The Santa Barbara County Arts Commission voted Thursday at a well-attended special meeting to move a provocative art piece from the foyer down the hallway at the Bettervaria Center. Bob Nelson, chief of staff to Fourth District Supervisor Peter Adam, took down the piece — which reads “BUY SEXUAL” on top of red-wallpapered “69.99” price tags — last week shortly after it had been mounted in a prominent place in the Santa Maria government building as part of a three-month exhibit called “Love + Guts.”
Nelson and Adam found the Steve Olson piece inappropriate for a public space and were disheartened the commission decided not to take the piece down altogether, upholding a decision made Monday by the CAPP (County Art in Public Places) committee. “The fact they have to move it…is an omission by arts commission that it is inappropriate,” Nelson said in an interview.
On Thursday, Nelson was the sole public commenter out of about a dozen who urged the commission to take down the piece. “The primary use of the building is government,” he said. “The secondary use is a gallery.” All of the rest argued removal of the piece is a form of censorship and possibly a violation of the First Amendment. The debate has taken off in the blogosphere and both sides have created online petitions.