers.
If as has been suggested Mayor Jailiani wants a monumental
symbol of his "legacy", why not build another jail to replace the
sweltering rat-infested Central Booking dungeon below 100
Centre Street through which hundreds of thousands of
falsely-arrested people are processed each year? He could have it
decorated for free with the paintings illegally confiscated from
the City's street artists, few of which have ever been returned.
Do the billionaires on the board of the Guggenheim need a $67
million donation from NYC taxpayers to build their latest fake
art museum/tourist souvenir store? About as much as the
Rockefeller family needed the $65 million Giuliani gave them in
1998 to renovate their museum/tourist gift shop and collection of
Nazi-confiscated paintings.
Let the Guggenheim pay for its own museum. Like MOMA (the
Rockefeller's Museum of Modern Art), which recently had
Giuliani eliminate freedom of expression on 53rd Street by
restricting the street 24 hours a day seven days a week to street
artists, the Guggenheim museum branch in SoHo has been at the
forefront alongside Mayor Giuliani in violating the very same
artistic freedoms they pretend to be promoting.
All artists, art collectors and museum goers should boycott all
branches of both the Guggenheim and MOMA until they take a
stand on behalf of artistic freedom in NYC, the so-called Art and
Culture Capital of the World.
-------------------------------------------------
See: http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html for the street
artist court cases and history.
Daily News 11/29/2000 Rudy Has His Art Set on E. River
Museum
By LISA L. COLANGELO
Daily News Staff Writer
For Mayor Giuliani, a new Guggenheim Museum on the East
River would be a sparkling jewel in the crown of the world's
cultural capital.
It wouldn't be a bad personal legacy, either.
Model for proposed new Guggenheim Museum on the East
River But to some downtown activists, it's an ambitious plan that
will block their views and steal their waterfront. "Can you
imagine being along the East River and not being able to see the
Brooklyn Bridge?" said Madelyn Wils, chairwoman of
Community Board 1.
The proposed museum, a $678million structure on top of the
East River, features a 40-foot tower, sculpture gardens, a
performing arts center and more than 300,000 square feet for
exhibitions.
Museum officials said the Guggenheim's landmark Fifth Ave.
structure, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, would remain in
operation, focusing on art from the Impressionist period through
the first half of the 20th century. The new museum would feature
contemporary art, installations and a center for architecture and
design.
Giuliani said yesterday the city will provide $67.8 million for
the project. That includes city-owned land at Piers 9, 13 and 14,
just below the South Street Seaport.
"This is the best project for this area. It's going to add something
very, very unique to downtown Manhattan," Giuliani said.
"Whereas the other projects all would have been good, they
wouldn't have done as much for the economy."
Guggenheim officials said the new museum would provide more
than 2,000
jobs — and $14 million in city tax revenues and $280 million in
economic activity annually.
Wils said the community board will fight hard to make sure part
of the site is parkland open to the public. "We want those piers
to become active recreation space for the community," Wils said.
Architect Frank Gehry, who designed the famous Guggenheim
Museum in Bilbao, Spain, created a concept for the new
building. A model is on display at the Fifth Ave. museum.
Councilwoman Kathryn Freed (D-Manhattan) said she hopes the
plan can be modified to please both the community and the
museum.
Original Publication Date: 11/29/00
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, the Daily News
article quoted above is distributed without profit or payment to
those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this
information for non-profit research and educational purposes
only.
Robert Lederman, President of A.R.T.I.S.T.
(Artists’ Response To Illegal State Tactics)
ARTIS...@aol.com (718) 743-3722
West Nile Virus, Bush, Giuliani, Manhattan Institute info
http://Baltech.org/lederman/spray/
SprayNo archives
http://www.egroups.com/group/sprayno
Street artist info
http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html
Please Forward Widely
Litsurgery
LOL
THE DOC
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office? Lederman will have to find something ELSE to do with his worthless and
pathetic excuse for a life.
Alison A Raimes
>I wonder what Lederman will do with his life now that Guiliani is leaving
>office? Lederman will have to find something ELSE to do with his worthless and
>pathetic excuse for a life.
You having fun talking to yourself, Matti dear?
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You guessed wrong. Matti can't spell nearly as well as I can.
Save your critical remarks for losers like Lederman.