Critical Dialogue: Censorship: The Cultural Impact of Silencing Artists

Aug 4, 2025 10:00 AM-12:00 PM

Schermer Meeting Hall

Free and open to the public | Registration required | Followed by lunch in the Ranch Cafe

Join us in this exciting conversation about art that provokes a charged response and results in censorship, either by institutions or law enforcement. The dialogue explores vital connections that are made through engaging with art and the incredibly rich responses that result, as well as the heightened potential for negative community impact when censorship is put into place. The discussion focuses on art objects as a point of departure for education and delves into several pertinent questions: How does the meaning within an art object change when it is subjected to an act of violence? How does the meaning within an art object change when it is subjected to protest? What does it imply when a work of art is misinterpreted and responded to, based on that interpretation? How do educational institutions and other cultural centers respond to protests/acts of violence against art objects (throughout history and within contemporary society)? We explore these questions along with the ways that censorship and freedom of expression in relation to art manifest in the contemporary art world.

As the executive vice president and chief operating officer at the Mellon Foundation, Julie B. Ehrlich oversees the Office of the President and Presidential Initiatives grantmaking; has direct management accountability for business operations, security, and operational strategic planning; and provides leadership oversight of the Foundation’s Human Resources and Information Technology functions. Previously, Julie was the director of Presidential Initiatives and Chief of Staff at the Foundation.

Prior to joining Mellon in 2019, Julie was assistant dean for strategic initiatives and chief of staff, executive director of the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Network, and adjunct professor of clinical law and co-instructor of the Reproductive Justice Clinic at NYU Law.  She also worked as a litigator on a range of First Amendment cases and civil rights issues including sex discrimination, legislative redistricting, prison conditions, and police misconduct. She clerked for Judge Nina Gershon in the Eastern District of New York and Judge Robert D. Sack on the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

She holds a BA cum laude with distinction in American studies from Yale University and a JD magna cum laude from NYU. While studying at NYU, Julie received a Hays Fellowship in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and the Maurice Goodman Memorial Prize for Scholarship and Character. She is a member of the board of directors of Pregnancy Justice.

Betsy Schneider is a photographer and filmmaker who explores and documents transformations of individuals and families over time and place.  She holds a BA from the University of Michigan, a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and an MFA from Mills College in Oakland, California. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is part of notable collections including the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, The Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, and the Museet for Fotokunst in Odense, Denmark. She served as a National Board member for the Society for Photographic Education and was Co-Chair of the 2012 National Conference in San Francisco.  She has lived and taught in the Czech Republic, the UK and Norway.   She has recently been a visiting faculty member at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and Harvard University. For fourteen years she was a professor in the School of Art at Arizona State University and has recently relocated to the Boston Area. In 2012 she spent a year on a Guggenheim Fellowship photographing and creating videos of thirteen-year-olds from across North America. This work entitled “To Be Thirteen” was a major exhibition originating at the Phoenix Art Museum in May of 2018 and was accompanied by a book and a feature length film “Triskaidekaphobia”.

Born in Lahore, Pakistan, Shahzia Sikander took up the traditional practice of miniature painting during Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq’s military regime, at a time when the medium was deeply unpopular among young artists. Sikander earned a B.F.A. in 1991 from the National College of Arts (NCA) in Lahore, where she received rigorous training from master miniaturist Bashir Ahmad. She became the first woman to teach in the Miniature Painting Department at NCA, alongside Ahmad, and was the first artist from the department to challenge the medium’s technical and aesthetic framework. Sikander’s breakthrough work, The Scroll, 1989–90, received national critical acclaim in Pakistan, winning the prestigious Shakir Ali Award, the NCA’s highest merit award, and the Haji Sharif award for excellence in miniature painting, subsequently launching the medium into the forefront of NCA’s program, which brought international recognition to this medium within contemporary art practices. The artist moved to the United States to pursue an M.F.A. at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1993 to 1995; from 1995 to 1997, she participated in the CORE Program of the Glassell School of Art at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

New Museum in New York (2021).

Panel

Julie Ehrlich

As the executive vice president and chief operating officer at the Mellon Foundation, Julie B. Ehrlich oversees the Office of the President and Presidential Initiatives grantmaking; has direct management accountability for business operations, security, and operational strategic planning; and provides leadership oversight of the Foundation’s Human Resources and Information Technology functions. Previously, Julie was the director of Presidential Initiatives and Chief of Staff at the Foundation. Prior to joining Mellon in 2019, Julie was assistant dean for strategic initiatives and chief of staff, executive director of the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Network, and adjunct professor of clinical law and co-instructor of the Reproductive Justice Clinic at NYU Law.  She also worked as a litigator on a range of First Amendment cases and civil rights issues including sex discrimination, legislative redistricting, prison conditions, and police misconduct. She clerked for Judge Nina Gershon in the Eastern District of New York and Judge Robert D. Sack on the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She holds a BA cum laude with distinction in American studies from Yale University and a JD magna cum laude from NYU. While studying at NYU, Julie received a Hays Fellowship in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and the Maurice Goodman Memorial Prize for Scholarship and Character. She is a member of the board of directors of Pregnancy Justice.

Learn More

Betsy Schneider

Betsy Schneider’s photography and video work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is part of many notable collections. She was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 2011, and her book To Be Thirteen—a result of that fellowship—was published by Radius in 2017. Her current project The Best Girl on the Team consists of 50 interviews and portraits with people who have been the only girl on a sports team.

Learn More

Shahzia Sikander

Shahzia Sikander is widely celebrated for subverting pre-modern and classical Central and South-Asian miniature painting traditions into dialogue with contemporary international art practices and launching the form known today as neo-miniature. Recipient of the MacArthur grant, Sikander’s early work is touring at the Morgan Library, the RISD museum, and MFA Houston in 2021-2022.

Learn More