Media Contact

January 22, 2025

CHICAGO A group of Chicago City Council members have sent a letter to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson calling for the removal of an artistic display currently housed at the Chicago Cultural Center. The exhibit features a two-sided protest puppet with caricatures of Uncle Sam and the Prime Minister of Israel that criticizes United States support for Israel’s war in Gaza.  The aldermen call the display “extremely offensive.”

In response to the City Council members’ letter, the ACLU of Illinois observed that elected government officials should not use their power to decide what is and what is not permissible in public and urged everyone to recall past incidents in which public art displays have been targeted by Chicago aldermen in violation of the law. 

The following can be attributed to Ed Yohnka, director of Communications and Public Policy at the ACLU of Illinois:

Members of the Chicago City Council carry many responsibilities in their role in the city. Acting as art critics and the arbiters of what is appropriate art and commentary is not part of their charge.

More than three decades ago, a group of Council members recklessly removed an art installation that satirized the late Mayor Harold Washington. That action was wrong, and removing art about the war in Gaza based on its viewpoint is wrong as well.

If members of the City Council do not like the installation, they should feel free to criticize it or commission their own art piece. That is the right of every American. They should not use their office to try to block the speech of someone else.